Erica Kuligowski is a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow in the School of Engineering with expertise in decision-making and response behaviour of people under imminent threat, emergency communications, and evacuation modelling.
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.
Prior to joining RMIT University, Erica worked for 18 years in the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Engineering Laboratory where she performed research on evacuation and sheltering behaviour and emergency communications in disaster events, including building fire, severe weather, and bushfire.
Erica has received awards from the U.S. Government (Department of Commerce) and international fire engineering organisations (SFPE and NFPA) for her work. She has also written nine book chapters and over 100 journal, conference, and agency articles.
Erica’s 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.
