The Mathematics of Bushfires - with Professor Jason Sharples

The Random Sample

It’s only been a few short years since we witnessed the power of bushfires here in Australia. The summer of 2019 and 2020 brought us Australia’s most catastrophic bushfire season ever. The 2019-20 bushfires destroyed more than 3,000 homes, killed more than 30 people, and torched tens of millions of hectares of land and forest. With the effects of climate change, it’s more important than ever that we understand how bushfires move and grow. Our guest for this episode is Jason Sharples, a Professor of Bushfire Dynamics at UNSW Canberra – and Director of the UNSW Bushfire Research Group. In this episode, we explore how Jason uses mathematics to model bushfires to better understand the complex interactions between bushfires, different terrains, and atmospheric conditions. Our host for this episode is Dr James Nichols, a mathematician and Lecturer at the Australian National University. Episode webpage link

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