CIRES Graduate Student Research Award Program

Congrats to our 2023 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients!

• Alex Bradley (Joost de Gouw, CHEM) Topic: Improving TROPOMI methane emissions quantification over the Permian Basin and other oil and gas producing regions
• Matthew Gebert (Noah Fierer, EBIO) Topic: Predicting the distributions of pathogenic mycobacteria in surface waters across the United States
• Parthkumar Modi (Ben Livneh, CIV ENG) Topic: Identifying the most resilient water supply forecast models for predicting future droughts
• Jessica Rush (Eve-Lyn Hinckley, EBIO) Topic: The Effects of Global Climate Change on Organic Matter Chemistry in Northern Permafrost Peatlands
• Megan Thompson-Munson (Jen Kay, ATOC) Topic: Characterizing the Response of Firn to Climate Change
• Evan Tucker (Steve Nerem, AERO ENG) Topic: Simulation Study of Future Geodetic Satellites and Tracking Stations to Improve Large Scale Mass-Change Estimates
   

Congrats to our 2022 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients!

• Sarah Becker (Matt Burgess, Environmental Studies) Topic: Optimizing conservation in the Southern Ocean to reduce predator and fisheries conflict
• Corinne Walsh (Noah Fierer, EBIO) Topic: Soil, seeds, and spice: The influence of soil microbes on the production and chemistry of harvested seeds
• Sarah M Jaffe (Carol Wessman, Environmental Studies) Topic: Moving toward mitigating future human-wildlife conflict of short-distance migratory elk
• Zachary Schiffman (Maggie Tolbert, CHEM) Topic: Brown Carbon at Night- Optical Studies of Formation and Oxidation
• Shane Zhang (Anne Sheehan, Physics) Topic: How are microseism Love waves generated?
• Karl Alexander Widney (Shelley Copley, Biochemistry) Topic: Promiscuous enzyme activity and novel metabolic pathways 
• Ian Geraghty (Xinzhao Chu, Aerospace Engineering) Topic: Lidar Exploration of Gravity Wave Dynamics and Atmospheric Coupling in Antarctica

2021 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• Andrew Jensen (Joost de Gouw, CHEM) Topic: Source Attribution of Volatile Organic Compound Emissions during the COVID-19 Lockdowns by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
• Dongwook Kim (Jose-Luis Jimenez, CHEM) Topic: Global survey of newly retrievable aerosol chemical species from advanced aerosol mass spectrometer data analysis
• Jackson Jandreau (Xinzhao Chu, ASEN) Topic: Vertical Coupling and Global Teleconnection of Earth’s Atmosphere Synthesizing A Solar Cycle of Lidar Observations From Antarctica 
• Marium Fernanders (Margaret Tolbert, CHEM) Topic: Chlorate and Perchlorates on Mars; laboratory studies of water uptake and loss
• Mitchell Alton (Ellie Browne, CHEM) Topic: Investigation of the oxidation mechanism of volatile methyl siloxanes: a laboratory and theoretical study
• Vanessa Gabel (Greg Tucker, GEOL) Topic: Late Cenozoic Landscape Evolution of the North American High Plains
• Victoria Scholl (Jennifer Balch, GEOG) Topic: Quantifying wildfire impacts on forest carbon dynamics with remote sensing

2020 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• Nicholas Dragone (Noah Fierer, EBIO) Topic: Investigating the perchlorate bioremediation potential of desert microorganisms
• Mylene Jacquemart (Kristy Tiampo, GEOL) Topic: Landslide Forecasting: Evaluating the predictive power of radar coherence and normalized difference vegetation index as precursory landslide indicators
• Carli Brucker (Ben Livneh, CEAE) Topic: Wildfires in the West: A Comprehensive Study of Post-Fire Hydrologic, Sediment, and Water Quality Response
• Melinda Schueneman (Jose Jimenez, CHEM) Topic: Aerosol pH Indicator and Organosulfate Detectability from Aerosol Mass Spectrometry Measurements
• Enrique Chon (Anne Sheehan, GEOL) Topic: State of stress and fault geometries of induced earthquakes
• Olivia Pearman (Max Boykoff, ENVS) Topic: Science in decision making related to oil and gas development in Colorado

