Wiser, Michael
Education
- Ph.D. in Zoology, Michigan State University, 2015
- Graduate Advisor: Richard Lenski
About
Mike Wiser grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY. He went to the University of Southern California to earn Bachelor’s degrees in Biochemistry and Psychobiology. After graduation, he earned a Master’s degree from Stanford, then came to Michigan State University for his doctorate.
Mike’s research at MSU focused on fitness changes over long time periods in experimental populations. Working under Dr. Rich Lenski, Mike used Dr. Lenski’s Long-Term Evolution Experiment, a study that has run since 1988 tracking over 60,000 generations of E. coli, for his dissertation. Mike was fascinated with the process of evolution and questioned its predictability and repeatability.
Mike measured the fitness of E. coli at many points along their evolutionary history, and fit
Finally, Mike compared his data with data from digital evolution software – Avida, a platform created by Charles Ofria—to see if the pattern held. They did, which suggests Mike’s findings are applicable to evolution in general, not just his specific experiment.
For the next chapter in his career, Mike will remain at MSU as a postdoctoral researcher on an evolution education project. The project is studying how a classroom version of Avida effects student learning about evolution and natural science. Mike is also questioning if misconceptions about evolution span across institutions, and if using Avida in the classroom helps students use evolution across
In the future, Wiser hopes to teach at a university.