ASTM International announces that a 2003 Award of Merit and the accompanying title of fellow, the highest Society recognition for individual contributions to standards activities, has been given to James A. White, Jr., senior fire scientist with Western Fire Center, Inc., of Kelso, Wash. White received this honor for his leadership in the development and standardization of product fire performance tests through scientific research, service to Committee E05 on Fire Standards, and additional leadership in the global application and extension of that work.

White lives in Kelso, Wash., and has been an ASTM International member since 1975. He has been an active member of E05 since joining ASTM and serves on many of its subcommittees, chairing four of them at various times during his 28 years with ASTM. He is also a member of Committee E30 on Composite Materials and was a member of committee F07 on Aerospace and Aircraft for five years. In 1984, he received the E05 Award of Recognition, and in 1990 he received the E05 Certificate of Appreciation.

Credited with helping to transform the ability to describe the fire performance of products and materials of all sizes through appropriately sized calorimetry tests and associated analytical procedures, White expanded both the fundamental basis of the Ohio State University calorimeter (standardized in ASTM R906) and the ease and scope of its application. He was also one of the principal developers of the Intermediate Scale Heat Release Apparatus (standardized as ASTM E1623). In addition to ASTM, White is a member of the National Fire Protection Association, the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and National Institute for Standards and Technology.

White graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1968 with a B. S. in physics and chemical engineering. He began his career with the Weyerhauser Company as a quality controller, working his way up to associate director of the fire technology unit. In 1991, he left to take the position of senior scientist and manager of research and development at IFT Technical Services until he joined Western Fire Center as partner and senior research and development scientist in 1993. He assumed his current position as owner and senior scientist in 1994. Throughout his career, he has worked with fire research, testing, and modeling.