Mike Pascoe, M.S. is a PhD student in the Dept of Integrative Physiology at CU Boulder. He’s currently working on his dissertation in the Neurophysiology of Movement Lab under the direction of Roger Enoka PhD with an emphasis on studying the consequences of healthy aging on the production of human movement.

Mike will be speaking about his research at a departmental seminar series coming up on April 29th. He started a NeuroBlog about his work when he was selected to cover the 39th Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting and hasn’t stopped since. Mixing science with technology, Mike enjoys being immersed in social media and even has a podcast where he posts the lectures he has given to undergrad and graduate students.

Born and raised in Westminster, CO, he’s one of those rare Colorado natives on the Boulder campus. He’s had countless rewarding experiences through his journey as a teaching assistant and can easily see himself holding an instructor position in the future. To keep on pace and stay on track with all of this, one can now see why two brains would come in handy.

[About this Shoot: I had several interactions with Mike through email and twitter (follow him @mpascoe) before our meeting and was excited to meet this energetic, mad scientist in person. We met outside Carlson Gymnasium and casually walked up to his second floor lab. A quaint space with cubicles, desks, and bookshelves of science books and binders. "This is too....normal....to be a lab", I thought.

Wait WTF is that? A room within a room? A small 8'x8' metal box with what appears to resemble an electric chair placed in the middle and surrounded by racks upon racks of electrical equipment, ekg-esque leads hanging from the walls, and a real human brain floating in a small bucket of preserving fluid. Now we're talkin!

Given the close proximity of the room, I used a super wide angle lens and shot Mike in the chair holding the brain, as if he's telepathically communicating or conversing with the remaining core of a person who once was.

Mike explained to me a lot about the room and equipment and every bit of information went directly over my head and is still floating about Boulder somewhere, so I won't be able to relay any of it to you. After leaving, I was also weirdly curious about the brain; who's was it, male or female, what life did they lead and what was their story? Maybe Mike can answer some of this and any questions you might have through the comments. Feel free to badger him for explanations.]