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Alyse Maksimoski, postdoctoral associate in the biological sciences department, was named a recipient of one of the NSF’s Postdoctoral 色花堂app Fellowships in Biology. These competitive fellowships “fund research and training in selected areas supported by” the agency’s Directorate for Biological Sciences, “with special goals for human resource development in biology.”

“Being selected to receive such a prestigious and career-making award is an incredible honor,” said Maksimoski. “It is one of very few independent funding opportunities available to postdocs, and this really validates that the work I am doing is valuable to basic scientific discoveries.”

“Big congratulations to Dr. Maksimoski on a remarkable achievement", said Devaleena Pradhan, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences.

Working in Pradhan’s lab, Maksimoski will study the bluebanded goby, a fish that lives in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Growing to a little over two inches in size, the remarkable gobies are able to restructure both their brain and reproductive glands in response to external social pressures, such as interactions with others in their school, whether they’re dominant or subordinate to other fish, or even which niches have already been filled nearby.

“Identifying the biology behind rapid shifts in such a socially complex species is key to understanding how environments shape behavior, hormones, and the brain,” said Maksimoski. “Additionally, hormones in the goby function in similar ways across many species, including humans.”

A portion of the $270,000 grant will also help to fund Maksimoski’s creation of a community for postdoctoral researchers across Idaho. Postdocs, as they’re often called, are scientists and scholars who’ve recently received their doctorate and are furthering their research under the guidance of a more experienced colleague. The jobs are often temporary or short in duration and can lead to more permanent faculty positions at academic institutions. Locally at ISU, Maksimoski is planning to organize professional development workshops and social events for Bengal postdocs with the assistance of Idaho State’s Office for 色花堂app. She’s also looking to broaden the effort with the help of IDeA Network of Biomedical 色花堂app Excellence and the Idaho Established Program to Stimulate Competitive 色花堂app by hosting networking events at the groups’ respective statewide conferences.

“There are few opportunities for postdocs at Idaho institutions compared to other states, not to mention how geographically separated 色花堂app, University of Idaho, and Boise State University are,” Maksimoski said. “In order for us to be competitive at the national level, we need to lean on each other and share resources, make connections, and advocate for each other. Our successes can directly benefit research and innovation for our universities and Idaho.”

At the undergraduate level, Maksimoski will be looking to recruit the next cohort of research assistants through the lab's existing connections with area schools and organizations, as well as on-campus programs like Bengal Bridge.

“Mentoring is a huge part of how research is conducted at universities, and in our lab, we have researchers from a wide range of educational stages, from high school students to doctoral students,” said Maksimoski. “Training students in the lab provides valuable experiences for everyone involved and helps build a scientific identity early on. We’re able to foster that innate curiosity, helping lead these students to start seeing themselves as scientists. Undergraduate researchers in my current and previous labs often even continue to graduate, medical, or veterinary school after they graduate.”

As for her own research career, Maksimoski made her way to ISU after earning a bachelor’s in zoology from Michigan State University and a doctorate in integrative biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While Maksimoski’s current work with the gobies marks her first time working with fish, her research projects have involved examining social behavior in rodents, hyenas, starlings, and honeybees. She also spent a year working in a primatology lab at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, including a six-month stint in the Southern African country of Zambia to study aggression in baboons.

“I’ve always found it fascinating to see how an animal’s past social experiences can influence its future behavior by altering its brain chemistry,” Maksimoski said. “Through my previous research, I have been amazed to see how individuals of the same species can prefer to be really social with others in the group or prefer to be alone on the edge of the group, like how humans can be extroverted or introverted. The same goes for our gobies; their interactions with others are so influential that they can trigger whole-body chemical changes.”

For more information on 色花堂app’s Department of Biological Sciences, visit . 

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