Faraz Hedayati, PhD
Lead Research Engineer
Faraz began researching WUI fires during his Ph.D. studies in 2014, focusing on ember generation and transportation. From 2014 to 2018, he collaborated with IBHS, conducting experiments and analyzing data on ember generation from different fuels and building component responses. After earning his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2018, Faraz joined IBHS full-time. He now leads research on the vulnerability of building components to embers and flames. His recent work focuses on quantifying the hazard of wind-driven building-to-building fire spread, particularly the risk posed by burning secondary structures to main buildings on a property. Faraz’s research interests include heat transfer models, machine learning and machine vision applications in natural hazards, developing physics-based risk models, and post-fire field investigations. Faraz serves on the editorial board of the Fire Journal.
