Current Lab Members
Dan McElreavy
Daniel McElreavy is a 1st year PhD student, he earned is BS in biological sciences from the Arizona State University, and in 2025 his MS from the EIGH at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on how human metabolic health is shaped by environmental stress, with particular interest in the emergence of biological variation and cultural adaptations. He is currently interested in non-invasive methods for measuring and contextualizing these metabolic processes, with the goal of expanding how we understand what it means to be healthy. Outside of academics he enjoys relaxing with family, watching irreverent and absurd comedies (Dues Ex Machina), and board games. Dan also likes to put raccoons places they maybe shouldn’t be.
Dr. Ville Stenbäck
Dr. Ville Stenbäck is human physiologist interested in metabolism, activity and seasonal effects on human the body. He defended his PhD in 2024 at the University of Oulu on the topic of objective measurement of human physical activity and metabolic health. He has also been part of multiple projects relating to exercise physiology and muscle physiology. Currently, he studies the metabolic health, physical activity, and energy expenditure of people living in the seasonally changing Arctic region throughout the year. He is part of the CLIMHUM research project investigating the physiological and behavioral adaptations of people in cold and changing environments. He is currently a biomedical consultant/post-doctoral research at the University of Notre Dame Department of Anthropology. He enjoys bike riding, and has a delightful dog named Tyyne who accompanies him during fieldwork.
Shelby Pirtle
Shelby Pirtle is a 3rd year PhD student in biological anthropology at the City University of New York in New York City where Dr. Stephanie Levy is her advisor. She works with Dr. Ocobock on the CLIMHUM project in northern Finland. Her research aims to understand how the human body biologically adapts to extreme environments, particularly the cold, dark winter of the arctic. She is primarily focused on how the highly variable day/night cycles of the arctic affect brown adipose tissue (BAT) in humans. Outside of work, Shelby enjoys traveling, hiking, and rollerblading around NYC.
Past Lab Members Who are Still Much Loved
Dr. Alexandra Niclou
I proudly claim the title of Dr. Ocobock’s first PhD student. I got my degree from the University of Notre Dame in 2022 after finishing my dissertation on the variation in brown adipose tissue thermogenesis and its effects on metabolic health markers in adults from Samoa. I am currently a postdoctoral fellow at Pennington Biomedical Research Center working on the Military Health and Nutrition Examinations Study (MHANES) (PI: Dr. Claire Berryman). In collaboration with the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, my work with MHANES examines how the interactions between environmental (i.e. temperature, altitude), behavioral (i.e. physical activity, nutrition, sleep), and physiological (i.e. body composition, energy expenditure, metabolic health markers) factors affect health and performance in active-duty service members.
I frequently collaborate with colleagues on anthropological research projects focusing on the effects of physiological adaptations/adjustments to the extremes and am passionate about bringing anthropological perspectives to clinical and military-focused research.