Jen of University of Alberta

Wildfires in the USA Los Angeles area this year and fires in parts of Canada last year are wild fires of interest to many. Wildfires and their seemingly increasing numbers and severity is Dr Beverly's area of research.

Dr. Beverly will describe her research and insights into wildfires and will include a small portion of her talk on the importance of protecting critical infrastructure such as water and power lines.

I'm sure the causes of wildfires will include discussion on unintentional causes including downed power lines for example and even intentional human causes.

The speaker will be Dr. Jen Beverly, an Associate Professor in the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta.  In an earlier part of her career, she was also a wildland fire fighter in Ontario, who then earned masters and PhD degrees from University of Toronto.  Among other cross Canada implemented programs she formulated the FireSmart program aimed at preventing wildfires from becoming urban/structure fires for buildings and homes located at the wildland-urban interface.

Biography:

Dr. Beverly is an Associate Professor in the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta and has been studying wildfires for over 25 years. She holds MSc and PhD degrees from the Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, and an Honours BES from the University of Waterloo. She is a fire behaviour specialist, a former helitack crew leader (Ontario Fire Ranger), and a former federal government research scientist.

Dr. Beverly’s mission is to develop practical, insightful, and accessible tools and approaches for decision makers working to ensure social and ecological systems thrive in fire prone environments. To this end, she applies a range of methods, including statistical modeling, simulation modeling and spatial analysis, to inform complex decisions. Her fire research studies have addressed a wide range of topics including post-fire ecological effects, fire behavior prediction, fuels measurement, fire-climate interactions, wildfire evacuations, escaped fires, values-at-risk mapping, and strategic fire risk assessment at both community and landscape scales. 

Email:

Address:Edmonton, Alberta, Canada