Jenan Kharbush ’09 named Ripon College Outstanding Young Alumna

Jenan Kharbush ’09 was honored with a Ripon College Outstanding Young Alumni Award June 28 during Alumni Weekend.

Kharbush is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. She is a member of the Harvard Earth and Planetary Science/Environmental Science and Engineering Department’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belong Committee; and a mentor for Harvard Graduate Women in Science and Engineering.

Her most recent career-related awards include: UCSD Chancellor’s Dissertation Award (2016); Bok Center Certificate of Distinction in Teaching Award (Harvard University, 2016, 2018); and the Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow Award (University of Michigan, Fall 2019).

Kharbush plays first violin in the Waltham Symphony Orchestra, volunteers for a local animal rescue organization and fosters kittens while they wait for their forever homes.

At Ripon College, she majored in biology and chemistry with a minor in Spanish. She received the full-tuition Pickard Scholarship in 2005, the Larry Barker Prize in Chemistry in 2006, the Franklin L. Stone Award in Chemistry in 2007 and the Leone Oyster Memorial Scholarship in 2008. She was a member of the Iota Delta chapter of TriBeta, the biology honors society, and of Eka Francian, the chemistry honors society. She played in the Ripon College Orchestra, was a mentor at the Collaborative Learning Center, tutored for chemistry and biology classes, made Dean’s List at Ripon from 2005-2009, graduated summa cum laude and was a 2009 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

Her hometown is Madison, Wisconsin. She and her husband, Roland Kersten, live in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Watch Jenan’s acceptance speech