Congratulations to the inaugural winners of the International Journal of Wildland Fire Student Paper Prize! This new award celebrates outstanding student research that advanced wildland fire science in the Journal in 2025. 🔥🌲

The Best Student Paper joint winners are:

Kendra Fallon, a National Fire Ecologist at US Wildland Fire Service in Boise Idaho, for “A novel methodology to assess fuel treatment effectiveness: application to California’s forests”, 61% of treated areas modified fire behavior, with wildland fire/fuel removal treatments most effective. 🔗 doi.org/10.1071/WF24220

Kendra explains her paper: “Motivated by the needs of wildland fire practitioners, this research developed a novel methodology for evaluating fuel treatment effectiveness… I sought to produce research that bridged the gap between current operational challenges and applied fire science.”

Douglas Radford, post-doc researcher at the Adelaide University, for “Optimising fuel treatment plans to reduce burn probability: the importance of navigating context, priorities and trade-offs”. 🔗 doi.org/10.1071/WF25080

Douglas says: “My PhD project aimed to improve decision-support for land and fire management agencies… I continue to learn and am honoured with this award from the IJWF. Further research will make this work more reflective of the multi-dimensional nature of fire its roles and the values of our communities.”

The awards were judged by the Editors in Chief, on behalf of CSIRO Publishing and the International Association of Wildland Fire.

These papers show the next generation of fire scientists is already shaping how we plan and manage fuel treatments under a changing climate.

Well deserved! 🙌 Learn more: connectsci.au/wf/pages/awards