Dr. Kashiwagi joined the Fire Program at NBS in 1971 and is currently a member of the Materials Fire Research Group and is working in the in-house supported fire safe materials project. He is studying the effects of the addition of nano-scale particles on flammability of commodity polymers.  He is also a project leader in work for the NASA Microgravity Science Program on ignition and subsequent flame spread over a thermally thin polymeric sheet in microgravity.

Dr. Kashiwagi is interested in studying a wide variety of aspects of the combustion of polymeric materials including flame retardants. His current interest is to determine the silicon-fared flame retardant additives or flammability properties of poleolefine polymers.

Dr. Kashiwagi is a member of The Combustion Institute, American Chemical Society, American Mechanical Engineering Society and the International Association of Fire Safety Sciences.