Dr James Furlaud presenting at the International Association of Wildland Fire’s Fire Behaviour and Fuels conference in 2019.
While the formal end of active research for the CRC fast approaching, nine Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC students have successfully completed their PhD in recent months. Read more below.
Some CRC students are still completing their PhDs, and this work will continue to be supported through the new research centre.
Dr James Furlaud (University of Tasmania)
Dr James Furlaud’s PhD improved the understanding of fuels and fire danger in Tasmania’s tall wet eucalypt forests, one of Tasmania’s most dangerous vegetation types for bushfire risk. James has collected data on vegetation in tall wet eucalypt forests both in Tasmania and nationwide. He has used this data to understand how fuel load, structure, and fire danger vary both geographically and temporally across this forest type. He has investigated different fire behaviour modelling approaches from around the world to develop a conceptual framework for modelling fire behaviour in this complex vegetation type.
James has also led three projects funded by the CRC’s funding for quick response program. He has completed immediate post-fire vegetation re-measurement of TERN plots burnt in the 2015/16 fire season, investigated the effects of fire at 12 permanent plots that burned in the 2019 Tasmanian fires, and is investigating the effect of fuel load and structure on fire severity across Australian wet eucalypt forests. James is currently the Fire Centre Research Hub’s Communications Coordinator and research assistant for the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Tasmania.
Access Dr James Furlaud’s thesis here once the embargo is lifted.
Dr Kaitlyn Watson (Queensland University of Technology)
A registered pharmacist, associate student Dr Kaitlyn Watson’s PhD investigated pharmacists’ roles in disasters, and identified the acceptance and expectations of pharmacists throughout the different stages of a disaster. Taking an all-hazard and inclusive approach, this research included key stakeholders from international disaster and emergency management organisations as well as pharmacy organisations. Pharmacists’ skills and knowledge are typically underutilised in disasters and it was identified that their abilities extend beyond the traditional role of logistics and supply management. There are multiple practice areas in a disaster in which a pharmacist’s expertise could be valuable in-patient care, logistics, governance and public health.
Currently living in Canada, Kaitlyn is the founder and CEO of Disaster Pharmacy Solutions and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alberta. She is a Fellow at the Higher Education Academy, Co-chair of the Primary Care Special Interest Group at the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine and a local advisor for the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association.
Associate student Dr Greg Penney, Superintendent with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services in WA, examined the critical components of bushfire suppression to improve firefighter safety and operational effectiveness during siege bushfire response. Greg’s PhD adopted a fire engineering approach, incorporating both empirical and physics-based computer simulation to analyse suppression efforts with a significant focus on firefighter tenability.
With the growing volume of hydrological data available through satellite remote sensing and crowd-sourcing to improve flood forecasting skill, more advanced techniques are needed. Associate student Dr Antara Dasgupta’s research integrated remote sensing derived water levels with a 2D hydrodynamic model using data assimilation for flooding in both Australia and India. The water levels were calculated by combining flood maps derived from optical and synthetic-aperture radar imagery with topography, and additionally from crowd sourced images. The effect of the inclusion of crowd-sourced information on the modelling was also be evaluated.
Since completing her PhD, Antara has been working as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Osnabrück in Germany.
Associate student Dr Daniel May’s project investigated the political and cultural influence of the understanding of Indigenous fire in settler societies, with a particular focus on 20th and 21st century Australia and the United States. Daniel investigated how non-Indigenous understandings of Indigenous fire have not been confined to the academy as anthropological curiosities, but have historically been political incendiaries that competing interest groups have attempted to draw upon, appropriate or deny. In 2018, Daniel was awarded the Endeavour Research Fellowship through ANU and visited the United States to work alongside leading geographer and expert on Native American and Aboriginal Australian fire management practices, Professor Don Hankins at California State University.
Post PhD, Daniel is now a research associate at the Parliamentary Library in the Sciences, Technology, Environment and Resources section.
Access Dr Daniel May’s thesis here once the embargo is lifted.
Dr Constanza Gonzales-Mathiesen (University of Melbourne)
An accredited architect and urban planner, associate student Dr Constanza Gonzales-Mathiesen’s PhD investigated ways that spatial planning can change its practices by identifying, mainstreaming and putting into action new considerations about bushfire risk management. Constanza’s research is contributing to the understanding of ways of improving spatial planning capacity for bushfire risk management.
Constanza now works as a researcher in the Faculty of Architecture at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile.
Dr Constanza Gonzales-Mathiesen’s thesis is available here.
Dr Akvan Gajanayake (RMIT University)
Associate student Dr Akvan Gajanayake’s PhD research assessed the wide impacts of road damage during natural hazards. Through stakeholder engagement with communities affected by natural hazards, Akvan developed a framework to measure the impact of road networks, which is providing valuable data to decision makers, as well as other researchers. To Akvan’s knowledge, this is the first research that measured the impact of road failure during natural hazards, and as such, it will have practical and policy implications in recovery post hazard.
Akvan is now working with the City of Port Phillip in Melbourne as a Waste Future Project Officer, as well as undertaking further research with RMIT University and lecturing at Monash College.
Associate student Dr Vivien Forner’s PhD has improved the leadership capabilities of those who manage and supervise volunteers. Using the Self-Determination Theory, she tested the impact of a leadership development program that teaches leaders evidence-based approaches for supporting their volunteers and building a positive work climate within the brigade or unit.
Vivien is currently the Director of Research at the Institute of Management Psychology and a visiting research associate with the University of Wollongong.
Dr Saim Raza, an associate student, employed experimental, numerical and empirical methods to evaluate the seismic resilience of high-strength reinforced concrete columns constructed in high-rise buildings in Australia. His PhD project investigated collapse performance of limited ductile high-strength reinforced concrete columns through experimental testing under uniaxial, biaxial and triaxial seismic loading. The research outcomes are expected to have important implications for the earthquake safety of building stocks in Australia and globally.
Saim currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Empa.
Access Dr Saim Raza’s thesis here once the embargo is lifted.