ECR Spotlight – Benjamin Haussmann and Nicole Joseph

ECR Spotlight is a series of interviews with early-career authors from a selection of papers published in Journal of Experimental Biology and aims to promote not only the diversity of early-career researchers (ECRs) working in experimental biology but also the huge variety of animals and physiological systems that are essential for the ‘comparative’ approach. Benjamin Haussmann and Nicole Joseph are authors on ‘ Intraspecific support for the climate variability hypothesis: oxidative damage in lizards after acute temperature exposure’, published in JEB. Benjamin conducted the research described in this article while a Master’s student in Dr Travis Robbins's lab at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He is now a PhD student in the lab of Dr Haruka Wada at Auburn University, investigating how environmental stressors can affect an organism’s fitness and physiology. Nicole conducted the research described in this article while an undergraduate student researcher in Dr Mark Haussmann's lab at Bucknell University. She is now a medical student at Temple University, investigating the impacts of various environmental perturbations on stress responses in the form of an oxidative damage biomarker and, more recently, relating this to mitochondrial functioning.