Fire-chaser wins national prize

Research into fighting fires with science has helped a University of Queensland student net $5000 in a national competition in the lead-up to World Science Festival Brisbane.

The Co-operative Research Centres Association announced at a Brisbane function last night (8 March) that researcher Nicholas McCarthy had won the Science Business Match Up Challenge with his project: Breathing Fire: Tracking the Meteorology of Large Bushfires. 

Mr McCarthy, of UQ’s School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, is a PhD student in the Climate Research Group aiming to fight fires with science to protect lives and property.

Working closely with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Mr McCarthy studies convective plumes – the intense columns of heat above bushfires.

“The study of bushfire plumes is critical to fire spread models and has direct impacts on operational bushfire management,” he said.

“Recent research conducted by the Bureau of Meteorology is examining lofting and spreading of embers in bushfire plumes.

“This work in Australia requires robust validation through safe field observation.”

Mr McCarthy is a “fire-chaser”, on standby for extreme bushfires along the Australian east coast and works closely with bushfire management agencies around the country.

He uses UQ’s fully portable meteorological observation platform, known as the UQ XPOL, to make field observations.

The XPOL is a 4WD vehicle equipped with a portable Doppler radar, unmanned aerial vehicles, weather balloons, automatic weather stations and other observation equipment.

Mr McCarthy’s research is supervised by Climatology Professor Hamish McGowan, UQ civil engineer Dr Adrien Guyot and Bureau of Meteorology staff Claire Yeo and Dr Andrew Dowdy, and has attracted UQ Collaborative Industry Engagement funding. 

He also works with the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, NSW Rural Fire Service, the Country Fire Authority and the ACT Emergency Services Agency

As a result of his win, Mr McCarthy now has an extra $5000 for his study, which will be used to offset field costs.

Watch a time lapse video of the intense Mt Bolton bushfire in Victoria, Australia, in February 2016, captured by Mr McCarthy with the permission of the Country Fire Authority.

You can follow Mr McCarthy’s research and field observations on Twitter at @mccarthy_nfm.

Media: Nick McCarthy, nicholas.mccarthy@uqconnect.edu.au, +61 457 475 503.