Colorado Mountain Club Foundation 2026 Awards
The Colorado Mountain Club Foundation (CMCF) is pleased to announce their 2026 Fellowship and Grant awards. The CMCF’s mission is to raise, manage, and distribute funds to support the stewardship, conservation, education, and other programs of the CMC and similar organizations. Each year, the Foundation solicits applications from undergraduate and graduate students whose research is focused on the Rocky Mountain region and supports the CMCF mission.
This year CMCF received 29 applications and presented 12 awards. The top four outstanding applicants were awarded a named fellowship of $2,000: Other worthy applicants received grants of $500. Congratulations to the recipients of CMCF Fellowships and Grants:
Peter Billman, PhD student at the University of Connecticut received a $2,000 Gerstle Fellowship for his project, “Community-level responses of two iconic Rocky Mountain mammals to an unprecedented snow drought.”
Charlie Oliver, PhD student at the University of Colorado-Boulder received a $2,000 Gehres Fellowship for his project, “Investigating the microbiome of disappearing alpine glaciers in the Front Range of Colorado.”
Samuel Pierce, PhD student at Stanford University received a $2,000 Kindig Fellowship for his project, “Investigating the chemistry of beaver-engineered wetlands under extreme drought conditions.”
Jacob Watts, PhD student at the University of Colorado-Boulder received a $2,000 Ossinger Fellowship for his project, “A Field Guide to the Lichens of the Colorado Front Range.”
Rachel Billings, PhD student at the University of Colorado-Boulder received a $500 grant for her project, “Acoustic fingerprinting and genetic characterization of the American pika for individual identification.”
Canyon Bourque, Bachelor of Science student at Murray State University received a $500 grant for her project, “Evaluating restoration success of boreal toad populations in North Pole Basin, Gunnison County, Colorado.”
Katja Kochvar, PhD student at Princeton University received a $500 grant for her project, “Territories offer a window into the breeding dynamics of a hummingbird in decline.”
Ainsley Nystrom, PhD student at Montana State University, received a $500 grant for her project, “Do higher carbohydrate levels increase environmental stress resistance in four Rocky Mountain conifers?”
Baylee Olds, PhD student at the University of Utah received at $500 grant for her project, “Informing location-specific forest management strategies by quantifying the spatial variability in snowpack vapor loss across vegetation and topography.”
Travis Rainey, PhD student at Colorado State University received a $500 grant for his project, “Mountains in motion: genetic connectivity of ecosystem-serving squirrels facing climate change in the Southern Rocky Mountains.”
Katie Riesberg, Master of Science student at Western Colorado University received a $500 grant for her project, “Assessing the effects of native plant seeding and soil amendments on plant community composition and biodiversity within subalpine ski ecosystems.”
Stavi Tennenbaum, PhD student at Princeton University received a $500 grant for her project, “Phenological shifts and physiological costs of seasonal climate change in yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer).”