Lab Pictures

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Darby is currently working as a Disability Management Consultant with Vancouver Island Health Authority in Victoria, British Columbia. Darby finished her MA in Disability Management at UNBC after completing her BA at Dalhousie. Prior to that, she worked in the Rhythms Lab here at Vancouver Island University. Darby and Sol were my first students at VIU.

Sol - After completing the Psychology program at VIU, Sol lived in several countries around the world. She settled down in the UK where she completed a BA in Combined Modern Languages (German, French and Italian) at University of Hull. Having acquired extensive teaching and translating experience in Canada, Italy, Germany, and England, Sol has now completed a Master’s in Translation and TESOL and is now part of the teaching faculty at the University of Hull.

While here at VIU, Darby and Sol studied the effects of nicotine on dream recall and REM sleep.

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After finishing her senior's research project at VIU, Sabine went on to complete a M.Ed. in English as a Second Language at the University of Alberta. At the moment, she is working as at the University of Alberta and is completing a B.Ed in German and Special Education. This girl can't get enough!

While here, Sabine studied the effects of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation on the acquisition of English as a second language amongst international students.

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Natasha graduated from Vancouver Island University in December of 2004, and has since completed a Counseling Psychology Master’s degree from UNBC. She is now currently working on her PhD at the University of Alberta. She was also awarded an Alberta Heritage Award of $120,000.

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Sarah defended her Master’s degree at the University of Western Ontario studying goal-oriented categories in medicine, such as the definitive categories that doctors and nurses have to classify patients, and how expertise can affect the ability to use such categories. Her study contrasted deep-feature similarity between patients (or how the patients would be cared for), with surface-feature similarity (such as particular demographic information or disease characteristics).

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Tamara graduated from VIU with a double major in Psychology and Nursing. She was also awarded a Canadian Graduate Award, also known as the very prestigious NSERC of Canada award. After completing an MSc in Neuroscience at UBC studying the effects of pregnancy on the number of synapses in the dentate gyrus, Tamara was accepted into the PhD program in nursing. She is currently working in neurology. While at VIU, Tamara studied the effects of light on oxytocin protein expression in the hypothalamus of C57Bl/6j mice.

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Danica just completed a Post Doc at the prestigious Stanford University and is now working at UBC Okanagan as a newly minted professor. Danica left our Lab to complete a PhD in Neuroscience studying biological rhythms under the direction of Dr. Ralph Mistlberger at Simon Fraser University. Specifically, Danica's PhD focused on the neural mechanisms responsible for timing the opportunity to feed, (where the hell is the food clock?!). I am happy to report that her extensive education been fully supported by a Post Graduate Scholarship from NSERC during her graduate training! ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jill is currently managing 3-4 projects involving gambling and drug problems in adolescents, homeless individuals and those with mental illness including drug addiction. These projects require her to conduct a follow up study to the prestigious North American Opiate Maintenance Initiative project using hydromorphone. She is one exceptional researcher! Jill has just finished her MSc in public health at the University of British Columbia. While here at VIU, Jill and I worked with Edgewood Addiction Treatment Centre examining factors predicting success in recovery from drugs and alcohol.

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Nicole is currently working at the University of Calgary in Industrial and Organization Psychology, examining work place productivity. I am pleased to announce that recently she won a SSHRC! We are all so proud of her!

While here at VIU, Nicole and I worked with Open Minds Open Windows, which is a Social Enrichment Group for those suffering from mental illness. Specifically, we studied the effects of social enrichment on the severity of symptoms of those presenting with mental illness.

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Karina is currently completing her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Bern in Switzerland...lucky dog!

While here at VIU, Karina and I worked on examining circadian sleep patterns in individuals suffering from Fibromyalgia.

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Mike B left the Lab and rumor has it that he is working with autistic children here in Nanaimo.

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Elizabeth, after winning the Governs General Award for Academic Excellence, has finished her MD at the of University of British Columbia. As if this was not challenging enough, she decided to have a baby during the process to boot! I am very proud of her!

While here at VIU, Elizabeth and I looked at the impact of one's personal view of addiction and the emotional cost associated with having a drug addicted son or daughter.

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Angie finished her time at VIU by completing a BA in Criminology and Psychology. She left the neuroscience field behind for Law School at the University of Victoria. If you need a good lawyer...

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After finishing her BSc in Psychology and Biology in the shortest time ever, Laura is now finishing her PhD at the University of Victoria and the Department of Fisheries. Laura examines the immunological response of salmon to sea lice with the goal of understanding the molecular basis of susceptibility among host species. By comparing the responses of resistant and susceptible hosts, she may be able to identify biomarkers of resistance important for selective breeding in aquaculture while aiding in our understanding of how this parasite affects different wild salmon. In 2011, Laura was award the prestigious Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alexander Graham Bell doctorate award. We were recently updated that Laura will be finishing her PhD shortly and has landed a very prestigious post doc. Way to go! _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Manisha graduated from University of Victoria but came back to Nanaimo for a little bit more research experience. She did a phenomenal job even if the research project was never completed, due to her acceptance into Medical School at the University of Limerick in Ireland!

While she was here she ran an experiment looking at the role of day length, known as photosperiod, on subjective well-being, melatonin levels and sleep quality. I'd definitely trust her to be my physician!

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After having an exceptional run here at VIU and SFU, Erin has elected to have a non-academic life in the beautiful Pemberton Valley. While here and at SFU, Erin worked on setting up the Drosophila lab, developed protocols for studying feeding behavior in flies, and drank all my beer! However, she also won an undergraduate summer NSERC so I guess I can’t complain much! We sure miss her a lot are a more than a little envious.

Brianna left Nanaimo for the promise land (aka Calgary), to work in a neuroscience lab to prepare for entering graduate school! Right now she knows more about the lab than anyone else and can even take out the testicles from a fruit fly in under 30 seconds! While at VIU, Brianna studied the epigenetic effects of obesity, food entrainment, and the effects of dark pulses on circadian rhythms in drosophila. This girl has no shortage of great ideas....can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Alison has decided to take a short hiatus from academics, and for a good reason! She had Parker, the cute little guy in the photo, just over a year ago and is now raising him in the beautiful surf city of Tofino. I have no doubts we’ll see her again soon as she was a great asset to our Lab here at VIU.

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After nearly completing a degree at UVic, Jamie tried out a number of careers before coming back to VIU to completing her degree. After spending two glorious years at VIU, working as a stats TA and a research assistance in the sleep and rhythms lab she is now heading back down to UVic to work on her Masters degree. We are all so proud of her and miss her ...but not her evil Tequila ways!

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Leah Isherwood was our Biological Rhythms and Behavioural Neuroscience Lab Manager throughout 2014-2016. After graduating as Valedictorian in 2016, she travelled overseas to Uganda and completed a medical internship in a rural and remote emergency clinic. She has recently been accepted into Dr. Samuel Weiss’ laboratory at the University of Calgary and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute to begin a graduate degree in Medical Science, studying combinatorial therapeutics for the treatment of glioblastoma. Afterwards, Leah hopes to complete a medical degree, and practice both as a researcher and clinical neurologist, to not only treat but prevent idiopathic brain disorders.