José L. Torero is a Fire Engineer, Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of the Department of Civil Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at University College London (UCL). He obtained a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley and was the founder of the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. He was then appointed as Head of Civil Engineering and Director of the Centre for Future Timber Structures at the University of Queensland and the John L. Bryan Chair and Director of the Centre for Disaster Resilience at the University of Maryland.

He is the author of more than 250 scientific papers in fire safety engineering and an active participant in the development of codes and standards globally. He is an instructed expert to the Grenfell Public Inquiry and has participated in the investigations of most of the major fires of the last twenty years, including the collapse of the World Trade Centre 1,2 & 7 buildings, the Windsor Tower fire, the Address Building fire, the Buncefield and Texas City explosions as well as the Glasgow School of Art and Notre Dame historic building fires.

He has participated in numerous design projects with leading architects around the world. He has developed novel fire protection systems as well as design methods that are now currently used globally. He provides corporate, government and academic education and training globally.