Josh Whittaker, PhD, RMIT

Resilience is a measure of human welfare and capacity; it is a quality of human systems that enable people – as groups and individuals – to cope with and respond positively to change. It is a condition that shifts over space and time and, in effect, determines the impact that a particular hazard will have. Viewed in this way, disasters occur only when people who lack resilience are confronted with hazards.

What, then, constitutes bushfire resilience? What are the links between human welfare and capacity, and the ability to adequately prepare for, respond to and recover from major bushfires?

This research will develop an understanding of the factors that make communities resilient to fire. In doing so, it aims to increase community self-sufficiency for fire safety.

Project Link: C 6 The "stay-or-go" policy

It is important that our finest students and researchers are recognised and celebrated, and the Excellence Awards are a new initiative to achieve those aims. Works conducted over the life of the Bushfire CRC by a student and by a researcher were considered. Following a call for nominations from all Stakeholders the Bushfire CRC Governing Board decided that the most worthy recepient of the $5000 student award was Josh Whittaker, PhD, RMIT.

As a Bushfire CRC PhD student at RMIT University Josh has not only successfully completed his studies but also contributed to the Program C Bushfire Community Safety book, provided material for input into the Garnaut Report on Climate Change, and played a lead role in the Bushfire CRC research response taskforce following the 2009 Victorian Bushfires.   It is recognised across the Bushfire CRC and the industry that Josh has contributed well above the normal expectations of a student.

Read an excerpt of the above video, reprinted from Fire Australia magazine, along with summaries of research by other Bushfire CRC PhD students here.