Dr. Mauro Zammarano is a Materials Science Engineer in the Flammability Reduction Group of the Fire Research Division (FRD) of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Dr Zammarano received his Ph.D. in Engineering and Materials Science from University of Trieste, Italy, in 2004. He is currently the Leader of the "Fire Barriers for Low Heat Release Products" project at NIST.
Dr Zammarano’s research at NIST started in 2003 as a guest scientist from the University of Trieste sponsored by CimtecLab, and continued during his Postdoc at the Polytechnic University of New York and his assistant professor appointment at American University before he permanently joined NIST in 2015. His major fields of interest are: synthesis, preparation and characterization of polymeric nanocomposites, fire-retardant technologies, fire testing, and bio-derived flame-retardant materials.
Dr. Zammarano served as a member of editorial boards for several major journals, as a member of scientific committees for international symposiums on fire-retardant technologies, and as the president of the Guest Researcher Association at NIST. He has presented a number of papers at national and international scientific meetings and has authored or co-authored 3 Patents, 50 refereed scientific publications, and 80 un-refereed scientific publications.
He lately developed a bench-scale test to characterize the response to fire of multi-layer material assemblies, including properties that are not measurable by existing methods but – as NIST research demonstrated - play a key role in the fire growth of multi-layer products. On June 6, this test was adopted by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) as ASTM E3367-23 - Standard Test Method for Determining the Combustion Behavior of Layered Assemblies using a Cone Calorimeter.
Dr. Zammarano has received numerous awards, including a EL/NIST Distinguished Guest Researcher Award, a Bronze Medal Award by United States Department of Commerce, and a “Messaggeri della Conoscenza” (Italian for Messenger of Knowledge) Award by the Italian Ministry of Education.