The Berkeley Fire Research Lab is broadly interested in fire science problems, utilizing experiments and combustion and fluid dynamics theory to solve problems. Our work is centered around the fundamental physics that governs fire phenomena, applying knowledge from fluid mechanics, heat transfer and combustion to solve problems related to fire safety, climate and public health. …
Research Interest
Bio-Thermal Laboratory
Research focus: Heat and mass transfer in biomedical engineering and biotechnology; in particular, low temperature biology, bio-electronics and biomedical devices; in particular, micro and nano bionic technologies and electroporation, medical imaging; in particular, electrical impedance tomography and light imaging, biomedical numerical analysis; in particular, genetic and evolutionary algorithms and fractal techniques.
Vassilia Zorba
Associate Adjunct Professor
5126 Etcheverry HallUniversity of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
vzorba@lbl.gov
For more information see: Laser Technologies Group
Professor Vassilia Zorba is the Group Leader for the Laser Technologies Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA. She is also an Associate Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the development of the next-generation of laser tools for advanced sensors and laser-based manufacturing. Her research interests include ultrafast laser-material interactions, non-linear optics, remote sensing, laser-induced plasma chemistry, and laser ablation-based chemical analysis in electrochemical energy storage, with emphasis on next-generation Li-ion batteries. Her work has also focused on femtosecond laser surface structuring technologies and biomimetic material functionalization. Professor Zorba’s credits include 72 publications in peer-reviewed journals, more than 40 invited, keynote and plenary talks and a 2011 R&D 100 Technology Award. She serves as a senior editor for the Springer-Nature journal Applied Physics A and is a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, Applied Spectroscopy and Spectrochimica Acta Part B.
To view Professor Zorba’s CV, please click here.
Research Description:
Energy Science & Technology; MEMS/Nano; Materials
More information about Professor Zorba’s research can be found on her group website, teamd.lbl.gov.
Key Publications:
To view a list of Professor Zorba’s publications on Google Scholar, please click here.
Combustion Fire Processes Laboratory
The laboratory researches topics such as ignition and flame spread of combustible material in space exploration environments and micro-gravity as well as ways in which wildland fires are started by hot metal particles and embers.
Zhang Lab
We are a highly interdisciplinary research group in nanoscience and engineering, with expertise in optical and electrical measurements, material synthesis, and theoretical modeling. Our research has primarily focused on the interaction of light with nanostructures, leading to exotic electromagnetic properties not found naturally. These phenomena have plentiful applications in photonics, imaging, energy, and others.
Laser Thermal Laboratory
Current research interests are focused on laser materials interactions, nanomanufacturing and the fundamental study of microscale and nanoscale transport phenomena.
Nano/Energy Lab
Our focus is (1) to develop a deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of heat and energy transport and conversion in nanostructures, and (2) to apply this understanding to technologies ranging from thermoelectric energy conversion to thermal management.
Combustion Laboratory
The Combustion Laboratory was established in summer of 1995. Over the years, our research efforts have focused on computational investigations of various phenomena observed in combustion chemistry and physics.
Energy and Multiphase Transport Laboratory
The EMT Laboratory has been operating at Berkeley for decades pursuing research in important topics related to waste heat harvesting, phase change for energy capture and cooling technologies, renewable energy technologies and much more. We host both masters and PhD students as well as visiting scholars and post-doc academics. We foster a collaborative lab environment …
Combustion Modeling Laboratory
Our work focuses on advanced simulations of combustion processes that include fluid dynamic, chemical kinetic, and heat transfer components. We utilize commercial software packages as well as custom in-house computational solvers for modeling advanced combustion problems. We closely collaborate with experimental researchers so that experimental data can guide our simulations and our simulations can guide …
Michael Gollner
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Deb Faculty Fellow
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
mgollner@berkeley.edu
(510) 642-3371
For more information see: Berkeley Fire Research Lab
Current Classes Taught
Dr. Michael Gollner received his B.S. (2008), M.S. (2010) and Ph.D. (2012) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, San Diego. He was a faculty member in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park from 2012-2019. He is broadly interested in fire science problems, utilizing experiments and combustion and fluid dynamics theory to solve problems related to fire spread, material flammability, and smoke transport. Much of his work is focused on applications to wildfires, including their spread through vegetation, ignition of structures in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), transport of embers, fire whirls, and emissions from wildfire smoke.
