As Canada prepares for another potentially devastating wildfire season Western University has the following experts available to media for comment. Experts are available on the health effects of wildfire smoke, climate change’s role in wildfires, the ecological impacts of wildfires, and wildfire response and mitigation:
Ecological impacts of wildfires
Robert Buchkowski
Assistant Professor, Biology
Areas of expertise: Wildfire and ecosystem management, cumulative effects of fire on ecosystems, global change biology, ecosystem modelling, conservation biology.
Keith Hobson
Professor, Biology
Areas of expertise: Ecological benefits of wildfires, post fire impacts to bird communities, biological conservation.
Nicole Redvers
Associate Professor, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western Research Chair and Director of Indigenous Planetary Health
Areas of expertise: Indigenous health, planetary health, impact of forest fires in Indigenous communities.
Ben Rubin
Assistant Professor, Biology
Areas of expertise: Forest ecology and the impacts of wildfires, forest health monitoring, statistical analysis.
Health effects of wildfire smoke
Dr. Anurag Bhalla
Assistant Professor, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Areas of expertise: Effect of wildfire smoke on asthma, COPD, bronchiectasis, airway infections.
Dr. Anna Gunz
Associate Professor, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry
Areas of expertise: Health effects of wildfire smoke, health monitoring of climate change, climate change as a health crisis.
Climate change and wildfires
Gordon McBean
Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography and Environment
Areas of expertise: Climate change and wildfires, climate change science and policy, natural hazards-prediction and mitigation, weather and environmental prediction systems.
Katrina Moser
Associate Professor, Chair, Department of Geography and Environment
Areas of expertise: Role of climate change and wildfires, drought, climate warming impact on water resources, environmental change in the Canadian Rockies.
Wildfire response and mitigation
Paul Kovacs
Executive Director, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
Areas of expertise: Wildfire-resilient construction, disaster safety and economic policy, disaster resilience and adaptation.
Glenn McGillivray
Managing Director, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction
Areas of expertise: Wildfire mitigation, property insurance and risk, climate change adaption, disaster resilience.
Maged Youseff
Professor, Engineering
Areas of expertise: Structural fire engineering, sustainable structures and extreme events, effects of wildfires on structures, fire resiliency.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
For Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry: Cynthia Fazio, Media Relations Officer, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, 226.376.4924 (mobile), cynthia.fazio@uwo.ca
For all other departments: Justin Zadorsky, Media Relations Officer, Western University, 226.377.1673 (mobile), jzadorsk@uwo.ca
