People

Lab members:

Peter Dijkstra (PI)

Peter has been a faculty member at Central Michigan University since 2015 and he teaches courses in human/animal physiology, introductory biology, animal behavior, and neuroscience. Peter is a member of the Neuroscience Program and Institute of Great Lakes Research (IGLR) at CMU.

Graduate students

Olivia Buzinski (M.S. student): Olivia works on the link between territorial behavior and patterns of oxidative stress in the brain using immunohistochemistry.

Tyler Beyett (M.S. student): Tyler is interested in the regulation of oxidative stress in the brain under varying levels of social stress.

Undergraduate students:

Cooper Border: Cooper studies competitive behavior and the effect of hypoxia on the brain.

Alexandra (Lexie) Balasa: Lexie studies how territorial structures influence competitive behavior and physiological stress.

Zachary Hager: Zach is interested in the link between competitive behavior and testosterone levels. 

Zeke Maes: Zeke is our fish caretaker, and he studies the effect of competition and social stress on oxidative damage. 

Hope Phillips: Hope is interested on ecology and works on a project aimed at automating behavioral quantification.

Amelia Beswick: Amelia is a pre-vet student working on an animal behavior project.

Meagan Treadwell: Meagan is getting trained in immunohistochemistry and histology.

Ben Vanderklok: Ben is interested in energy balance and mitochondrial function.

Ashley Harvey: Ashley has been part of the lab for almost four years! She is broadly interested in animal behavior and evolution.

Howard Mitchell (Mitch): Mitch has his hands in many different projects and is trained in running a number of oxidative stress assays. He loves training students in doing bench work.


Previous members (if you want me to update this, let me know!)

Undergraduate students:

Gabriela DeOliveira (medical school, MSU)

Judy Stanford (Master's program Perfusion Technology, Rush University)

Micala Decker 

Tayler Brown

Matthew Tryc (Master's program, New Mexico State University)

Phil Aufdemberge

Hannah Janeski

Emily Miros (PA school at Wayne State University)

Tyler Funnell (Master's program at Michigan State University, now USDA)

Yeeling Li

Victoria Wright

Sarah Giglio (veterinary school, Purdue University)

Brady Bush (medical school, CMU)

Hailey Hartman (veterinary school, MSU)

Morgan Dziubinski

William Bright (secondary education)

Emily Dolben (University of Manchester)



Graduate students:

Shana Border (now in Ph.D. program at Illinois State University)

Taylor Piefke

Jake Sawecki (Ph.D. program at Michigan State University)

Renee Renauer

Robert Fialkowski 

Travis Moore