{"id":52598,"date":"2023-08-29T16:55:59","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T20:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/?p=52598"},"modified":"2023-11-02T16:15:39","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T20:15:39","slug":"ormonds-career-protecting-firefighters-through-tpacc-earns-him-faculty-honors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/2023\/08\/ormonds-career-protecting-firefighters-through-tpacc-earns-him-faculty-honors\/","title":{"rendered":"Ormond\u2019s Career Protecting Firefighters Through TPACC Earns Him Faculty Honors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

By Sean Cudahy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Wilson College of Textiles assistant professor Bryan Ormond<\/a> arrived at NC State as an undergraduate student in 2003, collaborating with the fire service was certainly not on his radar.

Sure, the ingredients were there, as the son of an EMT intermediate (EMT-I) mother and a minister father who occasionally drove fire trucks for the volunteer fire department in his childhood community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s a far more foundational goal \u2014 \u201cI wanted to do something that felt like I was making a difference,\u201d he says \u2014 that\u2019s perhaps served him best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two decades into a career spent entirely within the Wilson College of Textiles<\/a>, Ormond has earned a reputation as one of the world\u2019s foremost experts in the science of protecting firefighters from dangers seen and unseen. Colleagues label him a \u201crising star\u201d in his field \u2014 one who has \u201ctremendously impacted societal needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ormond (right) prepares for testing at the Textile Protection and Comfort Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s largely those accolades that recently led the university provost\u2019s office to name Ormond a 2023 winner<\/a> of the Goodnight Early Career Innovators Award.<\/a> Established in 2021, the award aims to promote excellence and retention of tenure-track professors whose scholarship focuses on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) or STEM education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy purpose has never been to go after awards,\u201d Ormond admits. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely humbling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the impact he\u2019s left on his colleagues, students, not to mention those in the fire service speaks volumes about the reason he was chosen for the honors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A career protecting firefighters<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Early in his academic career, Ormond\u2019s research into the science of protecting firefighters focused heavily on shielding them from heat and flames through cutting-edge fabrics and protective materials \u2014 a critical focus<\/a> inside the Wilson College\u2019s Textile and Protection and Comfort Center (TPACC).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHistorically, we\u2019ve focused on those immediate threats: the flash fire, the cardiac events, the heat stress,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ormond (center) with members of his research group during a live burn (an pre-planned and controlled building burn used for research and training). Photo courtesy: Chandler Probert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But his work took on a new dimension in the mid-2010s, amid mounting research about the health risks posed by fire service careers, which culminated in the profession being labeled a group 1 carcinogen<\/a> by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve had to do is realize one of the biggest killers of firefighters is cancer,\u201d Ormond says, describing the shift in his research over the course of the last decade. \u201cThe goal is to try to not just bring firefighters home at the end of the shift or after the fire, but also at the end of their careers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This focus has led to Ormond developing new gear and processes designed to prevent firefighter exposure to toxic particulates over the duration of their career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n