Speakers
Carmen Lawrence
Featured Presenter from University of WA
Carmen Lawrence served at both State and Federal levels of Parliament for 21 years. She was the first woman Premier and Treasurer of a State government and, later, was the Federal Minister for Health and Human Services and Minister assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women. She retired from politics in 2007. She is now Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Change in the School of Psychology at the University of Western Australia, and is a researcher for the Bushfire CRC. [Click on the orange link above to read Dr Lawrence's full bio]
Fiona Wood
Featured Presenter from Royal Perth Hospital
Professor Fiona Wood is the Director of the WA Burns Service of Western Australia and a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Princess Margaret Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital. Her research as Chairperson through the Burn Injury Research Unit UWA and the McComb Foundation is focused on scarless healing. She has been the recipient of the 2003 Australian Medical Association ‘Contribution to Medicine’ Award and an Order of Australia Medal for her work with Bali bombing victims. [Click on the orange link above to read Prof. Woods' full bio]
Paul Gardner-Stephen
Featured Presenter from Flinders University
Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen is the founder of the Serval Project, where he is creating open-source software for mobile phones that allows them to communicate without reliance on infrastructure. He has worked as a network administrator at Flinders University while pursuing bachelor and doctoral degrees in computer science and computer systems engineering, before creating the world’s first fully functional shoe phone. [Click on the orange link above to read Dr Gardner-Stephen's full bio]
James Schwartz
Featured Presenter from Arlington County Fire Department
James Schwartz is the Chief of the Arlington County Fire Department in Arlington, Virginia. Chief Schwartz has been with Arlington Fire for 27 years and was appointed Chief in June 2004. Prior to his appointment he served in a variety of fire department positions including Assistant Chief for Operations, responsible for all response-related activities, including fire, EMS, hazardous materials and technical rescue response, incident management and operational training. [Click on the orange link above to read Chief Schwartz's full bio]
Peter Kenyon
Featured Presenter from Bank of I.D.E.A.S.
Peter Kenyon is a social capitalist and community enthusiast. Over the last two decades he has worked with over 1,000 communities throughout Australia and overseas seeking to facilitate fresh and creative ways that stimulate community and economic renewal. He is motivated by the desire to create healthy, caring, inclusive, sustainable and enterprising communities and local economies. [Click on the orange link above to read Peter's full bio]
Nick Easy
Featured Presenter from Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board
Nick Easy is the Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board (MFB). Prior to joining the MFB, Nick worked at Port of Melbourne Corporation (PoMC) for over 10 years, most of which were in senior executive management positions. [Click on the orange link above the read Nick's full bio]
Jean Palutikof
Featured Presenter from National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Griffith University
Professor Jean Palutikof is Director of the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility at Griffith University. She took up the role in October 2008, having previously managed the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report for Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), while based at the UK Met Office. [Click on the orange link above to read Prof. Palutikof's full bio]
Robyn Owens
Featured Presenter from The University of Western Australia
Professor Robyn Owens is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at The University of Western Australia. She is responsible for research policy development and leadership of the University's research activities, postgraduate education, industry liaison, intellectual property and commercialisation. Professor Robyn Owens has a BSc (Hons) from UWA and a MSc and a DPhil from Oxford, all in Mathematics. She worked at l'Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, continuing research in mathematical analysis before returning to UWA to work as a research mathematician. [Click on the orange link above to read Prof. Owen's full bio]
Stephen Dovers
Featured Presenter from the Fenner School of Environment and Society
Professor Stephen Dovers is Director of the Fenner School of Environment and Society, and a project leader in the Bushfire CRC. His research and teaching span the policy and institutional dimensions of environment and natural resources, climate adaptation, and disasters. He has supervised over 50 completed and current PhD students, and published over 200 research works in these areas, including the co-authored book Handbook of Emergency and Disaster Policies and Institutions. [Click on the orange link above to read Prof. Dovers' full bio]
John Handmer
Featured Presenter from RMIT’s Centre for Risk and Community Safety and Human Security Program
Professor John Handmer leads RMIT’s Centre for Risk and Community Safety and its Human Security Program, in the School of Mathematics and Geospatial Science. He is also Convener of the NCCARF Emergency Management Network, Principle Scientific Advisor for the Bushfire CRC, and a convenor for the IPCC report on extremes and managing disasters. [Click on the orange link above to read Prof. Handmer's full bio]
Lyn Beazley
Featured Presenter: Chief Scientist of Western Australia
Professor Lyn Beazley was appointed Chief Scientist of Western Australia in 2006. Lyn was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia in January 2009 and became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering later that year. She is a member of the new Technology and Industry Advisory Council (TIAC) to the Western Australian Government. In March 2011 she was inducted into the inaugural Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame. [Click on the orange link above to read Prof. Beazley's full bio]
Neil Burrows
Featured Presenter from WA Department of Environment and Conservation
After graduating as a Forester from the Australian National University, Dr Burrows has worked as an applied bushfire scientist and a science manager with the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and its predecessors for 35 years. His research focussed on fire behaviour and fire ecology in a range of ecosystems including native forests, woodlands and softwood plantations in south-west Western Australia and spinifex grasslands in the Western Desert, resulting in more than 80 published papers. [Click on the orange link above to read Dr Burrows' full bio]
Michael Hallowes
Featured Presenter: Emergency Services Commissioner
Michael Hallowes was appointed Emergency Services Commissioner in September 2011 following 30 years in UK policing. He served for 26 years with the Metropolitan Police, the last 15 as a Scotland Yard detective, and then from 2007 in senior positions in the National Policing Improvement Agency, including Operational Lead at the Police Staff College, Bramshill. [Click on the orange link above to read Commissioner Hallowes full bio]