2019 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• Ryan Harp (Kris Karnauskas, ATOC) Topic: Climate and Violent Crime: Developing Two Predictive Applications
• Zach Decker (Cari Womack/Steve Brow, CHEM) Topic: Wildfires at Night: Field, Modeling, and Lab Studies of Dark Oxidation in Fire Plumes
• Deirdre Jaeger (Carol Wessman, ENVS) Topic: Urban Microclimate Influence on Crabapple Seasonality: Whose Buds Burst First
• Wyatt Brown (Jose Jimenez, CHEM) Topic: Constraining Secondary Organic Aerosol Sources in Urban Air Using a Novel Method for Real-time Organic Aerosol Quantification and Chemical Speciation
• Jasmine Hansen (Mike Willis, GEOG) Topic: Influences of Glacial Sediment Loading on Crustal Elastic Rebound Rates in Kangerlussuaq

2018 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• Angela Oliverio (Noah Fierer) Topic: Predicting the distribution and ecological functions of protists in soils from across the globe.
• David Oonk (Max Boykoff) Topic: The Science Policy Nexus: Unconventional Oil and Gas and role of science in policymaking
• Jennifer Berry (Ellie Brown) Topic: Sources of Organic Nitrogen Deposition in Sensitive High Alpine Ecosystems
• Lina Perez-Angel (Peter Molnar) Topic: Pliocene tropical climate, mountain building, and the closure of Central American Seaway
• Kelsey Reeves (Balaji Rajagopalan) Topic: Modeling Variability in Surface Water Quality Using Hydro-climatological and Land Surface Characteristics

2017 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• Tobin Hammer (Noah Fierer, CIRES Fellow, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) Topic: The role of gut bacteria in passion-vine butterfly pollination.
• Jake Flood (Shelley Copley, CIRES Fellow, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology) Topic: How do microbes tolerate the stresses involved in the degradation of pentachlorophenol (PCP)?
• Vineel Yettella (Jennifer Kay, CIRES Fellow, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) Topic: Warming influence on ENSO: new insights from a novel decomposition method.
• Erin McDuffie (Stephen Brown, NOAA) Topic: The Role of Heterogeneous Chemistry in Understanding Wintertime Air Pollution.

2016 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• John Berggren (Lisa Dilling, Western Water Assessment) Topic: Transitioning to a new era in Western United States water governance: Examining adaptive capacity and equitable water policy in the Colorado River Basin.
• Ryan Davis (Margaret Tolbert, Chemistry and Biochemistry) Topic: Laboratory studies of contact efflorescence involving organic and mixed organic-inorganic aqueous aerosols.
• Natalie Kille (Rainer Volkamer, Chemistry and Biochemistry) Title: Developing the mobile Solar Occultation Flux technique to quantify emission fluxes of trace gases.
• Jenny Nakai (Anne Sheehan, Geological Sciences) Topic: Tectonic and anthropogenic causes of small magnitude earthquakes in Colorado and New Mexico.
• Rebecca Rapf (Veronica Vaida, Chemistry and Biochemistry) Title: Building molecular complexity via aqueous photochemistry in ancient and modern environments.
• Tasha Snow (Waleed Abdalati, Geography) Title: Evaluating fjord sea surface temperature influences on Greenland outlet glacier variability.

2015 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• Cao Chen (Xinzhao Chu group, Aerospace Engineering Sciences) Topic: Exploration of the Mystery of Polar Wave Dynamics with Lidar, Radar and High-Resolution General Circulation Model.
• Zachary Finewax (Joost de Gouw, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) Topic: Investigating Aerosol and VOC Products of Biomass Burning Emissions Through HR-CIMS and Thermal Desorption Particle Beam Mass Spectrometry (TD-PBMS).
• Harrison Gray (Dr. Gregory Tucker group, Geological Sciences) Topic: Development and application of luminescence dating as a new means to estimate sediment transport rates.
• Catalin Negrea (Tim Fuller-Rowell, Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering) Topic: Ionospheric Physics.
• Stephanie Redfern (Jen Kay group, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) Topic: Global/Regional Climate Modeling & Climate Science Communication.
• Samantha Thompson (Jose Luis Jimenez group, Department of Chemistry) Topic: Characterization and Deployment of a soft ionization mass spectrometer for organic aerosol and gas detection.
• Shuichi Ushijima (Margaret Tolbert group, Department of Analytical Chemistry) Topic: Heterogeneous efflorescence of atmospherically relevant salts by mineral dust particles.
• Fnu Yanto (Balaji Rajagopalan group, Civil Environmental and Architectural Engineering) Topic: Space-Time Variability of Indonesian Hydroclimate: Diagnostics, Modeling and Implications for Water Resources Management.

