Daniel Godwin remembers the first time he helped set a forest on fire.
“My first one was at one of the University of Florida’s field stations,” he recalls. “We were burning pine flatwoods. That stuff burns pretty hot.”
Godwin is not an arsonist, but a fire ecologist. He sets prescribed fires, or fires that benefit the health and ecology of a forest, savanna, or other wildland area.
Godwin, who is a second year graduate student in the Division of Biological Sciences and a Life Sciences Fellow at the University of Missouri-Columbia, received this year’s Edward Komarek Graduate Student Excellence Award from the national Association of Fire Ecology (AFE). The award recognizes students who demonstrate superior academic achievement and involvement in fire-related research and activities.
Brian Oswald, president of the AFE, says Godwin received the award in recognition of his leadership and involvement in the Student Association for Fire Ecology (SAFE), which Godwin served as president of in 2012 and is currently serving as its training and education coordinator.
Reviewed 2013-12-06