Dr. Mike Flannigan is a BC Innovation Research Chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science, Faculty of Science as well as the Science Director of the Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science (Canada Wildfire) located at the University of Alberta. He holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Manitoba, an MS in Atmospheric Science from Colorado State University, and a Ph.D. in Plant Sciences from Cambridge University. Mike also completed the Meteorologist course MT35 with Environment Canada and worked as a meteorologist for a few years.  Mike then worked for the Canadian Forest Service as a physical scientist, research scientist, and senior research scientist before becoming a professor at the University of Alberta's Department of Renewable Resources until his recent departure.   Dr. Flannigan's primary research interests include fire and weather/climate interactions including the potential impact of climatic change, lightning-ignited forest fires, landscape fire modelling and interactions between vegetation, fire, and weather. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Wildland Fire (2002-2008) and has taken on leadership roles with the US National Assessment on Global Change, IPCC, IGBP Fire Fast Track Initiative and Global Change Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE) efforts on the global impacts of fire.