Birgitte Messerschmidt

Birgitte Messerschmidt is the current Director of Research at NFPA. Birgitte has over 25 years of experience in the fire safety industry. Birgitte started their career as an engineer at DBI - The Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology. After 5 years, they moved to ROCKWOOL International where they became the Public Affairs Manager for Fire Safety. Birgitte was responsible for building up and maintaining the core competence “Fire Safety” within the ROCKWOOL Group and communicating this continuously throughout the organisation. Birgitte also identified and executed needed research on fire performance of insulation products together with Universities and other research organisations.

During their time at ROCKWOOL International, Birgitte also became the Leader of the Technical Task Force of Fire Safe Europe (FSEU) (www.firesafeeurope.eu). In this role, they presented complicated Fire Safety issues to members of the European Parliament and European Commission. Birgitte was also successful inconvincing the European Commission to Work on façade fire safety and smoke toxicity from fires. Additionally, they supported Fire Fighters campaign to have cancer recognised as occupational hazard in EU.

Birgitte has continuously maintained and expanded their network of stakeholders throughout their career. This has led their to their current position as Director of Research at NFPA, where they are responsible for leading a team of researchers in conducting applied research to support the development of NFPA codes and standards.

Birgitte Messerschmidt holds a M.Sc. in Civil Engineering from DTU - Technical University of Denmark and a Fire Safety Science degree from City, University of London.

They are on a team with Barry Chase - Standards Lead, Tracy Vecchiarelli - Standards Lead, and Matt Klaus - Director, Technical Services. Birgitte Messerschmidt reports to Christian Dubay, VP, Engineering & Research.