Joe H. Scott

Chief Fire Scientist

Joe made his first wildfire simulation in 1988, when he thought 13 fuel models were too many to commit to memory. He now has three decades of experience in surface and canopy fuel characterization, operational wildfire simulation modeling, landscape-scale wildfire hazard and risk assessment, and fuel management planning. Joe leads wildfire hazard and risk assessments to support land management planning, incident management, and utility-wildfire risk assessment for state and federal agencies and private organizations. He was the lead developer of the Nexus software for assessing crown fire potential, and is the lead author of USFS reports on crown fire hazard assessment and modeling, surface fire behavior fuel models, and landscape-scale wildfire risk assessment. Joe earned a B.Sc. in Forestry and Resource Management from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.Sc. in Forestry from the University of Montana. He is a Society of American Foresters Certified Forester™ an Association for Fire Ecology Senior Fire Ecologist.

Joe made his first wildfire simulation in 1988, when he thought 13 fuel models were too many to commit to memory. He now has three decades of experience in surface and canopy fuel characterization, operational wildfire simulation modeling, landscape-scale wildfire hazard and risk assessment, and fuel management planning.
30
years experience in wildfire modeling
1,321
citations of the seminal “Scott & Burgan” fuel models report
3,158
miles of sled-access backcountry skiing, with zero un-earned turns
2
hybrid bike-related sports: bike-frisbee and bike-skiing
Why do you work at Vibrant Planet?

“Over the last three decades, I’ve developed a personal assessment of the driving forces behind the wildfire challenges we now face, and the adjustments we can make to minimize the adverse effects of fire while still capturing its benefits. I’m here to make sure that everyone has access to the same information so they, too, can determine what adjustments they can implement for their own circumstances.”

Leadership

Allison Wolff
Chief Executive Officer
Guy Bayes
Chief Technology Officer
Scott Conway
Chief Resilience Officer
Peter Dabrowski
Chief Financial Officer
Oktay Dogramaci
President, Vibrant Planet Data Commons
Dr. Neil Hunt
Chief Product Officer
Dan Myers
Chief Operating Officer
Tory Nelson
VP of Product
Dr. Hugh Safford
Chief Scientist
Dr. Matt Thompson
Vice President of Wildfire Risk Analytics
Dr. Chelsey Walden-Schreiner
VP of Applied Science