Professor Claire Belcher
Professor and Chair in Wildland Fire
C.Belcher@exeter.ac.uk
6474
Laver Building 706
Laver Building, University of Exeter, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QE, UK
Overview
Claire is an Earth scientist specialising in the study of natural fires in the Earth system. Her research seeks to understand the impact of fires on ecosystems and the longer-term functioning of our planet. Claire is PI of the wildFIRE Lab a European Research Council Funded Experimental wildFIRE Laboratory see https://wildfire-lab.com/ The wildFIRE Lab teams works across the fire sciences building new understanding of the impacts of fire behaviour on ecosystems via new quantitative fire severity tools, through to understanding how variations in flammability across scales influences fire adaptations and evolutionary innovations in plants and the ability of wildfires to influence feedbacks to Earth system processes.
Claire teaches a 3rd year module entitle 'Fire Ecology and Fire Management'
Her personal wildFIRE Lab web pages are kept up to date so please refer to https://wildfire-lab.com/ for more detailed information on the teams research and for our most up-to-date Publication List see https://wildfire-lab.com/publications-2/ (because symplectic sometimes appears to take a while to add publications to this website!)
Broad Research Specialisms:
Fire and the Earth System
Fire Behaviour
Fire Severity
Qualifications
PhD, Geology, Royal Holloway University of London, U.K. 2005
MSc, Micropalaeontology, University College London, U.K. 2001
BSc, Geology, Royal Holloway University of London, U.K. 2000
Career
Jan 2018 | Professor and Chair in Wildland Fire, Dept. Geography U. Exeter
March 2015 | Associate Professor, Dept. Geography U. Exeter
Jan 2012 | Senior Lecturer Dept. Geography U. Exeter
Jan. 2011 – July 2011 | Visiting Lecturer Botany and Plant Science, NUI Galway
Oct. 2010 – Sept. 2012 | Marie Curie Experienced Research Fellow, School of Geosciences and BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering, The University of Edinburgh and transferred to the University of Exeter (on being offered a permanent position).
July 2007 – Sept. 2010 | Marie Curie Experienced Research Fellow, Program for Experimental Atmospheres and Climate, University College Dublin.
Links
Research
Research interests
The research of the wildFIRE Lab focuses on combining the evolutionary history of our planet with modern fire science in order to understand the role that wildfires play in balancing the processes that make Earth habitable. I am an experimental scientist and am the founder and director of the U. Exeter wildFIRE Lab www.wildfire-lab.com
The wildFIRE Lab comprises equipment that is typically used in fire safety engineering in the design of materials used for construction and the aviation industry that I have adapted for the study of wildfires. Together the wildFIRE Lab team aims to revolutionise our ability to estimate the flammability of past and present ecosystems, toward building an understanding of how evolutionary innovations in plants link to changes in fire, shaping the life that we see on our planet today.
Research projects
SASSO - Soot Aerodynamic Size Selection for Optical Properties
ImpCHAR - characterising the energy flux from small impact cratering processes
Wildfire Risk and Fire Danger - how well do fire danger ratings compare with fire occurrence?
CHAROFLUX - A new quantitive fire-severity metric
JET - Jurassic Earth System and Timescale
ECOFLAM - The Impact of Plant Evolution on Fire Behaviour in Ancient Ecosystems
Project PyroMap - Palaeofire Danger Rating Maps and Earth's Last Major Global Warming Event
Project FILE – Fire Interactions with Life on Earth
Smouldering Earth – smouldering fires in peatland ecosystems.
Grants:
SASSO - NERC £779,234 (Co-I)
ImpCHAR - EU, MsC £195,500 (Co-I)
JET - NERC £1,802,014 plus $1,500,000 (Co-I)
ECOFLAM (2013-2018) - The Impact of Plant Evolution on Fire Behaviour in Ancient Ecosystems. European Research Council (ERC) Starter Grant (1,519,640 euro)(PI)
Project PyroMap (2012-2016) - Palaeofire Danger Rating Maps and Earth's Last Major Global Warming Event. EU Marie Curie CIG FP7 (~ 143,000 euros)(PI)
Smouldering Earth (2011-2015) - UCD Earth Systems Institute PRTLI – (~130,000 Euro)(Co-I)
Project FILE (2010-2012) - Fire Interactions with Life on Earth. EU Marie Curie FP7 (~ 173,000 euros)(PI)
Research grants
- 2013 ERC Starter Grant
ERC Starter Grant - ECOFLAM. The Impact of Plant Evolution on Fire Behaviour in Ancient Ecosystems
Links
Publications
Books
Journal articles
Chapters
Conferences
External Engagement and Impact
Awards/Honorary fellowships
Awards:
Distinguished Paper in Fire Research Award 2013 – 34th International Symposium on Combustion. The Combustion Institute for Hadden, R.M., Rein, G., Belcher, C.M. (2013). PROCI, 34 (2), 2547-2553.
