Prior to joining FLARE, Hamish was Deputy Director of the Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires at the University of Wollongong and a Work Package leader in the Eureka Prize-winning NSW Bushfire Hub. He has also held adjunct positions at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University and the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of NSW, where he finished his PhD on climate change and bushfire in 2015. Hamish worked for almost ten years for the NSW environment department and is committed to public interest science and effective engagement with fire managers, policy makers and the general public. Hamish is interested in the drivers and impacts of bushfire, the effectiveness of our attempts to manage it, and the impact of climate change on both. Recent work has focused on optimisation of prescribed burning to balance multiple objectives and climate change impacts on global forest flammability. Hamish founded Science at the Local, a community science initiative in the Blue Mountains, and is creator of the Four Friends of Fire animation. Outside of work he can be found with his family, a book or a basketball.