Dr. Gollner is active in professional society leadership, serving as Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors for the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF), Chair of the Research Advisory Board of the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) Fire Protection Research Foundation, and as a member of the Management Committee of the International Association for Fire Safety Science. He also serves as Associate Editor for the journal Fire Technology and serves on the boards of the Fire Safety Journal and the International Journal of Wildland Fire. He is a principal member of the NFPA Technical Committees on Spaceports and Wildland and Rural Fire Protection. He is also a recipient of the NSF CAREER award, Proulx Early Career Award in Fire Safety Science, and the Fire Protection Research Foundation Medal.
To view Dr. Gollner’s CV, please click here.
Research Description:
Combustion, Fire Dynamics, Wildland Fire, Fluid Mechanics
Key Publications:
To view a list of Dr. Gollner’s publications, please click here.
Xiang Zhang
Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering
Ernest S. Kuh Endowed Chair, in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (2009-2019)
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
xzhang@me.berkeley.edu
For more information see: Zhang Lab
Current Classes Taught
Professor Xiang Zhang is the inaugural Ernest S. Kuh Endowed Chaired Professor at UC Berkeley and the Director of NSF Nano-scale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC). He is the Director of the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), as well as a member of the Kavli Energy Nano Science Institute.
Professor Zhang is an elected member of US National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Academia Sinica (National Academy in Republic of China), and Fellow of five scientific societies: APS (The American Physical Society), OSA (The Optical Society of America), AAAS (The American Association for the Advancement of Science), SPIE (The International Society of Optical Engineering), and ASME (The American Society of Mechanical Engineers).
Professor Zhang received Ph.D from UC Berkeley (1996) and MS from University of Minnesota and MS/BS from Nanjing University, PR China. He was an assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University (1996-1999), and associate professor and full professor at UCLA (1999-2004) prior to joining Berkeley faculty in 2004.
Professor Zhang’s current research focuses on nano-scale science and technology, materials physics, photonics and bio-technologies. He has published over 240 journal papers, including over 50 publications in Science, Nature series, PNAS and Physical Review Letters. He has given over 280 Keynote, Plenary and Invited talks at international conferences and institutions. He served as a Co-Chair of NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Annual Grantee Conferences in 2004 and 2005, Chair of Technical Program of IEEE 2nd International Conference on Micro and Nano Engineered and Molecular Systems in 2007, and current Chair of Academic Advisory Board for Research Center for Applied Science (RCAS), Academia Sinica, Taiwan, ROC.
In 2008, Professor Zhang’s research was selected by Time Magazine as one of the “Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of the Year” and “50 Best Inventions of the Year”, Discover Magazine’s “Top 100 Science Stories” in 2007, and R&D Magazine’s top 25 Most Innovative Products of 2006. His research has frequently been featured by international media including BBC, CNN, ABC, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.
Professor Zhang is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award (1997); SME Dell K. Allen Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award (1998) and ONR Young Investigator Award (1999). He was awarded the Chancellor’s Professorship by UC Berkeley (2004-2009), Distinguished Lecturer by University of Texas at Austin in 2004 and SEMETECH in 2005, respectively, Rohsenow Lecturer at MIT (2009) and William Reynolds Lecturer at Stanford (2012). In 2011, he was awarded Fred Kavli Distinguished Lectureship by Materials Research Society (MRS), Miller Professorship by UC Berkeley, and Distinguished Visiting Scientist (DVS) by the University of Toronto. In 2014, he was awarded the Fitzroy Medal for pioneering contribution in metamaterials and superlens.
Research Description:
Micro-nano scale engineering, novel 3D fabrication technologies in microelectronics and photonics, micro and nano-devices, nano-lithography and nano-instrumentation, rapid prototyping, bio-MEMS, and semiconductor manufacturing.
Key Publications:
To view a list of Professor Zhang’s publications, please visit the Zhang Lab website.
