Biography:
Ryan Falkenstein-Smith, Ph.D., is a Mechanical Engineer in the Firefighting Technology Group of Fire Research Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Ryan received his doctorate in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Syracuse University for his research on oxygen transport membranes for oxyfuel combustion. During his graduate study, Ryan was the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute Fellowship, which funded collaboration with Tohoku University to develop catalytic materials for carbon capture purposes. Ryan conducted his postdoctoral work in the Fire Research Division at NIST, where he established datasets of vegetative flow fields and pool fire characteristics to support the development and validation of computational fluid dynamics fire models. Most recently, Ryan’s research focuses on developing gas extractive technology used to evaluate the risk of a backdraft phenomenon. Currently, Ryan holds a seat on the technical committee for NFPA 1970: Structural and Proximity Firefighting Protective Clothing and Equipment and the leadership board of the Postdoc and Early Career Association of Researchers at NIST. Ryan is a member of the Combustion Institute and has been co-author of paper presentations at the 2013, 2017, and 2021 US National Combustion Institute meetings and the 2016 and 2020 International Combustion Institute Symposia. He is co-author of more than forty publications, including four peer-reviewed journal articles in 2021.
Vision Statement:
The Combustion Institute has profoundly impacted the advancement of combustion science. The Eastern States Section of the Combustion Institute must continue to work and expand its role in facilitating research communication in a constructive environment while fostering collaboration in all areas of combustion. Particular emphasis should be placed on the institutional diversity of membership (i.e., industry, academia, and government). Strengthening collaboration among institutes would improve government and industry access to innovative science and rising talent in academia, thus amplifying the Combustion Institute’s impact.