Riyaaz Shaik

Riyaaz Shaik, Ph.D.

Dr. Riyaaz Shaik is a Scientist at Berkshire Hathaway Inc., specializing in remote sensing for wildfire applications. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Satellite Systems and Services from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, in 2022. That same year, he joined UCLA’s Civil & Environmental Engineering Department as a postdoctoral researcher and became a Research Scientist in 2024. Dr. Shaik serves as a co-principal Investigator (PI) on multiple wildfire research projects leveraging remote sensing, machine learning, and nonlinear empirical dynamics to advance wildfire science. He has published extensively in leading journals and conferences and has mentored numerous student researchers. Beyond research, he is a lecturer at UCLA, teaching Applied Numerical Methods, and a research affiliate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, supporting wildfire-related initiatives. His work bridges the gap between cutting-edge remote sensing technologies and practical wildfire management solutions. To learn more about his research, visit his portfolio at https://sites.google.com/g.ucla.edu/riyaaz-shaik/.

Email: riyaaz@risksciences.ucla.edu

Adam Watts

Adam Watts

Adam Watts is Supervisory Research Biologist and Team Lead for Fire and Environmental Research Applications (FERA) at the Pacific Wildland Fire Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Research Station. Dr. Watts is an AFE-certified Wildland Fire Ecologist and certified Wildland Fire Practitioner with research interests in global fire ecology, atmospheric science, technology development, and uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS). He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and as a volunteer firefighter like three prior generations of his family. He completed his undergraduate studies in ecology and biology at Emory University, and his Master’s degree in interdisciplinary ecology at University of Florida. Between degrees he also worked as an alligator biologist and a UAS program coordinator. His Ph.D., also from UF, is in interdisciplinary ecology with an emphasis in wildland fire science. His current activities include research, mentoring, and coordinating multidisciplinary teams to address the most complex issues facing the global wildland fire system.

Carl R. Swindle

Carl R. Swindle

I am a Postdoctoral Scholar at the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of California, Los Angeles.  My research interests include 1) assessment of the risks and consequences of wildfires in California and their influences on ecological processes, 2) interpretation and preservation of environmentally induced geochemical signatures in natural samples, and 3) development of algorithms and computational models to depict natural processes.

I completed my BS (with highest honors) in Earth Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2018 and my MS (2020) and my PhD (2023) in Geology at California Institute of Technology.  My work involves 1) application and production of data-driven computational methods to calibrate and validate Earth system models, 2) development and implementation of laboratory techniques to make high precision geochemical measurements, and 3) field work to collect samples for future analysis and document observations in the natural world.

Hara Prasad Nayak

Hara Prasad Nayak Postdoctoral Scholar PhD, Indian Institute of Technology

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I am Hara Prasad Nayak, currently working as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. I hold a PhD in Atmospheric Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. My research interests include land-atmosphere interaction studies, land surface modeling, the Indian summer monsoon, the North American monsoon, mesoscale modeling, and global climate modelling etc.

Doug Honegger

Doug Honegger Research Scientist

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Mr. Honegger is a Research Scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. He received a Master of Science degree from the University of Illinois in 1981 and has over 40 years of experience related to understanding the response of structures, structural components and equipment to extreme loading resulting from earthquake hazards, blast, and impact. His work has covered a wide range of applications in the defense, nuclear power, energy, and utility sectors. Since 1995, he has been in business as a sole proprietor operating as D.G. Honegger Consulting, specializing in assessing the response of buried pipelines to permanent ground displacement generated by a wide variety of natural geohazards and underground mining activities. His work experience encompasses site specific pipeline evaluations for new and existing pipeline installations as well as experimental research in field and laboratory settings. He participated in the preparation of the first comprehensive guideline for the seismic design of oil and gas pipeline systems in 1984 and has led the efforts to develop current industry guidelines for the design of natural gas and liquid hydrocarbon transmission pipelines for hazards related to earthquakes, landslides, and subsidence. Since 2015, he has been a guest lecturer for an introductory pipeline engineering course offered in the fall at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Robb Moss

Robb Moss Research Scientist

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Robb has been a professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, since 2005.  He earned a Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley in the field of geotechnical earthquake engineering, with minors in engineering seismology and structural reliability. His research and consulting focuses on the physics and probability of natural hazards such as; strong ground motions, seismic soil liquefaction, surface fault rupture, seismic induced landslides, debris flow, and others.  His teaching includes undergraduate and graduate courses in; geotechnical engineering, engineering risk analysis, geological engineering, earthquake engineering, and others.  He has been a member of ten earthquake reconnaissance teams traveling to Nepal, Japan, Chile, Alaska, Turkey, India, Mexico, and around California.  Robb was appointed a Fulbright Scholar to Chile for 2017-2020 and is currently an editor for the ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering.

