Erica Kuligowski

Erica Kuligowski is a research social scientist in the wildland-urban interface fire group of the fire research division of the Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Kuligowski holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, as well as a bachelor's and master's in fire protection engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests are human behavior in emergencies, focusing on decision-making and response of people under imminent threat, and the role that emergency communication plays in this process.

Kuligowski was part of three NIST technical investigation teams, including the federal investigation of the 2001 World Trade Center disaster, where she studied the evacuation of building occupants; the federal investigation of the May 22, 2011, tornado in Joplin, Missouri, where she studied emergency communication systems and public response; and the federal investigation of the 2003 Rhode Island Night Club Fire, where she performed evacuation modeling to recreate evacuation scenarios of the fire event. Currently, Kuligowski serves as the team leader of NIST’s study of Hurricane Maria’s effects on Puerto Rico. She is also leading a project as part of this study, focused on evacuation behavior and the role that emergency communication placed in evacuation decision-making for those under imminent threat from Hurricane Maria. Additionally, Kuligowski is leading a primary data collection effort to study protective action decision-making among households in response to the 2016 Chimney Tops 2 Fire in Tennessee.