Rate My Professor Trent Penman

Professor Trent Penman is Professor in Bushfire Behaviour in the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, Faculty of Science, at the University of Melbourne. He earned a Doctorate in Research from the University of Newcastle and a Bachelors Degree with Honours. His career includes serving as Lecturer in the Bushfire Behaviour and Management Group, Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, University of Melbourne since June 2014; Senior Researcher at the Institute for Conservation Biology and Environmental Management, University of Wollongong from February 2011 to June 2014; and Research Scientist at the NSW Department of Primary Industries from 2005 to 2011. As Team Leader of the FLARE Wildfire Research Group, he teaches and coordinates undergraduate and masters-level subjects including Patterns and Processes of Landscape Fire (FRST90025), Bushfire Planning and Management (FRST90017), Spatial Tools for Ecosystem Sciences (ENST90045), Fire in the Australian Landscape (FRST30002), and Building Behaviour in Bushfires (EVSC90023). He supervises students in laboratory studies of fire fundamentals, field-based fire ecology research, remote sensing, fire behaviour simulation, and species distribution modelling.

Trent Penman's research addresses bushfire behaviour and management across theoretical and applied domains, optimising management to reduce risks to people, property, and the environment. His interests span fire risk modelling using Bayesian Networks and fire simulations, fuel responses to fire regimes, global ignition drivers, climate influences on fuel recovery, future fire regimes' implications for key species, and cost-effective protection strategies for towns. He leads development of the FROST fire regime simulation tool, implemented by southern Australian fire agencies to assess risks to multiple asset types over various timescales. Key publications include 'Gazing into the flames: A guide to assessing the impacts of climate change on landscape fire' (2025), 'The 2019–20 Australian wildfires: precursors, characteristics and implications for the future' (2023), 'Fine fuel changes due to timber harvesting and frequent prescribed burning in eucalypt forests of southeastern Australia' (2022), and 'Are green firebreaks a useful fire management tool under climate change in southeastern Australia?' (2026). His work informs public discourse through Pursuit articles on Black Saturday lessons, integrated fire management, and rainforest fires.