Alar Just
Job title
Professor of Structural Engineering
Organisation
Tallinn University of Technology
Country
Estonia
Alar Just is Professor of Structural Engineering at Tallinn University of Technology. He completed his doctoral dissertation on the fire resistance of timber-frame structures in 2010. Before entering academia, Dr Just spent 15 years as a chief engineer in a structural design consultancy, where he led the design of numerous timber buildings and bridges in Estonia and abroad.
Since 2010, he has also worked as a researcher at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, where his research focuses on the fire performance of timber structures. He has conducted more than 200 fire tests over the course of his research career.
Under his supervision, seven doctoral candidates have completed their degrees in the field of timber structures, including structural fire engineering, and he currently supervises a further six doctoral researchers. In addition to his teaching at Tallinn University of Technology, he regularly delivers courses at Linnaeus University in Sweden. Dr Just acts as a reviewer for several scientific journals and serves on the scientific committees of the Structures in Fire, Wood Building Forum and Wood and Fire conferences.
Alar Just heads the Estonian delegation to CEN/TC 250/SC 5, the European standardisation subcommittee responsible for the development and revision of design standards for timber structures. He was a member of the project team that prepared the new generation of Eurocode 5, Part 1-2, Structural Fire Design of Timber Structures, which introduces a substantial number of revisions relevant to the design of a new generation of timber buildings.
Together with Katrin Nele Mäger, Alar Just has contributed to processes undertaken with Estonian and European partners that have helped establish the present technical framework for fire-safe timber construction in Estonia. Both are active members of the European expert community working in the field of timber structural fire safety.
