Erica Kuligowski

Dr. Erica Kuligowski is an ARC Future Fellow and Principal Research Fellow in the School of Engineering at RMIT University studying evacuation and emergency communications in fire, flood, and other hazards.

With a PhD in Sociology and MS and BS degrees in Fire Engineering, she has led interdisciplinary research studies of human response to hazards and disasters to improve the safety of people in buildings and communities around the world. At RMIT, Dr. Kuligowski leads research projects studying how households protect themselves during disasters, and in the process, collects human response data using both traditional (surveys, interviews and focus groups) and newer techniques (social media messages, GPS-based mobile phone signals, and virtual reality experiments). She is also part of an international team developing evacuation software (i.e., the WUI-NITY simulation platform) to model evacuation from bushfire-prone communities. She joins RMIT University from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology's Engineering Laboratory where her research on evacuation and sheltering behaviour and emergency communications in disaster events, including building fire, severe weather, and bushfire, has received awards from the U.S. Government (Department of Commerce) and international fire engineering organisations. Dr. Kuligowski has written eight book chapters, 60 journal articles, and over 40 government agency reports, conference papers, trade journals articles, and media articles. Her work has led to the development of new or improved building codes and community standards, decision-making tools for disaster response such as evacuation models, and emergency alert/warning creation tools and templates.

Awards:

• 2025 NFPA’s Foundation Medal for the project: WUI-NITY 4: An Industry-Ready WUI Fire Evacuation Model (RMIT CIs: Erica Kuligowski, Emily Zhou, and Junfeng Wu (School of Computing Technology); Project Partners: Imperial College London, Lund University, GHD, National Research Council Canada, CSIRO, and Fire Protection Research Foundation); https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/all-news/2025/jun/bushfire-simulation-award
• 2025 Natural Hazards Research Australia's Research Team Award: Predictions in Public Project (RMIT CIs: Erica Kuligowski and Amy Griffin (School of Science); Project Research Partners: QUT, Deakin, Swinburne, CFA, and Vic Dept of Ed)

• Member of a research team shortlisted as a finalist for the 2024 Resilient Australia National Research for Impact Award given out by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR), with QUT, Deakin, Swinburne, Victoria's Country Fire Authority, and the Victorian Department of Education
• Co-editor of a Special Issue for the Natural Hazards Review Journal that won the Applied Communication Division Distinguished Journal Special Issue Award from the U.S. National Communication Association (NCA), 2024
• 2023 Fire Technology’s Editor’s Choice Award  (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10694-023-01371-1)
• Veski Inspiring Women STEM sidebyside Program participant, 2023
• ARC Future Fellowship, 2023-2027
• Elsevier's Top 2% of scientists in the world for career long impact and Single year impact in 2021, 2022, 2023
• SFPE's Arthur B. Guise Medal, 2020, for the advancement of the science and technology of fire protection engineering
• University of Maryland, Fire Protection Engineering Department's Distinguished Alumni Award, 2020
• Harry C. Bigglestone Award – (with co-authors) for the paper entitled "Assessing the Verification and Validation of Building Fire Evacuation Models", 2017
• U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal Award - for outstanding leadership in developing the Community Resilience Planning Guide, 2016
• U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award - for the development, analysis, and dissemination of a building evacuation database to improve occupant safety during fire incidents, 2016
• Society of Fire Protection Engineer's Hat's Off Award – for contributing exemplary service to the Society, 2015
• 2015 Engineering Laboratory Communication Award – for an outstanding communication on the technical investigation of the 2011 Joplin, MO tornado (USA)
• U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal Award - for the study of building performance, warnings, and human behaviour in the investigation of the 2011 Joplin, MO tornado, 2014
• Harry C. Bigglestone Award – for the paper appearing in Fire Technology that best represents excellence in the communication of fire protection concepts, 2014
• U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal Award - for scientific and engineering achievement and technical support in conducting the World Trade Center disaster investigation, 2005
• U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award – for support in ensuring the accuracy and quality of the analysis, simulations, final report, and recommendations of the Station Nightclub Fire technical investigation, Rhode Island (USA), 2005
  
  Professional interests:
• Co-convenor of RMIT's Disaster Research Network (2023-present)
• WG Expert: ISO TC92 Fire Safety, SC4 Fire Safety Engineering, WG11 Behaviour and Movement of People (2023–present)
• Co-lead of RMIT's Centre for Urban Research (CUR) Climate Change Transformations Research Program (2021-2024)
• Co-Chair: International Association for Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) Working Group on Human Behaviour in Fires (2021-present)
• Board Member: Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) Foundation's Board of Governors (2020-current)
• 2023 Program Scientific Committee Co-Chair of the 14th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science (Tsukuba, Japan) (2021-2023)
• WG Expert: ISO TC268 Sustainable Cities and Communities, SC1 Smart Community Infrastructure, WG6 Disaster Risk Reduction (2020-2023)
• Member and Task Group Chair: National Research Council Canada Technical Committee on the Development of a Guide/Code for Wildland-Urban -- Interface (WUI) fires (2018-2022)
• Member: NFPA 1600 (Standard on Continuity, Emergency, and Crisis Management) Technical Committee (2017-2020)
• Section Editor for the SFPE's Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering (5th Edition, 2015 & upcoming edition, 2023)
• Task Group Member, Co-author of the SFPE Guide to Human Behavior in Fire, 2019