EU Marie Curie Prize 2012 in Communicating Science – For science communication under FP6 and FP7.
Atmospheric Science Librarians International Choice Award - for “The Future of the World’s Climate” (A. Henderson-Sellers and K. McGuffie Eds).
“Best Paper for 2011” - awarded by the editors and associate editors of PALAIOS for Bacon, K.L., Belcher, C.M., Hesselbo, S.P. and McElwain, J.C. (2011) PALAIOS 24 461–469
Shortlisted Scientist Lloyds Science of Risk Competition 2010 – “Earth’s Fiery Future”
UCD Images of Research Competition 2008 - Judges Mention for “Thermal Image of Burning Sphagnum Moss”
Palaeontological Association President’s Prize - Awarded for best oral presentation by a member of the association (aged under 30). The Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Lille, 2004.
Publication Award - For doctoral achievement; best publication 2003 (Belcher et al., 2003), Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL).
The Tennant Medal - For highest exam scores by a final year geology B.Sc. student 2000, RHUL.
Kate and Harry Harper Chelsea Prize - For best 2nd year geology student 1999, RHUL.
Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland Student Award Winner - Highest Exam Scores 1999.
Fellowships:
Fellow of the Linnaean Society (FLS)
Current/ Recent Membership of editorial boards and conference organization
Guest Associate Chief Editor, Frontiers in Functional Plant Ecology (2014)
Editorial Board Member - Dataset Papers in Geosciences http://www.datasets.com/journals/geosciences/editors/geology/
Organiser Royal Society Discussion Meeting and Kavli Satellite Meeting for “The Interaction of Fire and Mankind” 14-17th September 2015 Prof. Scott, Prof. Chaloner (FRS) Dr Belcher and Dr Roos.
Administrative Responsibiities
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Panel and Jury member for the EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions prizes
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Geography Athena Swan Working Group, University of Exeter; September 2013-2015
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Geography Athena Swan Core Group, University of Exeter; September 2014-2015
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Geography Athena Swan Drafting Group, Silver Application, University of Exeter; September 2013-2014.
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Research Group Leader for Earth System Science, University of Exeter; April 2014- September 2015
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Module co-ordinator GEO3226 Co-Evolution of Life and the Planet, University of Exeter. September 2012-2014
Recent Notable Invited Presentations
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Lecture “Ada Lovelace” talk, Norman Lockyer Observatory, Sidmouth Science Festival, Sidmouth October 2014
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Invited talk Technical Sessions Geological Society of America Annual Meeting 2014, Vancouver
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Keynote Pardee Symposia Geological Society of America Annual Meeting 2014, Vancouver
See http://community.geosociety.org/gsa2014/science/sessions/pardee
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TEDx Talk Ideas without Frontiers 28th March 2014 Northcott Theatre, Exeter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQ94M_Cxiak
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Lecture Devonshire Association Geology Section – Teignmouth 15th March 2014.
Teaching
Current undergraduate courses:GEO 3241 - Fire Ecology and Fire Management
Previous Undergraduate courses taught:
GEO 1207 Earth Systems
GEO 2309 Physical Geography Practice
GEO 2223 World of Fire and Ice
GEO 3226 Co-Evolution of Life and the Planet
Modules
2023/24
Supervision / Group
Postdoctoral researchers
- Mark Grosvenor ERC Research Technician
- Victoria Hudspith ERC Research Fellow
Postgraduate researchers
- Sarah Baker PhD
- Alastair Crawford PhD
- Robyn Pointer PhD
- Nicholas Walding PhD
Alumni
- Stacey New MRes