Margaret Law

Margaret Law (1928 – 27 August 2017) was a British engineer and pioneer in the field of fire science and fire safety engineering who became one of the world's leading fire scientists. In 1971, she was the first woman to become a member of the Institution of Fire Engineers, and has been described as representing 'the epitome of placing applied and rigorous technical excellence at the heart of the design and construction of the built environment'. Personal life and education Margaret Law was born in London. She studied at the University of London and graduated with a BSc in physics and mathematics. Law married her spouse, James Peter Morris, in 1974. She died on 27 August 2017, at her home in London, aged 88. Career and research She joined the UK government's Fire Research Station (which later became part of the Building Research Establishment) in 1952, and during her 20 years there she contributed to a wide range of research reports, on topics that extended from domestic issues of cooker fires in caravans and prefabs, to the much larger concerns of the potential for nuclear radiation to start fires. Her research interests included how fires start and spread through high-rise buildings, heat radiation from fires and requirements for building separation for fire protection. She later worked for a few years in the Directorate of Research Requirements at the Department of the Environment in the UK, assessing priorities for research in the field of building and construction.