John Vaillant, whose journalism, fiction, and non-fiction explore collisions between human ambition and the natural world, will speak at Boston College on March 11 at 7 p.m. in Gason 100. Vaillant is the author of the acclaimed book Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, a stunning account of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in Alberta, Canada that illustrates the devastation wrought by forest fires in a world of intensifying climate change. The Fort McMurray wildfire was a multi-billion-dollar disaster that melted vehicles, turned entire neighborhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Fire Weather was winner of the British Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. It was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, TIME, NPR, Slate, and Smithsonian. Vaillant’s lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, the University Core Curriculum, and Environmental Studies. The lecture is free and open to the public, but registration is required.