Dr Thomas Smith
LONDON
Associate Professor in Environmental Geography at the Department of Geography & Environment, London School of Economics.
Dr Thomas Smith is a geographer and environmental scientist, specialising in interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the role of wildfires in the Earth system. Tom enjoys highly collaborative research focusing on wildland smoke emissions from fires in savannas and tropical peatlands, as well as at home in the UK. He is particularly interested in complex interactions between agricultural practices, land degradation, fire emissions characteristics and their associated impacts.
Tom’s field experience includes expeditions to the boreal forest of Canada, the savanna and temperate forests of Australia, and the tropical peatlands of Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. Part of this work involves identifying ‘active fires’ using satellites and ground observations before deploying measurements on the ground. His expeditions have been funded by the Royal Geographical Society and the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council.
Closer to home, Tom has been interested in the impacts of UK wildfires in forests, moorlands and heathlands. He currently works with a consortium of UK-based academics and practitioners on developing a ‘wildfire danger rating system’ for UK ecosystems. At LSE he teaches on a number of environmental change and climate change courses, focussing on innovative technology-enhanced experiential learning and field-based education in geography.