Alistair Smith
Board MemberAlistair Smith, Professor, University of Idaho (board member since 2025)
Alistair Smith is a Professor of wildland fire science in the College of Science at the University of Idaho. Alistair has over 20 years of research and teaching experience related to wildland fire science since completing his PhD at King’s College London. Alistair’s research primarily focuses on improving understanding of vegetation severity following fires by connecting fire behavior with plant physiology. Alistair has served as an Associate Editor on the International Journal of Wildland Fire since 2009 and previously served for multiple years on the International Association of Wildland Fire Scholarship Committee. Alistair has also previously served on the Governing Board of the National Coalition of Prescribed Fire Councils. Recently, Alistair helped create a Fire Risk Management guide for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that was developed to help protect World Heritage Sites and in 2024, he was appointed to serve on the United States Geological Survey Advisory Committee on Science Quality and Integrity. Finally, Alistair currently serves as the post-fire working group co-lead on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) FireSense Implementation team.