Jesse Rush, northern peatland research and leadership

Jesse receives the 2025 Armstrong Memorial Scholarship for her passion, creativity, and dedication to leadership and mentoring. Jesse’s graduate work expands upon questions she developed during her undergraduate honors thesis. She is currently studying climate warming in Alaska peatlands with rapidly advancing tools, establishing herself as a scientist and leader in environmental biogeochemistry. Jesse has contributed greatly to the CIRES graduate student community by serving as co-chair of the CIRES Graduate Student Council and attending faculty searches to provide feedback on prospective community members. Jesse is also a very effective educator; she has gone above and beyond as a graduate teaching assistant, providing trainings for other teaching assistants in the ecology and evolutionary biology department, developing field safety plans for the department’s field and laboratory courses, and creating publicly available course materials for instructors to use. She is a rising star and she sets the bar high for what it means to be an engaged leader in her community.