Research Areas

A prescribed fire captured using a DJI Matrice 300 Drone

Wildfires

Process-based modeling of wildfire behavior using high-performance computing, leading to engineering solutions regarding resilient infrastructure and natural resources.

Turbulent fluid dynamics

Phenomenological study of scaling laws of turbulence statistics in neutral and thermally stratified atmospheric boundary layer and in wall bounded turbulence.

LES output – instantaneous streamwise velocity
LiDAR Scan of a section of the Blodgett Forest

Land – atmosphere interaction

Leaf-to-landscape scale modeling by means of coupled plant biophysics – atmospheric dynamics simulations to study (1) ecosystem disturbance effects; (2) ecosystem resilience; (3) exploration and development of parameterizations for mass, momentum, scalar and energy transport (fluxes) between land use types and the atmosphere.

Terrestrial-aquatic interface

The role of wave and turbulence in inducing mass and momentum transport across the terrestrial aquatic interface such as wetlands using Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) and data analysis.

PIV setup of emergent flexible vegetation subjected to wind shear

Research Grants

Active Grants:

NSF Proposal # # 2146520

Title: CAREER: CONIFER: Role of canopy turbulence in wildland fire behavior.

Funding Period: February 2022 – January 2027.
Funding amount: $600,000.
Role: Principal Investigator.

NSF Proposal # 2114740

Title: AccelNet-Design: iFireNet: An international network of networks for prediction and management of wildland fires.

Funding Period: October 2021-September 2023.
Funding amount: $250,000.
Role: Principal Investigator.

University of California Office of the President (UCOP), UC Laboratory Fees Research Program, grant ID LFR-20-653572.

Title: Transforming Prescribed Fire Practices for California.

Funding Period: 2020 – 2023.
Funding amount: $3.6 million ($1.5 million to UCI).
Participating institutions: UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Role: Principal Investigator.
Project webpage: SPARx: Smart Practices and Architectures for Rx fires.

NSF Proposal # 2209695

Title: Collaborative Research:CPS:Medium:SMAC-FIRE: Closed-Loop Sensing, Modeling and Communications for WildFIRE

Funding Period: July 2022-June 2025.
Funding amount: $1,049,087.
Role: Co-Principal Investigator.

Cost Reimbursable Agreement with USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, agreement #: 20-CR-11242306-072.

Title: Development of a Micrometeorological Perspective into Wildland Fire Dynamics.

Funding Period: 2020 – 2025.
Funding amount: $83,976.
Role: Principal Investigator.

Subcontract agreement with Los Alamos National Laboratory, subcontract # 596883, agreement # 351438.

Title: Atmosphere to Electrons Mesoscale-to-Microscale Coupling.

Funding Period: September 2020 – January 2021.
Funding amount: $36,231.
Role: Principal Investigator.

Cost Reimbursable Agreement with Tall Timbers Research Station, agreement #: 2020-FS-01.

Title: Modeling and Simulation of Wildland Fires.

Funding Period: July 2020 – September 2020
Funding amount: $10,000.
Role: Principal Investigator.

NSF RAPID Proposal # 2052581, Division of Earth Sciences.

Title: RAPID: Collecting critical data for advancing our understanding of wildfire impacts on soil characteristics and research on post-wildfire compound hazards.

Funding Period: November 2020 – April 2021.
Funding amount: $49,997.00
Role: Co-Principal Investigator.

NSF – National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)

Title: SCC-IRG Track 1: Reducing the Vulnerability of Disadvantaged Communities to the Impacts of Cascading Hazards under a Changing Climate

Funding Period: October 2021 – September 2024.
Funding amount: $553,134.00
Role: Co-Investigator.

NASA – ImageCAT
Proposal # 80NSSC22K1911

Title: Community Wildfire Vulnerability Index for Risk Assessment and Response Planning using Earth Observation (EO) Data and Modeling

Funding Period: September 2022 – March 2024
Funding Amount: $124,600 ($30,000 to UCI)
Role: Co-PI

NSF Proposal # 2318718

Title: ECO-CBET: Collaborative Research: Effect of surface-fuel attributes and forest-thinning patterns on wildfire, carbon storage, and advancing forest restoration

Funding Period: August 2023 -July 2027
Funding Amount: $518,389.00
Role: PI

NSF Proposal #  2335847

Title: Collaborative Research: Planning: FIRE-PLAN: Advancing Wildland Fire Analytics for Actuarial Applications and Beyond

Funding Period: October 2023 -September 2025
Funding Amount: $70,000.00
Role: PI