Russell Beam is currently completing a Master’s degree in entomology, with an emphasis in forest insect-pathogen interactions.

Working with the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Russell's research focused on quantifying the fuel characteristics of mountain pine beetle and southwestern dwarf mistletoe in ponderosa pine on Colorado’s northern Front Range. He is also evaluating how these two forest disturbances occur on the landscape alone and in conjunction with each other.

Russell worked two seasonal positions for the USDA Forest Service, Forest Health Management, out of the Gunnison Service Center and Lakewood Service Center monitoring forest insect and disease activity within USDA Forest Service Region 2.

In 2003 He received his Bachelor of Science degree in biology, with an ecology emphasis, from Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison.