Dr. Vinny Gupta is an Assistant Professor in Fire Safety Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He is the co-director of the UW Live Fire Research Facility (UW LFRF). His research addresses fire safety risks in complex infrastructure and emerging hazards such as battery storage, tall buildings and the wildland urban interface using experimental methods. Dr. Gupta is from Australia, where he completed his PhD at The University of Queensland investigating fires in tall buildings. He subsequently worked as a Research Associate at The University of Sydney applying non-intrusive laser diagnostic techniques to relevant fire problems such as fire spread, suppression and Li-ion batteries enabling insight into the underlying mechanics controlling the fire hazard. 

His work at the UW LFRF couples multi-scale fire experiments with advanced diagnostics to address issues such as Li-ion battery safety, wildfire emissions, mass timber construction, and new fire suppressant technologies. He has published over 30 research contributions. 

He has received the Distinguished Paper Award from the Combustion Institute in 2025, Best Oral Presentation at the 4th International Symposium on Lithium Battery Fire Safety in 2025, and the Sheldon Tieszen Award from the International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) in 2021.