Ofodike (‘DK’) Ezekoye is a professor of mechanical engineering and currently Joe C. Walter Jr. Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas (UT) Austin. Dr. Ezekoye received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the faculty at UT in 1993 and conducts research on fire safety engineering and heat and mass transfer in reacting systems. Recent work includes experimental and computational characterization of compartment fire phenomena, lithium-ion battery system safety, and wildland fire behavior at the wildland-urban-interface.  With collaborators, he has communicated research findings on fire safety in journal publications, conference presentations and proceedings, training seminars, book chapters, and webinars. He is a Fellow of the ASME. He has received the NFPA Bigglestone best paper award for fire communication, D. Peter Lund Award from SFPE, a National Science Foundation Early Career Award (CAREER) and a Society of Automotive Engineering Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award.