From October 16th to 18th, the 6th Asia-Oceania Symposium on Fire Safety Materials Science and Engineering (AOFSM 2025) was held in Beijing. The symposium was co-hosted by Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT), University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and theAsia-Oceania Association for Fire Safety Materials Science and Engineering, with a sub-venue established in Hefei. It attracted over 490 experts, scholars, and industry representatives from more than 100 universities and research institutions across 28 countries and regions worldwide.
The symposium commenced on the morning of October 17th, with Wang Feng, Vice President of BUCT, delivering a welcome address on behalf of the university. He extended a warm welcome to guests from home and abroad and provided an overview of BUCT’s development and disciplinary strengths. He pointed out that the School of Materials Science and Engineering at BUCT is one of the earliest institutions in China engaged in polymer materials research, with research areas covering composite materials, inorganic non-metallic materials, and metallic materials. Fire-safety materials are of vital importance to life safety, green and low-carbon development, and advanced manufacturing. As one of the founding members of China Association of Flame Retarding Materials, BUCT has long prioritized research on fire-safety materials. Led by Professor Zhang Sheng, the Center for Fire Safety Materials has, over nearly two decades of development, achieved a series of innovative outcomes across multiple fields. BUCT pledges its full support for the development of the AOFSM international academic exchange platform and extends its best wishes for the conference’s complete success.
Academician Wang Yuzhong of Sichuan University, invited as a distinguished guest, delivered a keynote presentation on the internationalization process of China’s flame-retardant discipline. He reviewed his sustained and in-depth participation in international academic exchanges since first attending the 4th Meeting on Fire-Retardant Polymers in Freiburg, Germany, in 1992. He noted that, alongside the remarkable growth of China’s research capacity and industrial scale in flame-retardant materials, Chinese scholars have become an indispensable force in the global flame-retardant community, as reflected in their increasing output of publications and patents. China has initiated and organized two major international conference series—the International Symposium on Flame-Retardant Materials & Technologies (ISFRMT) and the Asia–Oceania Symposium for Fire Safety Materials Science and Engineering (AOFSM)—which have provided regular, efficient platforms for academic exchange among scholars at home and abroad, greatly promoting global dialogue and collaboration in the flame-retardant field.
Professor Hu Yuan from USTC, co-chair of this year’s conference and founder of the AOFSM series, delivered a comprehensive overview of the development and key milestones of AOFSM since its launch in 2015. Professor Zhang Sheng from BUCT chaired the session and provided detailed explanations on conference preparations and important considerations. The conference featured a total of 95 oral presentations, including 10 plenary lectures, 33 keynote speeches, 28 oral presentations, and 24 young investigator talks, as well as 121 poster presentations. Altogether, 205 abstracts were accepted.
Experts and scholars engaged in in-depth discussions on a range of topics, including flame-retardant mechanisms, emerging flame-retardant systems, fire-safety evaluation methods, and material applications in fields such as aerospace, construction, and new energy. The Young Scholars Forum and Poster Session emerged as highlights of the conference, showcasing a series of innovative research outcomes with strong application potential. A total of 16 Excellent Poster Awards were presented, demonstrating the vitality and promise of young researchers in the field of fire-safety materials. The participating representatives unanimously agreed that the conference facilitated in-depth exchanges on frontier scientific issues in flame-retardant and fire-safety materials, injecting fresh momentum into the advancement of public-safety technologies and sustainable green development. Through in-depth academic and intellectual exchanges, the conference not only deepened regional and international research collaboration but also contributed to shaping a cooperation paradigm centered on “material innovation driving public safety.”
As an influential international platform for academic exchange in the field of fire safety across the Asia–Oceania region, AOFSM has, since its inception, been committed to promoting academic collaboration, technological innovation, and industrial transformation in fire-safety materials. It has played a significant role in strengthening international cooperation, advancing disciplinary development, and driving industrial upgrading. Adhering to its mission to “build a high-level platform for academic exchange and cooperation and to promote interdisciplinary research and international collaboration,” this year’s symposium focused on the latest research findings, technological innovations, and industrial development trends in flame-retardant and fire-safety materials, serving as an important bridge for global practitioners to engage in intellectual exchange and resource integration.