Prof. Dr. Vera Samburova is currently an Associate Research Professor in the Division of Atmospheric Sciences at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, USA. She earned her M.S. from Moscow State University, Russia, in 2002, her Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in 2007, and completed her postdoctoral research at the Desert Research Institute in 2008. Her research primarily focuses on the chemical characterization of post-fire soils, the organic chemistry of atmospheric aerosols, air pollution, and the chemical composition of biomass burning emissions, including those from wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires and wildfires.