Nick is interested in the molecular and neural processes that shape animal behavior. He received his PhD with Kristin Scott at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied molecules and neurons involved in regulating the balance between food and water ingestion in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In the Hoekstra lab, he studies natural variation in the vocal behaviors of deer mice. He is currently a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow.