WEBINAR: Matching Models to Objectives: A showcase of four fire modeling approaches

Events & Activities
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Tuesday, December 2, 2025
12:00 PM PST

As wildfires grow in scale and complexity, the models we use to understand them must be equally diverse. From predicting fire spread in threatened communities to projecting century-long shifts in forest composition, fire science relies on computational approaches tailored to vastly different questions, scales, and stakeholders. On December 2nd, join four leading researchers as they pull back the curtain on their use of modeling frameworks—revealing not just what each approach can accomplish, but where its limits lie and why those boundaries matter. Through comparative case studies, this workshop will illuminate a fundamental truth of fire science: there is no single “best” model, only tools matched—or mismatched—to the problems we’re trying to solve. Whether you’re a researcher seeking methodological insights, a fire operations professional seeking decision-support tools, or a policymaker navigating risk and resilience strategies, this session offers a rare opportunity to understand how model choice shapes what we can know about fire’s past, present, and future.

REGISTER HERE

This workshop will bring together several researchers advancing fire science through diverse modeling approaches:

  • Dr. Michael Gollner – Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

    • Computational methods and constraints in simulating fire spread within the wildland–urban interface

  • Dr. Robert Scheller – Associate Dean for Research, North Carolina State University College of Natural Resources

    • Integrating social dynamics and climate change within the LANDIS-II modeling framework

  • Dr. Melissa Lucash – Research Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies and Geography, University of Oregon

    • Projecting climate-driven shifts in boreal forest structure and disturbance regimes

  • Dr. Alexandra D Syphard – Director of Science, Global Wildfire Collective and Senior Research Scientist, Conservation Biology Institute

    • Machine learning applications for mapping current and projected fire occurrence
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If you have follow up questions for our panelists, or suggestions for future webinar topics and speakers, please feel free to add them here.