Boris Rubinsky
Professor of the Graduate School
6124 Etcheverry HallUniversity of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
rubinsky@me.berkeley.edu
(510) 725-5845
For more information see: Current Classes Taught
To view Professor Rubinsky’s CV, please click here.
Research Description:
Heat and mass transfer in biomedical engineering and biotechnology in particular low temperature biology, bio-electronics and biomedical devices in particular micro and nano bionic technologies and electroporation, medical imaging in particular electrical impedance tomography and light imaging, biomedical numerical analysis in particular genetic and evolutionary algorithms and fractal techniques.
Ravi Prasher
Adjunct Professor
University of California, BerkeleyBerkeley, CA 4720-1740
prasher@berkeley.edu
(510) 486-7291
For more information see: Prasher Research Group
Current Classes Taught
Ravi Prasher is the Associate Lab Director of the Energy Technologies Area and Division Director of the Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Prasher joined Berkeley Lab in June, 2015. Previously, he was vice president of product development of Sheetak Inc., a startup developing solid state thermoelectric energy converters. He relocated to India for a while to develop these technologies for the rural Indian market. Dr. Prasher earlier worked as one of the first program directors at the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). While there, he created the Building Energy Efficiency Through Innovative Thermodevices (BEET-IT) and the High Energy Advanced Thermal Storage (HEATS) programs. Prior to joining ARPA-E, Dr. Prasher was the technology development manager of the thermal management group at Intel. He was also an adjunct professor in the school of engineering at Arizona State University (ASU) from 2005-2013, where his research was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.
Dr. Prasher has published more 90 archival journal papers in top science and engineering journals such as Nature Nanotechnology, Physical Review Letters and Journal of Heat Transfer. He holds more than 35 patents in the area of thermoelectrics, microchannels, heat pipes, thermal interface materials, nanostructured materials and devices. He has served on the Ph.D. committee of students at Stanford and ASU. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was the recipient of an Intel achievement award (the highest award for technical achievement in Intel). He is also a recipient of the outstanding young engineer award from the components and packaging society of IEEE. He has served on the editorial committee of Annual Reviews of Environment and Resources, Nano and Microscale Thermophysical Engineering, the IEEE Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology Society and ASME Journal of Heat Transfer. He has given multiple invited talks all over the world on nano to macroscale thermal energy process and systems. More information about Ravi’s research can be found on his group website, prasherlab.lbl.gov.
Dr. Prasher obtained his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and Ph.D. from Arizona State University.
To view Dr. Prasher’s CV, please click here.
Research Description:
Dr. Prasher’s primary research interests are fundamental and applied studies of Nano-to-macroscale thermal energy process and systems, using both theoretical and experimental methods. Some topics of current interest include thermal transport in Lithium ion batteries, microelectronics thermal management using microfluidics, solar thermal energy conversion, high density thermochemical storage, solar thermal desalination, heat and mass transfer in roll-to-roll manufacturing process and applications of machine learning in inverse design of optical metamaterials.
Key Publications:
To view a list of Dr. Prasher’s publications, please click here. You can also view Dr. Prasher’s profile on google scholar.
Costas Grigoropoulos
A. Martin Berlin Chair in Mechanical Engineering
A. Martin Berlin Chair in Mechanical Engineering
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
cgrigoro@berkeley.edu
(510) 642-2525
For more information see: Laser Thermal Lab
Current Classes Taught
Costas P. Grigoropoulos received his Diploma Degrees in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (1978), and in Mechanical Engineering (1980) from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. He holds a M.Sc. degree (1983), and a Ph.D. (1986), both in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University. He joined the faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley as an Assistant Professor in 1990, after serving as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington from 1986-1990. He was promoted to Associate Professor in July 1993 and to Professor in Mechanical Engineering in July 1997. He has conducted research at the Xerox Mechanical Engineering Sciences Laboratory, the IBM Almaden Research Center and the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, FORTH, Greece. He is Faculty Staff Scientist with the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Research Description:
Laser processing of materials, ultrafast laser micro/nanomachining, nanotechnology, nanomanufacturing, fabrication of flexible electronics, laser crystal growth for thin film transistors, advanced energy applications, microscale fuel cells, hydrogen storage, heat transfer, electronics cooling, microfluidics, laser interactions with biological materials.
