IAWF Awards Scholarships

             

The IAWF recently awarded two scholarships in wildland fire for students providing high-quality research of relevance to the international fire management community.

Kelsy Gibos, a masters in fire science student at the University of Toronto, was awarded the Masters Scholarship. Working with an industrial partner, she is investigating the influence of solar radiation on the moisture content and ignitability of fine forest fuels. Because her previous experience involves work with fire agencies across Canada and overseas in Australia and New Zealand, her study provides an important link between academic endeavors and their applications at the fireground level.

The Doctoral Scholarship was awarded to Victoria Balfour, a Ph.D. student at the University of Montana, where her research concentrates on the role of wildfire ash in understanding the varied hydrologic responses following wildfires. Through unique and innovative methodologies, she has aided in defining the term wildfire ash, more specifically with respect to hydrologic characteristics. Balfour has been invited to continue her research internationally by collaborating with leading scientists in Spain and Wales. While in Europe, she will be comparing the results from her North American samples with data from wildfires in Australia and Spain to assess ecosystem differences.