Florian Meyer

Florian Meyer studied industrial engineering at the University of Bremen, earning his bachelor’s degree in 2013 and his master’s degree in 2016. His master’s thesis, titled “Analysis of Experimental Findings to Investigate Flame Propagation along Surface-Structured PMMA Samples under Normal and Microgravity", examined the fire behavior of structured samples under microgravity. As leader of the student team, he developed the “UB-FIRE” experiment for this purpose, which flew aboard the REXUS 20 sounding rocket in 2016.

After completing his studies, he began working as a research associate at the Center for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen in 2016. During this time, he conducted research on the combustion of liquid oxygen droplets in hydrogen under microgravity conditions. He developed a cryogenic combustion chamber as well as the complete experimental setup for the Bremen Drop Tower. In 2022, he obtained a PhD in Engineering (grade: Summa cum laude).

Since 2023, he has headed the Combustion Engineering research group at ZARM. The group focuses on fire safety in human spaceflight as well as basic research on droplet vaporization and combustion. The focus of his research is on experimental studies of combustion processes. The majority of these experiments involve research under microgravity or reduced gravity. To date, he has designed and conducted over 200 drop tower experiments in the Bremen drop tower, 4 sounding rocket experiments (REXUS 20, TEXUS 57, 59 & 60), and participated in several in-orbit experiments (SAFFIRE 2, 4, 5 & 6 on Cygnus as well as SCEM-DLR on the ISS).

His research focuses on flame spread under various atmospheric conditions (high oxygen, low pressure) as well as under different gravitational conditions. He also investigates structural effects on thermally thin (drop tower) and thermally thick (sounding rocket or orbit) samples. Another area of research is fire detection. Currently, a pre-ignition fire detection system is being developed for use on spaceflight systems.

Since 2020, he has been part of the “Flammability Limits at Reduced-g Experiment (FLARE)” program, which is led by JAXA and supported by NASA, ESA, CNES, and DLR. This consortium is conducting research on fire safety for future space exploration missions. Among other things, the aim is to develop a new standard for the qualification of space materials. Since 2020, he has been a member of the ESA Topical Team on fire safety in human spaceflight (“ExFireS”). Part of the work in this team was dedicated to the ESA space science roadmap, to which he contributed in 2021 in the field of Physical Sciences. In addition, he is a member of the German section of the Combustion Institute.