2014 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• Jonathon Leff (Dr. Noah Fierer group, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department).  Topic:  Effects of elevated nutrient inputs on soil microbial community structure and function in global grasslands.
• Eleanor Waxman (Dr. Rainer Volkamer group, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department). Topic: Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation from Glyoxal: Uptake Studies and Reactivity.
• Anthony Wong (Dr. David Noone group, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences). Topic: Land surface model calibration and parameter estimation.
• Daniel Zietlow (Dr. Anne Sheehan group, Geophysics). Topic: Investigating Mechanisms of Lithospheric Shortening via Ocean Bottom Seismometers: South Island, New Zealand.
• Emily Gill (Dr. Balaji Rajagopalan group, Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering). Topic: Understanding and Reconstructing Mid-Holocene South Asian Monsoon Variability over India.
• Abigail Koss (Dr. Joost De Gouw group, Atmospheric VOC Research). Topic: Development of a GC-CIMS Instrument for the Detection of Atmospheric Semi- and Intermediate Volatility Compounds.
• Jordan Krechmer (Dr. Jose Jimenez group, Chemistry and Biochemistry Department). Topic: Development and application of an NO3--IMS-TOF for in-situ analysis of highly oxidized SOA precursors.
• Xi Wang (Dr. Max Boykoff group, Environmental Studies Program). Topic: Renewable Energy Policy.

2013 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• Meaghan Daly (Dr. Lisa Dilling group, Environmental Studies Program). Topic: Examining Processes of Knowledge Co-production for Climate Adaptation in East Africa.
• Lucy McAllister (Dr. Max Boykoff group, Environmental Studies Program). Topic: Hiding in Plain Sight: The Role of Corporations in Electronic Waste Management.
• Jesse Nusbaumer (Dr. David Noone group, ATOC). Topic: The simulation of atmospheric rivers and atmospheric moisture transport in global climate models.
• Russell Perkins (Dr. Veronica Vaida group, Chemistry). Topic: Understanding Anthropogenic Emissions by Investigating Mixed Aromatic-Aliphatic Films On Water Surfaces.
• Francis Rengers (Dr. Greg Tucker group, Geological Sciences). Topic: The Role of Wildfire Disturbance on Landscape Formation.
• Celia Schiffman (Dr. Roger Bilham group, Geophysics). Topic: Recent earthquakes and seismic hazard in Haiti and the Himalayas.
• John Smith (Dr. Xinzhao Chu group, Aerospace Engineering Sciences). Topic: Whole atmosphere lidar enabling new frontiers of science for the atmosphere-space interaction.
• Kyle Zarzana (Dr. Maggie Tolbert group, Chemistry). Topic: Relationship Between Organic Aerosol Composition and Optical Properties.

2012 CIRES Graduate Research Award recipients

• Gaddy Bergmann (Dr. Noah Fierer group, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department) Topic: Geographic variation in the bison gut microbiome.
• Sean Haney (Dr. Baylor Fox-Kemper, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences) Topic: Ocean boundary layer turbulence.
• Brett Palm (Dr. Jose Luis Jimenez, Analytical/Atmospheric Chemistry) Topic: Application of a Rapid Secondary Aerosol Formation Measurement Tool for Laboratory and Field Studies.
• Adriana Raudzens Bailey (Dr. David Noone, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) Topic: Vertical moisture exchange through the convective boundary layer.
• Joe Rokicki (Dr. Shelley Copley, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology) Topic: A newly evolved regulatory pathway in Sphingobium chlorophenolicum.
• Jessica Weinkle (Dr. Roger Pielke Jr, Environmental Studies Program) Topic: The dissertation research is a policy evaluation of Florida's Citizens Property Insurance Corporation.