Idil D. Akin

Idil D. Akin Visiting Research Scientist Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison B.S. Middle East Technical University

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Dr. Idil Akin is an Assistant Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Washington State University. She joined WSU in 2017, where she developed an active teaching and research program in unsaturated soil mechanics and biogeotechnics. Her primary research focus is on the fundamental mechanisms that control physicochemical, mechanical, and hydraulic soil behavior. Dr. Akin’s current research is in post-wildfire slope stability and bio-inspired and bio-mediated geotechnics. Her research has been sponsored by NSF, DOTs, and industry. She is a recipient of the 2021 NSF CAREER Award.

Mahdi Bahrampouri

Mahdi Bahrampouri Postdoctoral Scholar Ph.D. Virginia Tech M.S. Virginia Tech B.A. Sharif University of Technology

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Dr. Mahdi Bahrampouri joined the Institute in July 2021 as a Postdoctoral Scholar. His research focuses on developing Ground Motion Models for advanced structural parameters, and improving the estimation of epistemic uncertainty in predicting ground motion intensity. Before joining UCLA, he studied Site Response Analysis and Uncertainty Quantification at Virginia Tech.

Wadie Chalgham

Wadie Chalgham Research Scientist Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles M.S. University of California, Los Angeles M.S. University of Louisiana B.S. University of Louisiana

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Dr. Wadie Chalgham is a Research Scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is conducting research at UCLA’s B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences where he is the lead developer of the Pipeline Health Monitoring and Management project where the predictive physics of failure and system-level pipeline health monitoring and assessment models will be implemented.

Dr. Chalgham obtained his B.S. and his M.S. in Petroleum Engineering with a 4.0 GPA in both degrees. In addition, he has another M.S. and a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering with a specialization in Design, Robotics, and Manufacturing from UCLA.

Moreover, he was featured in “Top 10 Professors at UCLA” when he was teaching in the department of French and Francophone Studies at UCLA.

Furthermore, he holds 4 patents and recently published a US patent about a device and method for detecting leaks and healing pipelines.

Dr. Chalgham’s work has gained other recognitions, including winning the Audience Choice Award at UCLA's 2020 prestigious Grad Slam competition on March 5th at the California Nano-Systems Institute (CNSI). Grad Slam is a UC- wide competition that showcases and awards the best research presentations by graduate students from all departments. His presentation was on “Smart Pipeline Leak Detection and Response System.”

Also, he is the Best Paper Competition winner of the 2020 ASME SERAD (Safety Engineering, Risk and Reliability Analysis Division) Student Safety Innovation Challenge Contest for the paper: ``Sensor Placement Optimization based on Dynamic Bayesian Network Corrosion Prediction Model.” The paper offers a novel approach for identifying optimal sensor network layout to help oil and gas pipeline operators make risk-informed decisions to enhance pipeline system integrity management through optimal mitigation actions. 

His research publications can be found here.

Danielle M. Verdugo Madugo

Danielle M. Verdugo Madugo Visiting Assistant Project Scientist B.S. San Diego State University

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Danielle joined the Institute in June 2019 as a Visiting Assistant Project Scientist and is currently working with Prof. Bozorgnia to develop a comprehensive empirical database of surface ruptures for probabilistic earthquake fault displacement hazard analyses. She did undergraduate and graduate work in Geology at San Diego State University and has over 15 years of combined research and consulting experience characterizing the earthquake potential of active faults.

Nicolas Kuehn

Nicolas Kuehn Research Scientist Ph.D. University of Potsdam

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Nicolas Kuehn joined the Garrick Institute in August 2018 as a Project Scientist. His work is about the development of empirical ground-motion models for seismic hazard analysis, with a focus on subduction events and nonergodic models. He also works on new models for fault displacement hazard. He studied Geophysics at the University of Potsdam in Germany, where he received his PhD in seismology. He then spent a few years as a postdoc and project scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.