Luke Bemish

An undergraduate studying mathematics and biology with a concentration in neuroscience; interested in systems neuroscience and dynamical systems.

[email protected]

Linkedin

GitHub

Resume

Research Experience

CURI Summer Researcher

Summer 2024 – Spring 2025St. Olaf College
Mechanisms of auditory eavesdropping in Ormia ochracea, a parasitoid fly

Investigated how flies adapt to changes in host song patterns through behavioral experiments comparing different populations

Recorded from auditory neurons and conducted behavioral experiments to determine what information flies extract from host cricket song patterns

Collaborated with other students to conduct research on and maintain several fly populations


Summer Undergraduate Researcher

Summer 2023St. Olaf College
Dynamics of Costa Rican singing mouse song structure

Characterized differences in note timing between social and solitary contexts

Built a low-parameter model of note timings

Investigated social-context-dependent sources of variance in song length


CURI Summer Researcher

Summer 2022St. Olaf College
Potential retinal mechanisms for magnetoreception in birds and turtles

Analyzed neural data recorded from a multi-electrode array for which we were unsure of how our information of interest may have been encoded

Located and mitigated sources of electromagnetic noise in our experimental setup

Assembled a data pipeline capable of analyzing the large amounts of neural data collected


Summer Intern at Air Force Research Labs

Summer 2020 - 2021Cold Atom Lab, Kirtland AFB, NM

Simulated, built, and tested a high-current op-amp power supply for a cold atom system

Developed and implemented a type of Bayesian optimization algorithm to more efficiently cool atoms in an atomic physics experiment


Research Science Institute

July 2020Center for Excellence in Education

Designed a computational approach for Foldiak’s algorithm, an alternative approach to categorization using neural-inspired unguided learning, for use without prior knowledge of the probabilities of features


Education

St Olaf College

Fall 2021 — Present

Currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Biology. Coursework includes Dynamical Systems, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, and Topology


Skills

Laboratory

Computing