Associate biology professor Nick Hobbs unravels the history of hormones at next UNK Science Café

WHAT: University of Nebraska at Kearney Science Café

HOSTED BY: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society

TITLE: “Hormones: The Cause of, and Solution to, All of Life’s Problems”

TOPIC: The study of hormones as we know it came into being at the turn of the 20th century. With their discovery, these “internal secretions” brought both advances in treating numerous medical conditions as well as outrageous claims. This seminar will provide a brief history of the field of endocrinology, including its successes and missteps.

PRESENTER: Nick Hobbs is an associate professor in the UNK Department of Biology. He received his bachelor’s degree in organismal biology from the University of Kansas in 2004 and completed his doctorate in 2012 at the University of Memphis, where he studied how food availability and food quality affected sexual behaviors in meadow voles. He then went on to a postdoctoral position in the Breedlove/Jordan Lab in the neuroscience program at Michigan State University, where he studied how androgens, such as testosterone, affect the brain and behavior of mice lacking the androgen receptor. His lab is currently investigating the role of androgens in mediating the effects of food availability on olfactory and anxiety-like behaviors in mice.

TIME: 5:30 p.m.

DATE: Monday, Feb. 6

PLACE: The Loft, Cunningham’s Journal, 15 W. 23rd St., Kearney

CONTACT: Allen Thomas, UNK associate professor of chemistry, 308.865.8452, thomasaa@unk.edu