2026 SCHEDULE
We look forward to seeing you for the 32nd edition of FRSES: FRSES 2026- Understand Your Planet! FRSES is proud to host a networking event for the Ecological Society of America Rocky Mountain Chapter Meeting following the chapter’s reestablishment in 2025. The event will take place on Friday 2/27 at 11 am and we encourage all participants to join! Note to presenters: the order of your name in your session is the order you will be presenting in.
THURSDAY – FEB 26, 2026
| 1:00pm-6:00pm | Check-in | LSC Theater |
| 2:00pm-3:00pm | Campus Tours (click to sign up) | Insect Museum, Biology Collections, and Herbarium |
| 3:00pm- 4:00pm | Break | LSC Theater |
| 4:00pm-5:00pm | Keynote: Whendee Silver | LSC Theater |
| 5pm | Hors D’ouvres served | LSC Theater |
| 5:00pm-6:30pm | Poster Session | LSC Theater |
| 5:00pm-5:45pm | Even Numbered Posters | |
| 5:45pm-6:30pm | Odd Numbered Posters | |
| 6:30pm-7:00pm | Social Hour | LSC Theater |
FRIDAY – FEB 27, 2026
| 7:00am-2:30pm | Check-in | LSC Theater |
| 8:00am-3:00pm | Anytime Break Room: Coffee, Tea, & Snacks | LSC Theater |
| 8:00am-9:15am | Oral Presentations: Session 1 | |
| Disease Ecology Speakers: Christopher Brandon, Sabrina Gobran, Lincoln Taylor, Sarah Sense, Maddie Lucas | LSC Room 304 – 306 | |
| Invasive Species Speakers: Kyle Ruszkowski, Nicki Bailey, Carmen Black, Treson Thompson | LSC Room 308 – 310 | |
| Disturbance & Restoration Ecology Speakers: Maddie Amick, Adriana Jacobi, Hannah Burke, Abigail Ridder, Hunter Geist-Sanchez | LSC Room 312 | |
| 9:15am-9:30am | Break | LSC Theater |
| 9:30am-10:45am | Oral Presentations: Session 2 | |
| Behavioral Ecology Speakers: Madeline Tepper, Max Meyer, Ripken Wellikson, Juliane Wera, Nelson Gathuku | LSC Room 304 – 306 | |
| Urban Ecology Speakers: Laura Lukens, Maria Schonewise, Asia Kaiser, Jennoa Fleming, Tanner Gordon | LSC Room 308 – 310 | |
| Global Change & Conservation Speakers: Ryleigh Gelles, Holden Fox, Niyka Campbell, Greg Tooley, Margaret Monaghan | LSC Room 312 | |
| 10:45am-11:00am | Break | LSC Theater |
| 11:00am-12:00pm | Rocky Mountain Chapter ESA Hosted Panel | LSC Theater |
| 12:00pm-1:00pm | Lunch | LSC Theater |
| 1:00pm-2:30pm | Oral Presentations: Session 3 | |
| Forest & Rangeland Ecology Speakers: Joseph Toman, Lydia Johnsen, Amber Pelon, Rhyse Campion | LSC Room 304-306 | |
| Evolutionary Ecology Speakers: Isaac Husdon Foy, Hannah Eckert, Erica Robertson, Brendon Davis, Charlie Dees | LSC Room 308-310 | |
| Ecosystem Ecology Speakers: Noah Estrada, Aylin Barreras, Grace McLaughlin, Amy Gill | LSC Room 312 | |
| 2:30pm-2:45pm | Break | LSC Theater |
| 2:45pm-3:45pm | Workshops | |
| “Keep your R Code Tidy” with Brooke Anderson | LSC Room 304 – 306 | |
| “Ecological Perspectives Across Time: How Past and Present Inform Each Other” with Nicole Archambeau (History) and Lindsay Burnette (Horticulture and Landscape Architecture) | LSC Room 308 – 310 | |
| 3:45pm-4:00pm | Break | LSC Theater |
| 4:00pm-5:00pm | Reception, Awards Ceremony & Hor’s Douvres served | LSC Theater |
Workshop Abstracts:
“Keep your R Code Tidy” with Brooke Anderson
This workshop will focus on how to code effectively for maximal rigor, reproducibility, and clarity. Dr. Anderson will first walk through the broad importance of rigor and reproducibility in coding. After this, Dr. Anderson will give guidelines on steps each of us can take to improve rigor and reproducibility in research code, geared towards students who have taken a coding class (like an R class) and are starting to use coding in their research, but are still new to using code to develop a larger research project.
“Ecological Perspectives Across Time: How Past and Present Inform Each Other”
with Nicole Archambeau (History) and Lindsay Burnette (Horticulture and Landscape Architecture)
We are aware that questions and issues of ecology have been around for a long time, and people in the past may have encountered similar issues or problems that we face today. This workshop will explore how to use sources and methods of medieval history and modern landscape architecture to address modern issues in ecology. To consider how the past can help us think about the present and future, this workshop will begin by introducing a 14th century agricultural manual, using its advice for housing honeybees as a way into thinking about the problems and solutions of medieval agriculturalists. Building from this historical case, the workshop then turns to contemporary landscape architecture, investigating how cultural and ecological systems are interwoven in modern design practice. We briefly explore speculative design as a way to consider perspectives beyond our own time and beyond a strictly human-centered lens. Throughout, we encourage active audience participation and the development of generative questions.
Front Range Student Ecology Symposium 