What: Leverhulme Wildfires Spring Symposium 2025
When: Tues 27th and Wed 28th May 2025
Where: University of Reading, Meadow Suite, Park House. Online (MS Teams) for those who cannot attend in person (overseas, caring duties, health reasons etc).
Aim: Sharing and celebrating the Centre’s research, gaining feedback, fostering collaborations and new ideas, building community
Who: Open to all Centre members (in its broadest sense) – including academic staff, technical or PS staff, Early Career Researchers (including those with other sources of funding), Advisory Board members, and those affiliated or who have close collaboration with us who would like to attend.
Format: It will consist of a combination of flash talks by our Early Career Researchers, Panel Q&A, discussion/activities, posters and networking; image/photo competition
Timings Tues 27th: 10:30-17:10 followed by nature walk and dinner, and Wed 28th: 10:30-16:00, but this will be confirmed closer to the time (particularly end times). The later start time should allow for off peak (09:30) travel from London.
Social: Potentially, a dinner in Reading might be organised for those who wish to attend on the Tues evening, though this is to be confirmed
Staying in Reading: whilst it is very possible to do day trips for this event, and we have a later start time to accommodate this, you can choose to stay overnight in Reading using your own travel/consumables budget and claim this back on expenses (or book via your institution’s travel agent if that’s the requirement).
PROGRAMME
DAY 1
10:30-11:00 Coffee/ Arrive (and poster set-up)
11:00-11:10 Welcome
11:10-12:00🔥 Session 1 – Fires in Africa
| Angel Goldsmith (KCL) | Mobilizing Social Capital for Fire Risk Reduction at South Africa’s Wildland-Urban Interface |
| Michaela Flegrova (ICL) | Evaluating the surface shortwave radiative impact of African landscape fires |
| Rahina Sidiki Alare (KCL) [online] | Between Land and Flame: The Politics of Tenure in Fire Management |
| Chris Ho (ICL) | Sociodemographic profile of populations exposed to fire air pollution in Africa |
| Amos Muthiuru [online] (KCL) | Proximity to anthropogenic activities and weather patterns determine protected area’s burnt area trends and fire susceptibility |
| PANEL DISCUSSION 1 | Chaired by Mark Grosvenor and Kapil Yadav |
12:00-13:00 🔥 Session 2 – Fires in Peatlands and Uplands
| Will Hayes (RHUL) | Balancing Policy, Vegetation and Fire Risk in Ireland’s Uplands |
| Luke Richardson-Foulger (KCL) | Peat and Soil Fire Emissions and Factors Which Affect Them |
| Dimitra Tarasi (TUC) | Simulating peat ignition probability: New insights from experimental data |
| Will Maslanka (KCL) | Direct Estimation of Emissions from High Latitude Fires via the FREM Approach |
| Cathy Smith (RHUL) | Challenges to controlled fire use by crofters in the Scottish Highlands and Islands |
| Hafizha Mulyasih (ICL) | Laboratory Investigation of Smouldering Combustion of Boreal Peat |
| PANEL DISCUSSION 2 | Chaired by Farrer Owsley-Brown and Dharma Sapkota |
13:00-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:00 🔥Session 3 – ACTIVITY / DISCUSSION SESSION – Climate Adaptation
15:00-15:40 🔥Session 4 – Fire Management and Policy
| Abdullah Rehman (KCL) | Current approaches and limitations in Wildland-Urban Interface fire spread modelling |
| Dharma Sapkota (ICL) | Modelling fire management interventions |
| Ol Perkins (KCL) | Evaluating climate adaptation options for fire |
| Ivan Villaverde Canosa [online] (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) | Framing fire in international policy documents |
