FLARE Wildfire Research group is one of Australia’s largest fire research groups. We are based in the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences at The University of Melbourne. Our team of fire scientists have backgrounds in landscape ecology, forest science, combustion engineering, mathematical modelling, data analysis and computer programming.
The diversity of research experience enables the team to answer the complex questions facing fire management agencies around the globe. We have an open, inclusive and collaborative approach to science and seek to work with the best and brightest minds in fire science.
Contact
For enquiries, please email Prof. Trent Penman - trent.penman@unimelb.edu.au
Academics and researchers in FLARE Wildfire Research.
Academic staff
A/Prof Alex Filkov
Amy Smith
Anita Senserrick
Brett Cirulis
Emma Window
Julio Najera
A/Prof Lauren Bennett
Lauren's research focuses on effects of disturbances, like fire and climate change, on the ecosystem processes that underpin carbon and nutrient cycles.
ltb@unimelb.edu.au +61353214192Saumya Wanniarachchi
Victoria Reynolds
Graduate researchers
Aaron Heap
Breanna Iredale
Sarita Chaulagain
Caitlin Symon
Ella Plumanns-Pouton
Habtamu Getnet
Grace Vielleux
Ninh Nguyen
Lily Wheeler
Mohamed Mohamed
Tamika Farley-Lehmer
Torsten Schopf
Find a supervisor
The following staff are available to supervise honours and masters research in FLARE Wildfire Research.
Professor Trent Penman
Trent researches a wide array of fire risk-related issues. Topics are wide-ranging from fire behaviour to future fire risk forecasting considering human and environmental values. His work covers laboratory, field and computer simulation work.
Project topics:
- Fuel responses to fire regimes.
- Global ignition drivers.
- Climate influences on fuel recovery.
- Future fire regimes - implications for key species.
- Protecting towns with fire management - what is the cost.
Dr Alex Filkov
Alex's work covers a wide range of fire behaviour from a better understanding of flammability, dynamic fire processes, and their effects on ignition and combustion of fuels, to the mechanisms of wildland fire transition into Wildland Urban Interface areas and the fire resistance of structural materials.
Project topics:
- Fuel heterogeneity and its effect on fire behaviour.
- Effect of mulching on bushfire impact and risk to communities.
- Effects of fire intensity on flammability of vegetation.
- Identifying thresholds of seed mortality.
- Firebrands and spotting.
Dr Hamish Clarke
Hamish is interested in the drivers of fire, its effects, fire management and climate change impacts on all of the above. He is interested in modelling, multidisciplinary collaboration, end-user engagement, policy, communication and much, much more.
Project topics:
- Climate change impacts on fire weather, fuel moisture and ignition probability.
- Wildfire risk communication.
- Wildfire prediction and model evaluation.
- Climate-adapted fire management and policy.
- International comparison of wildfire risk, modelling and policy.
Dr Jamie Burton
Jamie’s research focuses on different aspects of fire behaviour, and the impacts of fuel management on vegetation communities. She has a particular interest in the role of vegetation as fuel and examining links between plant traits and flammability from the leaf to the landscape scale.
Project topics:
- Understanding moisture thresholds for ignition and fire spread.
- Biophysical modelling of vegetation attributes.
- Effect of fuel management strategies on fuel and biodiversity values.
- Linking plant traits to flammability across spatial scales.
- Improving fire behaviour modelling.
A/Prof Lauren Bennett
Lauren's research focuses on understanding how ecosystems work and how we can maintain and restore healthy ecosystems. This includes understanding plant dynamics, productivity, and carbon cycles, how they are influenced by changing climates and fire regimes and identifying and testing appropriate management approaches.
Project topics:
- Exploring adaptation pathways in temperate forests.
- Approaches and evidence to support decisions about active management in forests.
- Compounded events and climate-fire-feedback effects in temperate forests.
- Quantifying and interpreting tree growth patterns in response to changing climates.
- Understanding patterns of forest windthrow after extreme storms.
Dr Sarah McColl-Gausden
Sarah’s research focuses on ecosystem dynamics and covers field ecology alongside quantitative methods such as computer simulation models. This includes understanding plant/fuel/community dynamics post disturbances such as fire, and the impacts of changing climates and fire regimes on our ecosystems.
