We gathered on March 18, 2026, to recognize celebrate the relentless dedication and unwavering ambition of our GES students, who have demonstrated excellence in both academics and beyond. Congratulations to our award recipients:
| ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE FIELD SCHOLARSHIP | ||
| Kori Burns | Yellowstone | |
| Henry Felix | Yellowstone | |
| Katherine Murray | Yellowstone | |
| NORMAN K. FLINT MEMORIAL FIELD GEOLOGY AWARD | ||
| Camille Foessel | French Alps | |
| Trey Giles | Hawaii - SD School of Mines | |
| Alicia Hull | Montana - Indiana University | |
| Brooke Lambert | French Alps - SD School of Mines | |
| Ava Stepp | Colorado - Oklahoma State University | |
| CHRISTOPHER HAPKE MEMORIAL PLANETARY AWARD | ||
| Alicia Hull | Mapping Glass and Crystal Content of Volcanic Ash Deposits via the Coupling of Lab and Satellite Thermal Infrared Measurements | |
| HEINZ FIELD EXPERIENCE/STUDY ABROAD AWARD | ||
| Elizabeth Dowd | Amsterdam, Netherlands - Pitt | |
| Sophia Lineman | Amsterdam, Netherlands - Pitt | |
| HENRY LEIGHTON MEMORIAL GRADUATE AWARD | ||
| Jason Aguirre | Does Raw Sewage Fuel Food Webs in Urban Streams with Failing Infrastructure? | |
| Adnan Deshaee | Solid-Phase Chemical and REE Characterization of Legacy Steel Slag Deposits (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) | |
| Adeel Jehangir | Documenting Holocene-scale Changes in the Intensity of the South Asian Monsoon and Winter Westerlies in the Himalayas using Lake Sediment Archives | |
| Sara Khan | Reconstructing climate and environmental change in central Chile during the Common Era | |
| Giannina Ramirez | Integrating Traditional and Emerging Biomarker Proxies to Reconstruct Climate, Ecosystem and Land Use Change in Laguna Encantada, Chetumal, Mexico | |
| Tim Suder | Impacts of trophic extremes on the εpor proxy | |
| DR. J. FREDERICK AND ANN SARG RESEARCH AWARD | ||
| Hwiseo Choi | From Mainstem to Beaver Pond: Hydrologic Slowdown and Its Impacts on Lithium Isotopes and Weathering Signals in the East River, Colorado | |
| Jess Dean | The role of petrogenic organic carbon oxidation during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum in preventing a prompt climate recovery | |
| Mohamed Hamdallah | Applying Machine Learning and Deep Learning to Predict Critical Mineral Resources Using Global Geological, Geophysical and Remote Sensing Data | |
| Grace Mattson | Tracing PFAS Bioaccumulation in Urban Aquatic Ecosystems | |
| Abby Yancy | Tracing anthropogenic N and plant interactions in Pittsburgh, PA | |
| Aidan York | 'Determining the Age, Rate, and Extent of Lewis Thrust, and the Magnitude of Associated Foreland Sedimentation | |
| Gabriella Zuccolotto | Validating High Frequency Fluorescence Estimates of Chlorophyll-a and Phycocyanin in River Systems for Satellite Remote Sensing Applications | |
| GARY SITLER GRADUATE AWARD | ||
| Poushalee Banerjee | Impact of Lateral Groundwater Seeps on Cold-Water Habitats for Brook Trout in the Wild and Scenic Namekagon River | |
| Emeka Emordi | Using biomarker and stable isotope measurements of sediments preserved in Lake Chalco to reconstruct climate variability | |