Dr. Adrian Cardil Forradellas

Dr. Adrián Cardil is a graduate in Forest Engineering with honors (BS and MSc) and management and innovation in the food industry (MSc) from the University of Lleida, where he received a Ph.D. (Excellent Cum Laude; with honors) in 2015. Afterward, he has worked as a senior researcher at Tecnosylva (Spain; 2017-present), associate professor at University of Lleida (Spain; 2017-present), and postdoctoral researcher at the Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia (CTFC; 2016) and University of Navarra (Spain; 2016-17). Dr. Cardil is a prominent fire behavior scientist and technologist, studying weather, ecology, impacts, and modeling of wildfires. At this early stage of his career, his most significant contributions have been in the area of modeling wildfires and the analysis of drivers leading to extreme wildfires with impacts on human fatalities and the environment. He has translated science to operational tools to facilitate decision-making in emergencies through robust fire modeling applications in a large set of fire agencies in America and Europe. Also, he has actively been involved in the realtime analysis of wildfires in California in the last 5 fire seasons, supporting the real-time fire modeling of Technosylva and associated fire agencies, including CAL FIRE and electrical utilities. Dr. Cardil is an expert member of CMINE (Crisis Management Innovation Network Europe; European Commission), member of scientific committees in different fire conferences (VIII International Conference on Forest Fire Research; Portugal), was internationally awarded for the best Ph.D. thesis on wildfires (Pau Costa Foundation, 2017) and has been invited speaker in diverse conferences, including seminars promoted by the European Commission (3rd DRMKC Annual Seminar of the European Commission, Bulgaria). His scientific work has produced 48 peer-reviewed publications (most of them as first or senior author) in top journals indexed in the Web of Science (Environmental Research Letters, Science of the Total Environment, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, International Journal of Wildland fire, etc.), receiving more than 800 citations throughout his short career. Dr. Cardil has developed scientific works on fire modeling in a plethora of diverse ecosystems through stays in Canada, the USA, Chile, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Germany, and Italy, establishing a broad network of international collaborators (more than 180 co-authors only in his peer-review publication list). Through his career, Dr. Cardil has been founded by competitive fellows and contracts showing his capability to obtain funding for salary (pre and postdoctoral grants) and research through well-known international research programs (Marie-Curie actions, EU 7th framework, EU Horizon 2020, CNPq Brazil, etc.). He has actively contributed to international conferences (34 oral presentations, posters, and workshops), book chapters, project deliverables, reports and has participated in numerous R&D projects with public and private companies. He has been an essential proponent of enhancing collaboration between the wildland fire community and research by publishing several R libraries (rGEDI, rLidar, and ForestGapR), and an innovative mobile application to estimate fire spread and behavior: WFAPocket (https://pocket.wildfireanalyst.com/). As a senior fire behavior analyst and researcher at Technosylva, he has contributed to the enhancement of tools and fire spread models implemented in world-class fire agencies. Finally, his teaching duties started at the University of Lleida as an associate professor in fire weather, ecology, and modeling courses in international master FUEGO and Forest Engineering bachelor degree (2017-present). Moreover, he has comprehensive experience conducting and coordinating advanced fire modeling courses in different fire agencies, research centers, and universities worldwide (Netherlands, Chile, Spain, Bulgaria, Portugal, etc.). Besides specific research contributions, his multidisciplinary scientific and technical work has improved the knowledge and technology in multiple research areas: (1) modeling fire behavior, impact, and risk with innovation fire simulation modes and applications; (2) analysis of adverse weather patterns and drivers leading to extreme wildfires in several continents and regions (Amazon, California, Europe); (3) examination of fire impacts on human fatalities and the environment; (4) improvement of remote sensing techniques for forest management (Airborne and GEDI Lidar, hyperspectral imagery from drones and satellites); (5) fire ecology and effects in several pine species and masting processes linked to climate teleconnections; (6) and factors influencing fire suppression success and dispatching. Dr. Cardil is determined to grow modeling capabilities that can meet the needs of an increasingly sophisticated and complex fire paradigm through the ongoing research activities.