Miles is a sixth year PhD candidate in PEEC and working in the Bell Lab. He is interested in animal cognition and his dissertation focuses on the measurement of individual and population-level variation in cognitive performance in threespined stickleback. More specifically, he is examining the mechanisms driving variation in behavioral flexibility.
What have you been up to this past week?
These days I am almost always at my computer either reading or writing as I try to finish things up. I will be defending this summer. Last week, I had to take a step back from a chapter I’m writing and rethink the outline for my introduction. I had all these different parts of paragraphs I was trying to fit together, and this process was really helpful for getting me to re-prioritize my thoughts. Also, for one of my last chapters I will be analyzing some TagSeq data. I’m interested in looking at brain gene expression related to changes in learning. I don’t have much experience dealing with this type of analysis, so I just started an RNASeq workshop at HPCBio last Friday. Finally, I am also helping redesign our lab’s website. I’ve never done web design before, so I’ve been watching a bunch of YouTube videos and learned a lot! It’s really fun, and it’s been way easier than I thought to get something decent created. I’ve been putting off making my own site, but now I’m excited to start.
Do you have pets?
Yes, my family has 2 cats and 1 dog. Mia is our oldest pet. She will be 16 later this year. She is a grey pastel tortoiseshell. We call her the “sweetest of the sweet” and she lives up to the title. She is very shy initially, but once she gets to know you she’s all over you. Her favorite thing is sitting on the couch each morning and getting pets from our five-year old daughter. Our second cat is Beasley and he is going to be 15. He looks like your typical black cat, but he has a pretty crazy story. My childhood neighbor found him as a tiny kitten on a deserted island off the coast of Tunisia when she was visiting while going to school in France. Soon afterwards she moved back home, but could not keep him. I beat my mom at a game of rock-paper-scissors to get him. He has a wild/aggressive side, but is also the most affectionate cat I know. Last, we have an Olde English Bulldogge named Bento. He is a tank! He is about 2 and a half. We got him when he was 10 weeks, and he has been a great addition to the family. He absolutely loves meeting new people and dogs, though sometimes he’s a little too enthusiastic. Dude makes the craziest drool bubbles waiting for treats.
What are your hobbies?
I’m pretty obsessed with board games. It’s a bit of a problem. We were first introduced to Settlers of Catan by some lab mates when we moved here and I haven’t looked back. We found it to be a great way to hang out with friends and it’s been really cool having our daughter get into them over the last couple of years. Also, there is a local organization that promotes games and game design, and last year I competed in their annual design context. I created a game called Canine Club that has players competing to create the best dog daycare. It’s something I continue to work on when I have time. This also got me back into my other hobby which is art. I needed to create some art for the cards in the game, so I started doing digital art. Over the last year I have been drawing a lot more, making pet portraits for people and also creating logos (I designed a sign for the Bell Lab).
How do you unwind after a long day:
At night I’m often watching something on Netflix or HBO with my wife and drawing on my iPad.
Picture of your week:
