Recent highlights from the field 🌍
From Kenya to Guyana, it’s been great to see our centre members working with communities on fire management!
• In Taita Taveta County, Kenya, the development of an Integrated Fire Management Plan for coordinated and proactive wildfire management. Fantastic work led by Amos Chege Muthiuru 🔥
• In the South Rupununi, Guyana, fieldwork by Will Hayes and Jay Mistry is exploring Indigenous fire management practices and the vital role they play in shaping landscapes and livelihoods 🌱
Amazing work by everyone involved 👏
#Wildfire #FireManagement #Fieldwork
So many exciting publications from the centre recently in 2026!🔥
A quick recap of what’s been coming out: • Global patterns of small-scale cultural and livelihood fire use • Fire, agrarian change, and rural livelihoods • Wildfire spread prediction using generative AI • Fire governance, politics, and state influence in India • Peatland burning and climate pressures over the 20th century • The future of global wildfire governance and policy
Huge congratulations to all our centre members involved 👏
#Wildfire #FireScience #ClimateChange #Research #EnvironmentalScience
🔥 Wildfire in Savanna Ecosystems: Definitions and Diversity
Savannas are dynamic, fire-prone ecosystems shaped by climate, vegetation, and people. This webinar explores their diversity, the drivers of change, and the challenges of managing fire across these landscapes.
📅 April 28th 🕓 4:00 PM (UK time)
Great to see our centre represented by Amos Chege Muthiuru, alongside former member Dr. Abigail Croker.
Don’t miss it!
#Wildfire #Savanna #FireEcology #EnvironmentalScience
Leverhulme Wildfires is launching its second competition to showcase photographs and accompanying narratives that best communicate the research of Early Career Researchers (including PhD students) from around the world.
Eligible submissions must relate to wildfires in some way – for example, fire management, cultural burning, agricultural burning, wildfire drivers, or fire impacts.
Shortlisted entries will be exhibited at the Leverhulme Wildfires Summer Conference 2026 as well as displayed online. Winners will be announced during the conference.
See our conference website for more information.
Deadline: 1st July 2026
We have two full bursaries available to Early Career Researchers and PhD students from least developed, low & lower middle-income countries to attend and present in our summer conference in London. Find out more at our conference website. Deadline 20th April
🔥LEVERHULME WILDFIRES SUMMER CONFERENCE 2026
📆 21st and 22nd July at Imperial College London
🔊 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS now open - oral and poster presentations along with artwork exhibits.
🌿Six conference themes
⏱️Abstract deadline April 20th
📋Registration opening soon (registration free, except for conference dinner)
🌐Conference website:
/leverhulme-wildfires-summer-conference-2026/
🔊 Anncouments coming soon: ECR photography competition and international travel bursary
🔥
🌍🔥 PhD Opportunity in Wildfires & Climate Risk
Are you passionate about climate science, wildfires, and global environmental change?
The Technical University of Crete is offering a fully funded PhD position within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Network (CLIMES) focused on wildfires and climate risk across Europe and Africa.
🔬 What you’ll work on • Future wildfire risk under climate and land-use change • AI & machine learning for fire prediction • Dynamic vegetation and fire modelling • Impacts of wildfire emissions on public health
Location: Crete, Greece Start date: 1 September 2026 Deadline: 30 April 2026
Join an international research network tackling climate extremes and wildfire risk.
🔗 Apply with the link in bio
#PhDOpportunity #ClimateChange #Wildfires #EnvironmentalScience #MSCA
🔥 We’re Hiring! PDRA in EEO Fire Modelling 🌍
Join the School of Archaeology, Geography & Environmental Science at the University of Reading and contribute to cutting-edge wildfire research within the LEMONTREE project.
Position: PDRA in EEO Fire Modelling
Location: Whiteknights Campus, Reading, UK
Salary: £36,636 per annum
Contract: Full-time (35 hrs/week), fixed-term (15 months, potential extension)
Closing Date: 27 February 2026
Interview Date: 11 March 2026
We are seeking a researcher with a PhD in environmental science (or related field) and strong skills in wildfire modelling, R/Python programming, and statistical analysis to help develop next-generation models of wildfire-vegetation interactions.
📩 Informal enquiries: Prof. Sandy P. Harrison ([email protected])
Apply now and be part of research shaping the future of wildfire science.
#AcademicJobs #Postdoc #WildfireResearch #EnvironmentalScience #ResearchJobs
🔥 Why wildfires matter more than ever
Join us for the next CMCC Lecture on 13 May 2026 | 12:00 CEST as Sandy P. Harrison, a leading expert in wildfire science and climate-vegetation interactions, explores how wildfires shape ecosystems, biodiversity, and the global climate system.
Lecture Title -> Modelling wildfires: current understanding, new approaches, remaining challenges
Register now to join the discussion and engage with frontier research in Earth System science.
#CMCCLectures #Wildfires #ClimateScience #EarthSystem #ClimateChange
🔥 New research publication from Leverhulme Wildfire Centre members Kapil Yadav and Henry Thompson!
“Adding Lines Along Pixels: Remote Sensing, Traditional Knowledge and Human–Fire Interactions in Ethiopia and India”
This paper tackles a key challenge in fire research: how to bring remote sensing and Indigenous knowledge into meaningful conversation. Working on critical remote sensing and anthropology, the paper examines what satellite data shows about fire, whose knowledge is represented, and how this shapes fire governance. Rather than offering technical solutions, it raises broader questions about power, methods, and how knowledge about fire is produced and used.
🔗 Link in bio
Join us for our latest Fire in Practice webinar on Wed 3rd Dec 2-3pm GMT, with Danny Manning and Beth Rose Middleton Manning, on
Indigenous-led prescribed burning in northern California.
/e/fire-in-practice-indigenous-led-prescribed-burning-in-california-tickets-1970621192033
#Wildfires #indigenousknowledge
🌍 Leverhulme Wildfires Co-Hosts the Climate & Sustainability Youth Summit 2025 🔥
For the third year running, we’re proud to co-host the United Nations Association Climate & Sustainability Youth Summit.
📅 When: Saturday, 22 Nov 2025 | 13:30–18:15 📍 Where: Imperial College London, South Kensington, City & Guilds Building LT200 🔗 Register: click the link in bio
All are welcome, and we strongly encourage young people to join the conversation on climate and sustainability.
Speakers include:
- Prof Guillermo Rein, Keynote (Imperial Hazelab & Leverhulme Wildfires
- Dr Andrew Clelland, Co-host
- De Sina Mehrdad & our new PDRAs – on machine learning & wildfires
- UNA Youth Council members
- Dr Iruthisham Adam, High Commissioner of the Maldives in London
- Pil Krogh Thygesen, Minister Counsellor for Energy, Royal Danish Embassy
- Dr Axel Laval, Engineering Manager, The Crown Estate
- Dr Jane Collins, Ocean Governance, Commonwealth Secretariat
Join us for an afternoon of discussion, ideas, and collaboration on climate action, sustainability, and wildfire research.
#ClimateAction #YouthSummit #Sustainability #WildfireResearch #LeverhulmeWildfires #ClimateChange #UNA
