This is the seventh year the IAWF will be awarding two scholarships valued at $2,500 to promote the scholarly pursuits and graduate-level training within the global wildland fire community. The 2013 scholarship program received several applicants from students around the world in a range of science disciplines including social, environmental and physical sciences.
This year’s scholarship recipients are Hector L. Martinez-Torres from the Univeridad del Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and Elizabeth A. Schneider from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Mr. Martinez-Torres is in his second year of his Ph.D. studies in the Laboratory of Ecology of Forest Management at CIEco—UNAM. His research focuses on the traditional use and management of fire by indigenous and non-indigenous rural inhabitants in forestry, agriculture and live- stock management at the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, one of the most emblematic Natural Protected Areas in Mexico.
Ms. Schneider is a masters student in the University of Tennessee Department of Geography. Her concentrations are in biogeography, paleoclimatology and dendrochronology. Schneider’s research focuses on low-frequency climate oscillations and their influence on the occurrence of wildfires in the Southwest. Her goal is to increase the knowledge of fire-climate interactions and provide fire managers with in- depth information on the changing patterns of wildfire. Her interest in fire and dendrochronology began as a lab assistant at the University of Oregon. She is now a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Tennessee and is working in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Science.
“We see these scholarships as a cornerstone of our Association, helping join together our members and our rising experts in the field to better understand and address current wildfire issues and to learn from each other,” says IAWF President Dan W. Bailey. “I congratulate them and look forward to their future contributions to our broader knowledge of wildland fire.”
The Best Presentations at Raleigh
At the 4th Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference in Raleigh, N.C., the International Association for Fire Safety Science, IAWF’s conference co-host, gave best presentation awards in three different categories.
The best research paper overall was given to “First Look at Smoke Emissions from Prescribed Burns in Long-unburned Longleaf Pine Forests.” Presented by Timothy Johnson (Pacific North- west National Laboratory); authors, Johnson,
T., Akagi, S., Yokelson, R., Burling, I., Weise, D., Reardon, J., and Urbanski, S.
The best applied or tech transfer paper of research to end-users was given to “Fire Behaviour Prediction Tools for Fire Managers — Lessons Learned from Tools Development in New Zealand.” Presented by H. Grant Pearce (Scion, Rural Fire Research Group); authors, Perce, H.G. and Clifford, V.R.
The best student paper was given to “Observations of Fire Behavior on a Grass Slope During a Wind Reversal.” Presented by Dianne Hall (San Jose State University); authors, Hall, D., Charland, A., et al.
