Paige Sargeant

2025 Peak Prize: Undergraduate Researcher of the Year Award Nominee

S.J & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources

Watershed Sciences

Paige is an undergraduate student in the Department of Watershed Science at USU where she studies Management and Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems with an emphasis on fluvial geomorphology. She was drawn to watershed science by a love and respect for nature that she developed kayaking, hiking, and snowshoeing with her dad on Idaho's public lands and waters. During her time at USU, Paige has led many research projects spanning a wide variety of topics including political ecology, novel ecosystems in Grand Canyon, beaver-impacted riverscapes, regenerative livestock grazing, and more. She conducts much of her river science as a technician at USU's Riverscape Assessment and Monitoring Lab under the supervision of her research mentor, Wally Macfarlane. She also works as a researcher for Working Lands Conservation, a Logan-based non-profit that works with agencies and rural communities to improve the health of grazing lands across the West. Paige enjoys communicating her findings at both professional conferences and dinner tables and passionately believes that science can and should be accessible to everyone. She is excited to continue developing as a researcher in graduate school, but until then, she'll mostly just wait for it to snow so she can go cross country skiing again.