The International Association of Wildland Fire presented its second annual Ember Award to Dr. James K. Brown. The award recognizes sustained excellence in wildland fire research and encourages innovation, exploration, application and dissemination of important research results.

Brown received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota in 1960, his master’s from Yale University in 1961, and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1968, all in forestry. From 1961 to 1965, he conducted research on field measurements of fuel properties and fire-danger rating systems while with the U.S. Forest Service Lake States Forest Experiment Station in St. Paul, Minn.

In 1965, he transferred to the Intermountain Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Mont., where he conducted research on the physical properties, inventory and prediction of fuels. From 1979 through 1995 he was leader of a prescribed fire and fire effects research unit of 25 employees. His research was focused on fuel consumption, fuel hazard appraisal, fire ecology of western forests, and development of computer information systems for fuel prediction and application of prescribed fire. He has authored over 100 technical journal articles and reports. In 1992 he received the Forest Service’s Superior Science Award for his research on fuels and contributions to fire management.

During Brown's Forest Service career, his seminal research in fire effects, fuels, and fire behavior set the standard for many in the field. At the start of his career, fire effects science was in its infancy. Jim had the foresight to observe that fire effects are intimately linked to fire behavior so he dedicated much of his career to ensuring that the two fields of behavior and effects were closely integrated in all of his studies. Many of his findings are integrated into the complex fire behavior and effects computer models used today.