Colleen M Novak is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Kent State University. She received her undergraduate honors degree from the University of Iowa, and her doctoral degree in Neuroscience from Michigan State University.
Dr. Novak’s research focuses on physical activity—how the brain influences the timing and amount of activity, as well as the energetic efficiency of activity. This led to her interest in skeletal muscle thermogenesis and the discovery that exposure to predator threat provokes a strong thermogenic response in muscle. Currently, her laboratory examines the brain, autonomic, and muscle mechanisms underlying this contextual induction of muscle thermogenesis while encouraging the involvement of undergraduate students in research.
