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Doctor

Grant Williamson

Senior Research Fellow in Fire Ecology

Biological Sciences

Orcid identifier0000-0002-3469-7550
  • Senior Research Fellow in Fire Ecology
    Biological Sciences
  • +61 3 6226 1944 (Work)
  • +61 3 6226 2698 (Fax)
  • School of Natural Sciences, Biological Sciences, 217 Old Medical Building, Sandy Bay Campus, TAS

BIO

Dr Grant Williamson is a landscape ecologist and spatial scientist, whose previous research has included the impacts of mosquito control and climate change on mangrove communities, the climatic and human drivers of wildfires and fire danger across Australia, and the dynamics and human health impact of smoke wildfires and prescribed fires on human health. He completed his PhD at the University of Adelaide, and has worked in Darwin and Hobart, and is currently a senior research fellow and deputy directory of the UTAS Fire Centre .

Biography

Grant completed his doctorate at the University of Adelaide, studying the impact of fine-scaled rainfall regime across a climate gradient on adaption in native Australian grasses. He took up a post-doctoral position at Charles Darwin University in an ARC-linkage project studying the impact of mosquito control measures on mosquito-borne disease on humans, and the ecology of the mangrove swamps in which they breed.

Grant moved to the University of Tasmania in 2008 and took up a post-doctoral position on the ARC-linkage Biomass Smoke Project, continuing his interest in the nexus between human health and ecology, studying the impact of smoke pollution from landscape fire on human health, and developing predictive models for smoke exposure.

During his career at the University of Tasmania, Grant was part of the NERP Landscapes and Policy hub, researching landscape-scale human-ecological interactions in the Australian Alps and Tasmanian Midlands. Grant received a post-doctoral scholarship from the Centre for Air Quality & Health Research and Evaluation at the University of Sydney in 2014 to continue his work studying human exposure to smoke pollution from landscape fires. Grant led the fire regime work package for the the NSW Advanced Bushfire Research Hub, developing modelling tools to understand fire history impacts on vegetation health (FireTools), and how Australian fire regimes and vegetation will shift under climate change, and contributing significantly to the NSW Bushfire Inquiry following the 2019/20 Black Summer fires. He is currently work package co-leader for the NSW Bushfire and Natural Hazards Research Centre, and Editor-in-Chief of MDPI Fire.

Career summary

Qualifications
PhD Rainfall Regime and Optimal Root Distribution in the Australian Perennial Grass, Austrodanthonia caespitosa (Gaudich.) University of Adelaide Australia 2008
BSc (1st Class Hons) University of Adelaide Australia 2003

Memberships

Professional practice
2015 - : Centre for Air Quality & Health Research and Evaluation Executive Committee

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

  • Research Associate
    Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia1 May 2007 - 1 May 2009
  • Research Associate
    University of Tasmania, School of Biological Sciences, Hobart, Australia1 May 2009 - 1 May 2012
  • Research Fellow
    University of Tasmania, School of Biological Sciences, Hobart, Australia1 May 2012 - 1 May 2018
  • Senior Research Fellow
    University of Tasmania, School of Natural Sciences, Hobart, Australia1 May 2018 - present

DEGREES

  • BEnvSc
    University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia1 Jan 1998 - 31 Dec 2001
  • PhD
    University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia1 Jan 2002 - 31 Dec 2006

SCHOOL AND PORTFOLIO

  • School of Natural Sciences

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

  • 13 Climate Action
  • 15 Life on Land

AVAILABILITY

  • Media enquiries
  • Collaborative projects
  • Industry projects
  • Technical support

FIELD OF RESEARCH