Australia: Canadian Fire Researcher Recipient of 1991 J.W.Gottstein Memorial Trust Fund Fellowship (IFFN No. 5 – June 1991)
Canadian Fire ResearcherRecipient of
1991 J.W.Gottstein Memorial Trust Fund Fellowship
(IFFN No. 5 – June 1991, p. 3)
The chairman of the Joseph William Gottstein Memorial Trust Fund announced recently that one of the three Trust’s 1991 fellowships has been awarded to Martin E.Alexander, a forest fire researcher from Canada.
Mr. Alexander is a Visiting Fire Researcher, Bushfire Research Unit, CSIRO Division of Forestry, and Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Forestry, Australian National University, located in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. He is on professional development/educational leave from Forestry Canada. His award will enable him to travel to Western Australia during the 1991 fire season to conduct, in conjunction with the Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management, a number of experimental fires designed to simulate intermittent crowning activity associated with wildfires. The study will form a vital part of Mr. Alexander’s Ph.D. thesis research dealing with fire behaviour in exotic pine plantations, which is ultimately aimed at reducing the economic losses and impacts from wildfires in these man-made forests. The information gained should help to evaluate existing preparedness guidelines for initial attack and in analyzing fuel management activities, including the development of objective criteria for the creation of so-called “crown fire-free zones”. Mr. Alexander’s 19 years of professional and technical experience in forest fire research and management with Forestry Canada and USDA Forest Service will be invaluable in the conduct of this project which could be immense benefit to Australian forest managers.
The J.W. Gottstein Memorial Trust Fund was established in 1971 to perpetuate the name of an outstanding forest products CSIRO research scientist tragically killed in a tree felling operation in New Guinea. The purpose of the fund, financed by industry donations, is to create opportunities for selected persons to acquire knowledge which will promote the interests of Australian industries which use forest products for the production of sawn timber, plywood, composite wood, pulp and paper and similar derived products. Further information may be obtained by contacting:
Mr.W.G. Keating
Secretary/Project Officer
J.W.Gottstein Memorial Trust Fund
P.O. Box 56
AUS-HIGHETT, Victoria 319O
