In several recent articles we have proposed a novel model of black
hole (BH) evaporation that improves upon Hawking's model in three
aspects: (i) The quantum fluctuations of the collapsing shell (or BH)
spacetime are included as well as (ii) The time dependence of the
emission process and (iii) The back-reaction on the BH by the emitted
particles. In the seminar, I will present the model and use it to
calculate the quantum state of the emitted radiation, the rate of
information release during BH evaporation and the energy density near
the BH horizon. Then I will explain how unitarity and the equivalence
principle are respected within our model and show how the information
paradox and the firewall problem are evaded.