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We are now accepting proposals for presentations and special sessions for the 4th International Smoke Symposium (ISS4). ISS4 aims to address a variety of wildland smoke related issues, through topics that relate to methods for tracking, modeling and inventory, social implications, health implications for the public and firefighter communities, communication, current and future research needs, and practical field management and response techniques for smoke.

The submission deadline has been extended to Wednesday November 26, 2025.

Call for Presentation Proposals

Call for Special Session Proposals

The purpose of this symposium is to once again convene air quality, fire professionals, health scientists, and smoke specialists from the research community, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), local/state/federal government agencies and tribes to discuss the state-of-the-science and state-of-the-applied-science for smoke management and addressing the air quality and public health impacts of wildland fire smoke.

Presentations will be live-streamed, professionally videotaped, and made available for at least one year. Past symposiums have set a very high standard for successful and fully interactive virtual capability.  Our goal is that, in addition to providing training and education, ISS4 will enable a global conversation that facilitates knowledge sharing among the variety of experts in geographical, topical, and practice-specific facets of wildland fire smoke.

We have identified the following themes - please select the one that most closely describes your proposal.

Smoke Management and Communication

  • Smoke exposure and mitigation tools (indoor/outdoor, WUI, Rx fire, wildfire)
  • Prescribed Burn Associations, Prescribed Fire Councils, engagement and awareness
  • Smoke ready communities: preparedness, communication, and warnings
  • Global fire smoke issues
  • Smoke Management Programs (SMP)
  • Basic Smoke Management Practices (BSMP)

Regulatory

  • Burn permits
  • Exceptional Events Rule and demonstrations
  • Emissions Inventories (vertical smoke allocation,  emissions factors, and fuels)
  • Prescribed fire permitting systems and tracking fire activity

Mitigation and Science: Reaching a balance moving forward

  • Proactive versus reactive fire management: possibilities and realities
  • Smoke impact on ecology, atmospheric conditions, industry (vineyards/agriculture), and WUI
  • Tackling potential extreme fire events that follow unusually large fuels build up (disasters), e.g., hurricanes, flood-debris, and beetle-damage

Public and Occupational Health Impacts

  • Short-term and longer duration smoke exposure (within and across years)
  • Longer-term health implications of smoke exposure
  • Tradeoffs: Prescribed versus/and wildfire smoke and mitigation
  • Occupational health (e.g., wildland firefighters, outdoor workers)
  • Compound impacts of multiple environmental stressors (e.g., smoke and heat)

Post-fire response

  • Repopulation and clean-up
  • Toxins, chemicals, and biological compounds.
  • Smoke damage

Smoke Modeling and Observations

  • Air quality, dispersion, transport, chemical, biological and smoke models
  • Smoke chemistry and biology: observations and measurements
  • Smoke and air quality forecasting

Remote Sensing: Tools, insights, visions

  • Satellites include FireSAT, WildFireSat, TEMPO, VIIRS, GOES, and others
  • Applications of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

Emerging technologies and tools

  • Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence
  • Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) fuels, emissions, fire spread risks and messaging
  • Air quality sensors, networks and Near-Real-Time information
  • Fireline wearable air quality sensors and monitoring
  • Data fusion and applications

Presentation Types

  • PowerPoint presentation: These presentations will be grouped with presentations of similar topics. [15 minutes + 5 minutes for Q&A and transition].
  • Poster presentation: Will be presented during a designated session, presenters are required to be present during the session. Remote posters will also be accepted.
  • Lightning Talk: These are meant to be fast paced with a strict 5-minute limit.
  • Special Sessions: Each 1-hour session is designed to foster engagement and depth. Formats may include a series of short presentations on a focused topic followed by discussion and Q&A, or an interactive deep dive into a specific issue. These sessions are not intended for single lectures—they must encourage dialogue, collaboration, and multiple perspectives. Special sessions should be fully developed before the submission deadline – including abstracts from each presenter included in the session.

We acknowledge travel limitations, restrictions and constraints due to budgets, bans and environmental choices so we are offering the opportunity to participate and present remotely.

What you will need to submit:

  • Presenter’s Full Name, Email, Title, and Affiliation
  • Presentation Proposal Title
  • Description of your presentation (350 words or less). You will have an opportunity to edit your proposal before the symposium.
  • Additional Authors (if applicable). These are people you would like to acknowledge, however, they may or may not be attending the conference. You will have an opportunity to add them later as well.
  • Co-speakers (if applicable). These are people who will be presenting with you, they will be required to register for the conference. You will need to have their email address to add them as a co-speaker. You will have an opportunity to add them later as well.
  • Your preference of presentation type.
  • Additional information about consent if your presentation discusses Indigenous knowledge

The submission deadline has been extended to Wednesday November 26, 2025.

We have begun reviewing abstracts already submitted but have kept the process open to cater for those affected by the US Government shutdown.

Call for Presentation Proposals

Call for Special Session Proposals