I am a Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellow, researching fire behavior and smoke plume dispersion in flat as well as complex terrain, both with and without forest cover. I aim to characterize the complex, turbulent flow patterns germinating from the interaction of a fire with the surrounding atmosphere, influenced by terrain and vegetation features, for insights into drivers of erratic fire behavior. My PhD research involved the analysis of multi-scale experimental burn data using advanced mathematical techniques and the computational modeling of tall-canopy-plume interactions in flat terrain. At LLNL, my research is primarily focused on field experiments, designed and implemented in collaboration with local Prescribed Burn Associations, US Forest Service stations, and universities. Moreover, I am also interested in exploring the utility of experimental data in fire model development at LLNL and simulating underexplored fire behavior using existing models for improved physical underpinnings. Insights will aid in the development of more reliable fire-behavior models for the efficient planning of prescribed burns and allocation of response resources for active fire events and smoke hazards.

Ph.D., Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Irvine, 2025

M.F.A., Theatre and Dramatic Arts, The Old Globe/University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, 2017

M.S., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, 2015

B. Tech., Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (UP, India), 2013

Scholten R. C., Banerjee T., Chen Y., Delgado A., Desai A., Ke Z., Liu T., Morton D. C., Peterson D. A., Tang Q., Veraverbeke S., Zhang J., Randerson J. T., Multi-ignition fire complexes drive extreme fire years and impacts, Science Advances, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), accepted for publication

Okun, K., Desai, A., Parnell, P.E., Masunaga, E., Lucas, A. J., Lerczak, J., Pawlak, G., Semidiurnal inner shelf flow in the Southern California Bight. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 130, e2024JC021591 (2025). doi.org/10.1029/2024JC021591

Desai, A., Guilloteau, C., Heilman, W. E., Charney, J. J., Skowronski, N. S., Clark, K. L., Gallagher, M. R., Foufoula-Georgiou, E., and Banerjee, T., Investigating fire–atmosphere interaction in a forest canopy using wavelets, Boundary-Layer Meteorology 190, 21 (2024). doi.org/10.1007/s10546-024-00862-0

Desai, A., Heilman, W. E., Skowronski, N. S., Clark, K. L., Gallagher, M. R., Clements, C. B., and Banerjee, T., Features of turbulence during wildland fires in forested and grassland environments, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 338, 109501 (2023). doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2023.109501

Desai, A., Goodrick, S., Banerjee, T., Investigating the turbulent dynamics of small-scale surface fires. Scientific Reports 12, 10503 (2022). doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13226-w

Desai, A., Vourganti, V., Vyasarayani, C.P. A note on damping in heat-exchanger tubes, International Journal of Dynamics and Control, 8, 352–360 (2020). doi.org/10.1007/s40435-019-00590-1

Vourganti, V., Desai, A., Samukham, S., Vyasarayani, C.P. Effect of nonlinear cladding stiffness on the stability and Hopf bifurcation of a heat-exchanger tube subject to cross-flow, Meccanica, 55, 49–68 (2020). doi.org/10.1007/s11012-019-01114-z

Verma, A., Desai, A., Mittal, S. Aerodynamics of badminton shuttlecocks, Journal of Fluids and Structures, 41, 89-98 (2013). doi.org/10.1016/j.jfluidstructs.2013.01.009

• Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellowship, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sep 2025 – present
• Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship, Graduate Division, UC Irvine, Jul - Sep 2024
• Public Impact Fellowship, Distinguished Fellow, Graduate Division, UC Irvine, Jan - Jun 2024
• Henry Samueli Endowed Fellowship, outstanding Civil & Environmental Engineering graduate with exceptional potential for scholarly work, UC Irvine, Jan - Jul 2023.

Remote Pilot Certification (small Uncrewed Aircraft System rating), Jun 2024 – Present California Fire Science Seminar Series Student Committee Member,  California Fire Science Consortium, Oct 2023 – Present Please feel free to reach out if you are interested in collaborating on designing field experiments and collecting data during prescribed burns.