Project topics:
- Understanding values in changing ecosystems: what will compound disturbances in temperate forests mean for a range of ecosystem values under changing climates?
- Predicting forest state changes and the impact on landscape fire regimes.
- Combining fire regime simulation models with vegetation dynamics models.
Dr Nina Hinko-Najera
Nina's research focuses on forest carbon dynamics from monitoring ecosystem-scale carbon and water flux processes to tree growth and quantifying carbon stocks. She is interested in how climate change and variability, disturbances and Traditional Owner-led forest management influence these processes and dynamics. Her research includes field-based data from automated high-resolution to plot-based measurements including ground-based laser scanning and forest growth modelling.
Project topics:
- Quantifying and interpreting tree growth patterns in response to changing climates, disturbance and competition.
- Understanding patterns of forest windthrow after extreme storms.
- Biocultural monitoring of Traditional Owner-managed forests.
- Where does the carbon go? Forest carbon dynamics from uptake to sequestration and release.
- Forest and ecosystem resilience to climate variability, stress and disturbances.
Dr Matt Swan
Matt's research is focused on understanding how fires (both wildfires and planned fires) affect ecosystem structure and function. In particular, he is interested in how properties of fire regimes such as size, intensity and frequency create patterns in the landscape, and what the implications of this are for biodiversity.
Project topics:
- Effect of fire on habitat structure and function.
- Effect of fire on animal mortality and movement.
- Interactions between fire and fragmentation.
- Effect of fire on threatened species.
- Pyrodiversity and its effect on biodiversity.
Dr Tom Fairman
Tom is a forest and fire scientist who is interested in how forest landscapes change and how they can be managed. He is interested in the role of fire in landscapes with a focus on compounding disturbances and shifting fire regimes, and the consequences that this has for ecosystem health and resilience.
Project topics:
- Changing bushfire regimes and the impact of forest health and resilience. This topic primarily focuses on the impact of short-interval wildfires.
- Storm damage, forest restoration and fire risk. Major storms are emerging as a threat to forest health, but this disturbance type has been little studied in southern Australia. A better understanding of how storm damage should be managed, and how fire risk changes over time, is a pressing research topic.
- Indigenous-led forest management, restoration and monitoring. This topic focuses on the opportunities for understanding, monitoring and collaborating with Traditional Owners as they embark on novel approaches to managing native forests in Central Victoria.
- Historical frequent fire and forest restoration. Several iconic ecosystems in southern Australia are currently in a degraded state due to suboptimal historical fire regimes. This topic uses a case study landscapes on Wilson's Promontory to explore how managers can reinstate keystone structures in these systems.
Dr Bonnie Wintle
Bonnie is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist. When we are making decisions about the environment, we rely heavily on the judgements and opinions of experts, but experts are not immune to the psychological, political and social biases that affect all of us. Bonnie researches structured methods for eliciting and aggregating information from experts (including forecasting and horizon scanning), with the aim of producing more reliable, transparent science to support policy and decision-making.
Project topics:
- Improving predictions to support environmental decision-making.
- Horizon scanning to support environmental decision-making.
- Strategic foresight and scenario planning for environmental decisions.
- Meta-research for promoting transparent, robust science.
Dr Erica Marshall
Erica's research focuses on future fire regimes. In particular predicting how climate change and/or fire management efforts such as prescribed burning, green firebreaks, and fuel management influence fire risk over time. Her work examines the drivers of fire risk, how these are shifting over time and what this means for environmental and human values. She is interested in understanding the trade-offs in managing fire for the environment and people. Ultimately understanding these trade-offs is essential to enabling adaptive management of fires and fire risk.
Project topics:
- Modelling fire regimes
- Testing fire management strategies
- Quantifying future fire impacts on assets
- Multi-objective management
- Decision support tools
Amy Smith
Amy’s research is focused on future fire regimes and their implications for long-term ecosystem resilience. She is interested in the future impacts of fire regimes on species and biodiversity and how fire management could influence this.
Project topics:
- Future fire and ecosystem resilience.
- Impacts of fire on species.
- Modelling fire regimes and comparing fire management strategies.