Research

Kusek Shares Stories of Immigrant Professionals in the U.P.

May. 14, 2026
Northern Michigan University Provost Fellow and Associate Professor Weronika Kusek wrote a recently published book titled “Moving UP North: Immigrant Experiences of Professionals in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.” Each chapter is based on an oral history interview with an international professional who lives and works in the region, sharing the individual's migratory journey and personal experience. Some of the subjects have been here for a couple of decades; others are newcomers.
NMU Provost Fellow and Associate Professor Weronika Kusek

Improv Training Can Ease Social Anxiety

Jul. 7, 2023
Some people are apprehensive about participating in improv comedy because of its unscripted format that requires quick thinking to play off unpredictable ideas presented by others on stage or in the audience. But Northern Michigan University assistant professor Peter Felsman is the lead author of a published study providing the first evidence that improv training can significantly reduce a common trait of social anxiety and depression: discomfort with uncertainty.
Felsman (left) doing improv with a house team called Brenda at Pointless Brewery & Theatre in Ann Arbor, which is now closed.

Researchers Assess Animal Model of Mental Illness

Nov. 29, 2018

A chance discovery of unexpected behavioral changes in genetically modified mice prompted two Northern Michigan University researchers to embark on an interdisciplinary project. If their collaboration reveals the mice more closely replicate mental illness in humans than existing animal models, it could lead to increased understanding of human psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and more effective drug treatments. Erich Ottem of Biology and Adam Prus of Psychological Science received a Northern PRIME grant to support their research.

Ottem and Prus

New Research Sheds Light on Wolves' Diet

Oct. 20, 2026
After GPS clusters light up the map at the Voyageurs Wolf Project housing site in Minnesota, technician Alex Gross, a Northern Michigan Biology graduate student, arrives at the coordinates wondering what evidence the wolves might have left. Some days, it’s a few small remnants of a deer fawn or beaver left after a hunt, or perhaps he is taking a trek out to the mouth of a den where pups are sleeping; but in the middle of a hot Minnesota summer, those coordinates often lead him to a foraged patch of wild blueberries.
A wolf eats blueberries

NMU Biology Student Investigates Effects of Aquatic Pollutants

Oct. 15, 2026

Northern Michigan University biology student Lars Anderson spent the summer conducting undergraduate research at the University of California, Davis, investigating how persistent aquatic pollutants affect fish development and behavior.

Working with researchers in the Whitehead Lab, Anderson studied Atlantic killifish and their responses to noncoplanar polychlorinated biphenyls, or ncPCBs, a class of industrial pollutants commonly found in estuaries along the eastern United States.

Lars Anderson stands next a presentation on his research.

Visitors to America's National Parks and Wildlife Refuges Want to Learn About Climate Change

Aug. 26, 2026
A national study led by researchers at Northern Michigan University (NMU) and Slippery Rock University (SRU) finds that visitors to America's national parks and wildlife refuges are more concerned about climate change than the general public, eager to learn more about it during their visit, and largely not getting the chance.
NMU researchers take a photo at Grand Teton National Park