Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2025-2026

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Chemistry

Research Summary: Wildfires are becoming more frequent and intense due to climate change, impacting soil that helps sustain healthy forests. Wildfires change the molecules in soil that microbes, such as bacteria and fungi, use as a food source which fuels post-fire microbial activity and forest recovery. However, the specific kinds of molecules in burned soil remain largely unknown. Thus, I use chemical instruments to detect molecules in burned soil and determine how those molecules might influence microbial activity. For example, I am specifically examining how the 2024 Alexander Mountain Fire, which burned near Loveland, CO, changed the soil chemistry in that area.