Fire & Combustion Consulting
Gollner Fire, Inc. provides consulting services related to fire safety and wildland fire, drawing on rigorous scientific expertise to support attorneys, utilities, insurers, and policymakers.
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Why Gollner Fire
Dr. Gollner has assisted attorneys, power utilities, and other clients by providing technical expertise to understand complex fire phenomena. He has testified as an expert witness to the House Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on Environment and served on technical panels addressing wildfire policy at the state and national level.
His research has been funded by the US Forest Service, Department of the Interior, Joint Fire Science Program, National Science Foundation, NFPA, NIST, NASA, California Air Resources Board, CAL FIRE, NIH, and FEMA — representing the full breadth of institutions that shape fire science and policy in the United States.
Recognition & Awards
Leadership
President & CEO, Gollner Fire, Inc.
Associate Professor & Deb Faculty Fellow, UC Berkeley
Dr. Michael Gollner is President and CEO of Gollner Fire, Inc. and an Associate Professor and Deb Faculty Fellow in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He was previously an Associate Professor of Fire Protection Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park from 2012–2019.
Dr. Gollner studies how fires ignite and spread within the wildland-urban interface, the physics and dynamics of wildland fire spread, the processes by which structures ignite from embers, and emissions and associated health effects from wildfire smoke. His work includes discovering new physical mechanisms of wildfire spread, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and authoring two leading reviews on how fires spread into and within communities in Fire Technology and Progress in Energy and Combustion Science.
He has served as Treasurer and member of the Board of Directors for the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF), Chair of the Research Advisory Board of the NFPA Fire Protection Research Foundation, and as a member of the Management Committee of the International Association for Fire Safety Science. He has served on a Technical Review Committee for CAL FIRE to review California's revised Fire Hazard Severity Zone model and serves as Associate Editor for Fire Technology.
Dr. Gollner has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications in leading international journals and over a hundred other presentations, articles, and reports. He has appeared before Congress as an expert witness and advised at the state and national policy level on wildfire risk.
Academic Work
The Berkeley Fire Research Laboratory, led by Associate Professor Michael J. Gollner at the University of California, Berkeley, conducts fundamental and applied research on fire behavior, ignition, and spread within the wildland-urban interface.
For research inquiries, please contact Dr. Gollner at the University. Consulting inquiries should be directed to Gollner Fire, Inc.
Visit the Berkeley Fire Research Laboratory →To discuss a consulting engagement or inquire about expert witness services, reach Dr. Gollner directly.