Paulo Fernandes holds a PhD in Forest Sciences (2003) and is an Associate Professor (since 2013) at the Forest Sciences and Landscape Architecture Department of the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD) in Vila Real, Portugal, and a researcher at CITAB (Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences). He studies wildland fire and has broad research interests, from fire ecology to fire management. He is particularly interested in how fire behavior is shaped by the fire environment and in turn shapes fire effects and fire regimes. His main contributions have been in the topics of fuel characterization and field-based assessment and modeling of fire characteristics and effects, namely in the context of prescribed burning studies in Mediterranean shrubland and pine forests. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Wildland Fire and Annals of Forest Science and has served on the Board of the International Association of Wildland Fire.