Alexander Maranghides 

Every year, fires in communities across the United States that abut undeveloped wildlands destroy thousands of buildings and result in billions of dollars in damage.  

Alexander Maranghides, a fire protection engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, has spent the last 25 years leading groundbreaking research into these types of fires, known as Wildland-Urban Interface, transforming the understanding of how they spread and what can be done to prevent and protect against them. 

Lori Moore-Merrell, formerly of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s U.S. Fire Administration, said Maranghides has been at the forefront of wildfire science for decades, “informing our basic understanding of wildfire ignition, growth, spread, emergency response, evacuation patterns and rebuilding resilience in fire-prone communities. 

“His conclusive findings from rigorous post-fire studies have accelerated the development of impactful solutions, like creating space for firefighters to engage and stop the wildfire from becoming a disaster, and teaching individuals to make themselves savable by hardening homes and reducing combustible fuels around their property,” Moore-Merrell said. 

Maranghides created a standardized data collection method that was critical in the post-fire studies he conducted in Texas, Colorado and California. In each of these years-long evaluations, Maranghides’ research developed the fire community’s understanding of the wildfires and laid the foundation for new mitigation strategies. 

“This is one of the most direct lab and field-to-practice types of transitions that I’ve seen at NIST,” said Joannie Chin, the director of NIST’s Engineering Laboratory. “There’s often a divide between the science and the use, and Alex has slammed that divide shut.” 

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is currently using Maranghides’ hazard mitigation methodology to provide protection for buildings in six communities, while his evacuation guide is in use by 30 California locales and has become the technical foundation for a national wildfire evacuation effort led by the U.S. Fire Administration.  

“We are grateful for the research that has already been done to help us in California, but I know that this work will be impactful across the nation as other states are just now beginning to grapple with challenges that, sadly, we have been dealing with for decades,” said California State Fire Chief Daniel Berlant. “These methodologies could mean the difference between someone being able to evacuate or someone’s home being saved.” 

Maranghides said NIST has allowed him to do meaningful, impartial scientific research that can help those facing the prospect of wildfires develop practical steps to save life and property. 

“It is 100% science. We don’t own fire engines, we don’t own forests, we don’t write building codes, we are nonregulatory and we do not insure anything,” Maranghides said. “This neutrality allows us to go and do these deep dives to generate implementable solutions.”