Jesse is an Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Smith College, College, and in 2026-2027 serves at Conway as visiting ecology faculty. He teaches occasional classes in the fall and winter term and leads some ecology field sessions.
His research focuses on questions in plant ecology, biogeography, and evolution at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, largely centered on the temperate deciduous forests of the eastern United States. In particular, he is interested in how historical processes, such as past climate change and dispersal limitation, might influence plant species’ contemporary distributions and the diversity of plant communities. This line of research has implications for species conservation in the face of modern climate change, including the appropriateness of managed relocation for plant species unlikely to keep pace with anthropogenic climate change. Locally, he is involved in an ongoing study of forest ecosystem ecology and change at Smith College’s Ada and Archibald MacLeish Field Station in Conway, investigating how forest ecosystems might be changed as a dominant evergreen conifer species, the Eastern hemlock, declines due to attack by exotic insects.
- PhD, Cornell University
- MFS, Harvard University
- BS, University of Massachusetts, Amherst