University of Tasmania: BSc Hons 1981, PhD 1985, DSc 2001
Professor Bowman is a Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science at the University of Tasmania. He is one of 16 Australian Laureate Fellows awarded in 2022 and the third University of Tasmania academic in history to receive this honour.
The award follows a recent international review of fire management research that identified Professor Bowman as the most cited author globally in the field of fire management.
He will receive research funding of $3,360,986 over five years to conduct pioneering work to help tackle urgent questions: in a warming world, how do we coexist with fire? In landscapes more likely to burn, how do we build safer, more resilient communities?
Professor Bowman’s Fellowship will focus on the challenge of making sustainable bushfire management a reality by bringing together social, economic and biophysical lines of research.
He will collaborate with government at all levels, Aboriginal fire managers, and leading fire scientists nationally and internationally.
“We face a climate emergency and better management of bushfires is vital to how we adapt in the Australia of the future.
“This research will be multidisciplinary and deeply consultative with the aim of achieving public education and fire-management programs that will positively transform the relationship Australians have with bushfire prone landscapes,” Professor Bowman said.
Professor Bowman’s Fellowship project responds to the Bushfire Royal Commission into the disastrous Black Summer Bushfires of 2019–20. The Royal Commission uncovered a constellation of complex social, administrative, and environmental factors that contributed to their impact.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania, Professor Rufus Black, congratulated Professor Bowman.
“We warmly congratulate Professor Bowman and celebrate the contribution his work at the University of Tasmania is making to tackling the great sustainability challenges of our time.
“The climate emergency we are living in sees world bushfires pose ever greater threats to nature and humanity. Drawing our sources from indigenous knowledge about fire management to cutting edge fire analysis, David is helping us to better meet those threats, which in a place like Tasmania affect us all.”
The Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme supports world-class researchers to conduct research in Australia, forge strong links across the local and international research communities, and train and mentor early-career researchers.
Here, David answers some questions for our alumni:
Have you always had a fascination with bushfire, or has this research interest grown as the risk of severe fires has increased around Australia?
I have been studying fire ecology for over 40 years, but what was once a niche conservation issue and curiosity driven quest to understand landscape, fire has grown into a hugely important topic globally.There is a global fire crisis and it is escalating.
Do you have key information that you would like homeowners/communities to think about in terms of fire preparedness?
There is a lot of information available, such as the Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) website, to get homes and livelihoods to a basic level of fire preparedness. Most people are residing in homes that are not bushfire compliant; this is a big problem. Compliance is necessary, but no longer sufficient. We need ‘compliance plus’, as much deeper adaptation is required to survive the coming fires.
Do you feel optimistic that through research we can better manage our relationship with fire, and act on climate change, one of the key drivers of our increased fire risk?
We are on a huge adaptation pathway and there are many very serious challenges ahead; research is critical to accelerate the adaptation process. Lives and livelihoods are in serious danger if we don’t undertake research to develop the critical ‘know how’ to adapt to bushfires, and to drive innovation and invention with ‘know why’ or curiosity driven research. Getting communities and societies in a better position to adapt to the changing risk profile of bushfires motivates my research. In my career, fire disaster has changed from an uncommon natural hazard to a very real danger that lurks in every coming summer. This is serious business.
For more on Professor Bowman, see his University of Tasmania staff profile.
Image: Professor David Bowman