Research Associate in Fire Dynamics

We are looking to appoint a full-time (1.0 FTE) Research Associate to work for the next 2.5 years at the interlink of prevention and prediction of wildfire risk, by contributing to the development of a fundamental physical model to understand the process of fire spread for wildfires, as part of the European Research Council grant FIREMOD.

This is a full time post, and you will be offered a fixed term 30-month contract. At King’s, you will be part of an active research programme in the Heat and Fire Lab in the Department of Engineering under the supervision of Dr Francesco Restuccia. Our group is focused on carrying out experimental and computational multidisciplinary research in the thermal sciences covering heat transfer, combustion, fire science, and bioenergy. Our interests range from helping develop more efficient and durable energy storage to understanding the fundamentals of ignition and fire spread for prevention of damage to people, property, and the environment from unwanted fires in topics such as wildfire and electrification. Our current projects focus on wildfire dynamics, battery fires, thermal management of Lithium-Ion batteries, and ignition research.

The research in this project at King’s aims at creating a detailed physical model to better understand and predict fire behaviour. The project will study fire across different scales, include smouldering effects, and improve small and large-scale fire models. This approach will help manage wildfires more effectively and provide valuable tools for researchers.

Specifically this role will lay the foundation to enable:

• Fire dynamic modelling for upscaling current lab scale models to field-scale fires
• Supporting the development of a numerical model of ignition and flame spread based on fuel properties
• Integrate transition from smouldering to flaming regimes when quantifying different fire spread regimes
• Support experimental validation work at the lab scale on a variety of vegetation.

Candidates with a background in Fire Science and physics-based modelling are particularly encouraged to apply.

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering or in an area related to Fire Safety Engineering.
• Good knowledge and research experience in fire dynamics.
• Publications in fire safety engineering or closely related area in peer-reviewed journals.
• Proficiency in a Multiphysics software and fire dynamics simulation software (FDS or similar).
• Knowledge of kinetics processes for vegetation.
• Proficiency in Chemical Kinetics software (Cantera or similar).
• Experience in experimental work for wildfires.
• Supervision experience of students at Masters or PhD level.

Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.

Interviews are due to be held in April 2026.