Dr. Paul Ferkul is the Project Scientist for the Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction (SoFIE) investigation that is studying the combustion of solid spacecraft materials in practical geometries and realistic atmospheric conditions. Five separate US research teams comprise the SoFIE experiment campaign, and the objectives include determining safer selection of cabin materials; improving understanding of early fire growth behavior; and validating material flammability numerical models. Paul is also the Science Requirements Definition lead on the Saffire Project, which is the first ever large-scale fire experiment in space. He works closely with an international team to define tests burning a variety of fuel samples in order to examine how large flames behave in µg.