| PANEL DISCUSSION 4 | Chaired by Cathy Smith and Will Maslanka |
15:40-16:20 Coffee and Posters
16:20-17:10 🔥 Session 5 – Fires in the Americas
| Alex Mines (ICL) | Designing accessible, equitable, and financially sustainable wildfire insurance for North American WUIs |
| Alin Iulian Rosu (TUC) | Large-scale impacts of the 2023 Canadian wildfires on the Northern Hemisphere atmosphere |
| Mia Griffin (ICL) | Modelling Hurricane Disturbances on Fire-Vegetation Relationships: A Landscape Approach to Wildfire Management in Central Belize |
| Maxmilian Stiefel [online, USA] (KCL) | The Contextual Determinants of Community Wildfire Policy Design in the United States |
| Michel Valette [online] (ICL) | Using mixed-methods research to support adaptive management to wildfires – insights from the Brazilian Amazon |
| PANEL DISCUSSION 5 | Chaired by Will Hayes and David Sandoval Calle |
17:10-17:30 Short break
17:30-19:00 NATURE WALK 🐦 – led by Will Hayes
19:00: Dinner – Blandfords Room, Park House (University of Reading, next to conference venue)
DAY 2
10:30-11:00 Coffee/ Arrive
11:00-12:10 🔥Session 6 – Fire-Climate Feedback
| Mengmeng Liu (Reading) | An analysis of the fire feedback using palaeodata |
| Rafaila-Nikola Mourgela (TUC) | Fast responses of the climate system in the presence of wildfire emissions: pre-industrial to present-day analysis |
| Chrysoula Vamvakaki and Konstantina Paraskevopoulou (TUC) | Impacts of wildfires on the global atmosphere: multi-year simulations using a range of emissions datasets |
| Hamed Shariatmadar (KCL) | The Quantification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Using Airborne and Ground-Based Platforms |
| Zitong Li (KCL) | Use of AI and Earth Observation in Quantifying Plume of Emissions from Landscape Fires |
| Eirini Boleti [online] (TUC) | Wildfire emissions impact on clouds and radiative effects between present day and preindustrial times. |
| Farrer Owsley-Brown [online] (KCL) | FIDEX Airborne Campaign: Validation of the Sentinel-3 Fire Radiative Power Product |
| PANEL DISCUSSION 6 | Chaired by Olivia Haas and Matt Kasoar |
12:10-13:10 🔥Session 7 – Fires in Asia and Europe
| Mark Grosvenor (KCL) | SE Asia Air Quality from small sensors |
| Minxue Tang (ICL) | Modelling Wildfire Dynamics and GPP in SE Asia: Bridging Simulations with Observations |
| Toby Wainwright (KCL) | Limitations of Air Quality Modelling in Relation to Fires in Northern Southeast Asia |
| Kapil Yadav (RHUL) | The Fiction of Disaster: State-making and Forest Fires |
| Monika Moreu Vicente (KCL) | Planning for Future fire regimes in Spain |
| Sophy Greenhalgh [online] (ICL) | Wildfire Risk to the UK – a baseline assessment of resilience |
| PANEL DISCUSSION 7 | Chaired by José Gomez-Dans and Afi Mulyasih |
13:10-14:00 Lunch
14:00-14:30 🔥Session 8 – ACTIVITY / DISCUSSION SESSION
14:30 – 15:30 🔥 Session 9 – Fire Regimes and Dynamics
| Jose Gómez-Dans (KCL) | Global trends in fire radiative power |
| Olivia Haas (Reading) | An eco-evolutionary approach to wildfires |
| Matt Kasoar (ICL) | Something, Something, Something, Modelling |
| Yicheng Shen (Reading) | How do flammability plant traits relate to fire properties? |
| Eleni Dovrou (TUC) | Switching regimes in fire plumes: regional implications |
| Connor McKenzie (Reading) | A Comparative Study of Global Fire Atlas and Globfire Datasets |
| PANEL DISCUSSION 8 | Chaired by Hamed Shariatmadar and Ol Perkins |
15:30-15:40 Final Words
15:40-16:00 Coffee and Networking
16:00 Symposium Close
Thank you to Sophia Cain and Kapil Yadav for helping with the organizing
