Mike Flannigan is a Professor of Wildland Fire with the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta and the director of the Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science (a three way partnership with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, Natural Resources Canada and the University of Alberta). Dr. Flannigan's primary research interests include fire and weather/climate interactions including the potential impact of climatic change, lightning-ignited forest fires and landscape fire modelling. He has been studying wildland fire for over 40 years and has published over 200 papers.