Meet Anish Peri, the student tracing wildfires back to their source
High school student Anish Peri developed an innovative method using inverse atmospheric dispersion modelling and gas sensors to trace wildfires back to their point of origin. His project was recognized for its technical contribution to environmental engineering and wildfire detection.
Why it matters
Improved wildfire localization techniques can significantly enhance emergency response efforts and help mitigate the environmental and economic damage caused by forest fires.
When a wildfire spreads, smoke can travel far beyond the flames, making it difficult to determine exactly where a fire began. Anish Peri, a high-school student from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, approached the problem by turning the movement of smoke into a way of tracing a fire back to its source. His project, ‘From Smoke to Source: Inverse Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Wildfire Localisation with Gas Sensor Networks,’ explored how atmospheric modelling and networks of gas sensors could work together to identify the likely origin of a wildfire. The project was recognised at the 2026 Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair, where Peri received the NOAA Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award and the Twin Cities Meteorological Society Award.
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