Jesse Gardner-Russell is the National President of The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA), and PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne Department of Surgery and Centre for Eye Research Australia. Jesse researches how neurons communicate with the vasculature in the eye and brain, to enable vision, and how to restore these mechanisms after stroke.

Originally from regional Victoria, Jesse has completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, Honours in Enteric Neuron Stem Cell Therapies, and Master of Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated as Valedictorian and Dean’s Honours List student.

Prior to starting his role at CAPA, the peak representative body for all 480,000+ postgraduate students, Jesse served as CAPA Board Chair, President and Board Chair at the University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association (GSA), Acting CEO of GSA and later as General Secretary of GSA, where he grew the organisation's membership by a net increase of 12,000 graduate students. Jesse was the longest serving student member of the University of Melbourne Academic Board and is also an advisory Board member at Melbourne University Sport.