Key Publications:
Professor Grigoropoulos has published 227 research articles in archival Journals, 11 Chapters in technical review books and 9 U.S. patents. He has also published the books Transport in Laser Microfabrication, Cambridge University Press (2009) and Hierarchical Nanostructures for Energy Devices, RSC Publishing (2014).
To view a list of Professor Grigoropoulos’ publications, please visit the Laser Thermal Lab website.
Ralph Greif
Professor of the Graduate School
6165 Etcheverry HallUniversity of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
greif@berkeley.edu
(510) 642-6462
For more information see: Current Classes Taught
To view Professor Grief’s CV, please click here.
Research Description:
Heat and mass transfer, micro scale transport, fuel cells, cooling at the chip level, semiconductor wafers, materials processing, laser surface interactions, nuclear reactor safety, phase change, buoyancy transport, bio heat transfer, reacting flows, deposition
Key Publications:
For a list of Professor Greif’s publications, please click here.
Michael Frenklach
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
6105B Etcheverry HallUniversity of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
frenklach@berkeley.edu
(510) 643-1676
For more information see: Combustion Laboratory
Current Classes Taught
Research Description:
Chemical kinetics; Computer modeling; Combustion chemistry; Pollutant formation (NOx, soot); Shock tube; Chemical vapor deposition of diamond films; Homogeneous nucleation of silicon, silicon carbide, and diamond powders; Interstellar dust formation.
Key Publications:
For a list of Professor Frenklach’s publications, please visit the Combustion Laboratory website.
Carlos Fernandez-Pello
Professor of the Graduate School
Almy C. Maynard and Agnes Offield Maynard Endowed Chair (7/1/2009-6/30/2020)
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
ferpello@me.berkeley.edu
(510) 642-6554
For more information see: Combustion Fire Processes Laboratory
Current Classes Taught
To view Professor Fernandez-Pello’s CV, please click here.
Research Description:
Ignition and fire spread; smoldering and transition to flaming; spacecraft/aircraft fire safety; wildland fire propagation and wildland fire spotting; liquid fuel pool burning; self heating and ignition; small-scale energy generation; biofuels combustion
To learn more about Professor Fernandez-Pello’s research, please visit the Combustion Fire Processes Laboratory website. Also, for a list of Professor Fernandez-Pello’s research activities, please click here.
Key Publications:
For a list of Professor Fernandez-Pello’s publications, please click here.
Robert Dibble
Professor of the Graduate School
6159 Etcheverry HallUniversity of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
rdibble@me.berkeley.edu
(510) 642-4901
For more information see: Combustion Research Laboratory
Current Classes Taught
Professor R. W. Dibble is the principal investigator of the Combustion Analysis group. His main area of research is the internal combustion engine. He is also the leading scientist behind the development of the Argon Power Cycle technology.
Research Description:
Laser diagnostics in turbulent reactive flows, generation of “green” fuels from biomass, including ethanol and bioDiesel mitigation of greenhouse gases, highest efficiency and lowest pollution combustion of fuels derived from biomass, combustion issues related to global warming, conversion of waste heat to power via Organic Rankine Cycle ( ORC ), spectroscopy, chemical kinetics, turbulent combustion, optics and electronics. Combustion in turbine engines, combustion of oxygenates and biodeisel fuel in diesel engines. Combustion in new engine concept of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI).
Chris Dames
Howard Penn Brown Chair in Mechanical Engineering
Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Howard Penn Brown Chair in Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
cdames@berkeley.edu
(510) 643-7013
For more information see: Nano/Energy Lab
Current Classes Taught
Chris Dames received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006. His B.S. and M.S. are from UC Berkeley (1998, 2001). He was a faculty member at UC Riverside from 2006-2011 before joining UC Berkeley in 2011, and he has also worked as a research engineer for Solo Energy Corp. (1998-1999). His research interests emphasize fundamental studies of heat transfer and energy conversion at the nanoscale, using both theoretical and experimental methods. Some topics of current interest include graphene, nanocrystalline materials, mean free path distributions, thermoelectrics, biological systems, and highly anisotropic and nonlinear transport including thermal rectification. His research has been recognized with a DARPA Young Faculty Award (2009) and NSF CAREER award (2011).
Research Description:
Heat transfer and energy conversion at the micro and nano scale. Theoretical and experimental methods. Nanostructured thermoelectric materials. Thermal rectification. Graphene. Nonlinear, anisotropic, and asymmetric heat transfer.
Key Publications:
For a list of Professor Dames’ publications, please visit the Nano/Energy Lab website.
Jyh-Yuan Chen
Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering
6163 Etcheverry HallUniversity of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
jychen@me.berkeley.edu
(510) 642-3286
For more information see: Combustion Lab
Current Classes Taught
Professor J.-Y. Chen has near thirty years of experience on research of combustion processes after Ph.D. degree and two years of practical engineering with Boeing aircraft company. His research topics include air pollution, supersonic combustion, reduced reaction mechanisms, soot formation, flame extinction and re-ignition, applications of catalysts to combustion processes. Professor Chen earned his Ph.D. degree from Cornell University in 1985 with his thesis research on modeling of turbulent reacting flows. Since then, he has worked at Sandia National Laboratories Combustion Research Facility at Livermore as a senior scientist staff member for six years. During this period, he continued and expanded his numerical modeling work in many areas of turbulent reacting flows. This research included development of realistic chemical kinetics for Probability Density Function (PDF) methods, reduced reaction mechanisms, turbulent mixing models, and models for interactions between turbulence and chemical kinetics. These model developments have been applied to studies of combustion in supersonic flows, soot formation in turbulent flows, flame extinction and re-ignition, and NOx formation in turbulent flames. Many of these topics are related to gas turbine combustion. Professor Chen joined the faculty of Mechanical Engineering Department of University of California, Berkeley, in the Fall of 1991. His current research focuses on combustion-generated pollutants in laminar and turbulent flames, catalyst combustion, multi-component droplet combustion, homogeneous charge ignition and GDI engines, and large eddy simulations of turbulent flows, reduced chemistry for transportation fuels, and microwave assisted combustion. Professor Chen has coauthored one textbook of combustion and some one hundred and twenty-four journal reviewed papers of various topics in combustion and fluid mechanics.
To view Professor Chen’s CV, please visit the Combustion Modeling Lab website.
Research Description:
Computational modeling of reactive systems, turbulent flows, combustion chemical kinetics.
Van P. Carey
A. Richard Newton Chair in Engineering
Vice Chair of Instruction
A. Richard Newton Chair in Engineering
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
vpcarey@berkeley.edu
(510) 642-7177
For more information see: Energy and Multiphase Transport Laboratory
Current Classes Taught
Professor Carey is widely recognized for his research on near-interface micro-scale phenomena, thermophysics and transport in liquid-vapor systems, and computational modeling and simulation of energy conversion and transport processes. Since joining the Berkeley faculty in 1982, Professor Carey’s research has spanned a variety of applications areas, including fuel cells, solar power systems, building and vehicle air conditioning, forging and casting of aluminum, phase change thermal energy storage, Rankine cycle power for manned space missions, heat pipes for aerospace applications, high heat flux cooling of electronics, heat transfer in porous burners, data center energy efficiency, energy sustainability of information processing, and advanced solar absorber and turbomachinery technologies for Rankine cycle power generation.
Research Description:
Energy conversion and transport; molecular-level modeling of thermophysics and transport in multiphase systems; statistical thermodynamics; thermal management and energy efficiency of electronic information systems; boiling phenomena in pure fluids and binary mixtures; surface wetting effects in condensation processes; heat pipes; energy-based sustainability analysis of energy conversion systems; high temperature solar collector technologies; radial flow turbines and disk rotor drag turbine expanders for green energy conversion technologies; computer-aided design of energy systems.
Key Publications:
To view a list of Professor Carey’s publications, please visit the Energy and Multiphase Transport Laboratory website.
David M. Auslander
Professor of the Graduate School
Professor of the Graduate School
5120 Etcheverry HallUniversity of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1740
dma@me.berkeley.edu
(510) 642-4930
For more information see: Current Classes Taught
Research Description:
Automatic control system design, mini-microcomputer system bioengineering, modeling and simulation of dynamic systems, process control.