Dr. Sylvain J. Charbonnier is an Assistant Professor in Volcanology in the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida, USA. He holds a B.Sc. (Hons) in Earth Sciences from the Universite F. Rabelais, Tours, France, an M.Sc. in Geology and Volcanology from Universite Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Fd, France, and a Ph.D. in Volcanology from Keele University, UK. His research is based on an iterative process of integrating data, theories and models to improve our understanding of the dynamics of volcanic mass flows (lava flows, debris flows, pyroclastic density currents), as well as their hazard assessment studies. His primary research area of expertise focuses on hazard assessment of pyroclastic density currents by combining field-based studies with remote sensing tools and numerical models in areas where these flows represent a high risk to the surrounding population. He is an author of 20+ publications on both field-based and modeling of volcanic mass flows in top-tier academic journals like Bulletin of Volcanology, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research and Earth and Planetary Science Letters. He is currently leading new international initiatives as a member of the development team of the Vhub cyberinfrastructure for modeling volcanic hazards (http://vhub.org/) and member of the USF Natural Hazards network (http://cas.usf.edu/hazards/). His recent initiatives focused on developing a consensual procedure for validation and benchmarking of numerical models of volcanic mass flows, by co-leading dedicated conference sessions (AGU and EGU General Assembly) and international workshops (IAVCEI General Assembly) to provide a community-wide interpretation framework for volcanic flow hazard assessment studies. His recent educational efforts also aim at developing quantitative skills in geoscience education and increasing awareness of the community about the potential and limits of numerical tools ('model literacy') and the complementarity of experimental (both laboratory and field based) and numerical studies.