Wildfire Experts

Daniel Cayan: Research meteorologist who studies climate impacts on water, wildfire, health, and agriculture in California and western North America. Manages the California-Nevada Applications Program, which creates tools like the drought tracker. 

Sasha Gershunov: Research meteorologist who focuses on understanding the links between regional weather extremes and large-scale climate variability and change, extreme weather and climate impacts on wildfire, energy, ecosystems, water resources and public health, climate influence on society and human influence on climate.

Nina Oakley: Meteorologist and climatologist who studies California weather and climate, including conditions associated with extreme precipitation, water resources, landslides and post-fire debris flows in California. 

Janin Guzman Morales: Postdoctoral scholar who focuses on Santa Ana winds in the historical record as well as future climate projections and links between Santa Anas, heat waves, and wildfire. Available for comment in English and Spanish.

Rosana Aguilera:  Postdoctoral scholar who assesses the relationship between fine particulate matter and Santa Ana winds in Southern California, both in the absence and presence of wildfire smoke. Her most recent work is related to quantifying wildfire smoke exposure and associated patterns of respiratory illnesses, both in time and space, in a highly diverse region like Southern California. Available for comment in English and Spanish.

Neal Driscoll: Co-leader of ALERTWildfire, which operates a rapidly growing  network of cameras in wilderness areas throughout the West.  These cameras enable early detection and visual monitoring of the progress of wildfires.

Tom Corringham:  Research economist who studies the impacts of extreme weather events. He is in the midst of researching social vulnerability as it relates to extreme weather events, including heat waves, particularly as they affect communities of color. He also is examining the economic impacts of wildfires, not only in terms of injuries, deaths, and the destruction of property, but on secondary effects such as decreases in academic performance in schools and decreases in labor productivity in the workforce. 

Tarik Benmarhnia: Climate change epidemiologist with a joint appointment at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps institution of Oceanography and School of Medicine. Studies public health impacts of extreme weather and air pollution, including how wildfires affect respiratory health.