Message from Chancellor Fox: One of UCSD’s greatest institutional strengths is the breadth and depth of faculty research on a range of important topics. Each month, Chancellor’s Corner will showcase cross-disciplinary faculty expertise in a specific area. I invite you to learn more about the work of these scholars, and I hope you share my pride in their achievements and their contributions to society

WILDFIRE EXPERTS

Kimberly A. Prather, Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Kimberly Prather, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is an expert in the study of air pollution and its health and climate impacts. She is currently monitoring the San Diego area after the wildfires. Her laboratory has set up a streaming link displaying current aerosol concentrations. More…

Jan Kleissl, Assistant Professor,
Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Jan Kleissl is an engineering professor who has done award-winning air monitoring and modeling work at spots around the world. He is leading the effort to use wireless weather stations around the UCSD campus. More…

Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Professor,
Applied Ocean Sciences - Scripps Institution of Oceanography
V. Ramanathan, professor of atmospheric chemistry at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is an expert on long-range transport, atmospheric effects and climatic effects of soot and other particulate pollution. More…

Anthony Westerling
Anthony Westerling, principal investigator in the California Applications Program and the Calif. Climate Change Center at Scripps, and an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering and Geography at UC Merced, is an expert in relating wildfire severity to climate trends and also to wildfire suppression efforts. He’s at UC Merced but maintains an appointment at Scripps. More…

Steven G. Buckley, Assistant Professor,
Department of Mechanical Aerospace and Engineering
Steven Buckley is an expert in combustion science with a focus in air pollution and public health. At UCSD, he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on combustion, energy, and environmental classes. More…

Steven P. Erie, Professor, Department of Political Science;
Adjunct Professor, Department of History;
Director, Urban Studies and Planning Program
Steve Erie, political scientist and director of the UCSD Urban Studies and Planning program, is an authority on urban politics and public policy. He says our region's unpreparedness results from a population that is particularly tax-averse and local governments that don’t support funding of infrastructure. More…

Richard T. Carson, Professor, Department of Economics
Richard Carson, professor of economics and immediate past president of the American Association of Resource and Environmental Economists, studies preparation for, and response to, disasters. Carson was evacuated during the latest firestorm. He says that preparation has gotten better since the big fire of 2003. But, he says there’s an absence of pre-planning and coordination with the military and for outside firefighters and equipment when it seemed clear they would be needed. More…

Forman A. Williams
Forman Williams, professor, is a top expert on combustion and a member of a blue ribbon committee that investigated the cause of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. He recently published a paper on the physical mechanisms of fire storms. More…

David Holway, Associate Professor of Biology
David Holway, associate professor of biological sciences, is an ecologist familiar with wildlife issues in San Diego, and the impact the recent fires will have on San Diego’s ecology and wildlife. More…

Chaitan Baru, Program Director, Data and Knowledge Systems (DAKS)
Chaitan Baru, a Distinguished Scientist with the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego, is an expert on data technologies. Baru, along with a team from Microsoft and others, developed a “missing and found” superlist for those displaced during Hurricane Katrina. Based on that experience, the American Red Cross developed the “Safe and Well” website (https://disastersafe.redcross.org), hosted at SDSC, and launched in July 2006. More…

Hans-Werner Braun
Hans-Werner Braun, research scientist at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, is the principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN), which connects remote public safety, science, and education sites. Real-time images of the wildfires were collected by HPWREN cameras atop remote mountaintops throughout San Diego County. More…

** To learn more about other campus faculty scholars and areas of expertise, please visit the searchable UCSD Faculty Experts Database at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/facultyExperts/