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David Lukacik, BS, BA, NREMT

+1-623-824-8389

[email protected]

[email protected]

Education

Umeå University, Umeå, SE

Master of Science, Cognitive Science

Affiliations: Department of Psychology

May, 2027

Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

Bachelor of Science, Neuroscience Bachelor of Arts, Philosophy (Science, Nature, and Mind) Minor: English (Linguistics)

Affiliations: Barrett, The Honors College, The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

May, 2025

Research Experience

The SOCIAL Neurobiology Lab - ASU

• Undergraduate Research Assistant working at the ASU Department of Psychology’s SOCIAL Neurobiology Lab under the supervision of Dr. Jessica Verpeut, investigating cerebellar circuits in social cognition and flexible behavior.
• Designed and refined experimental apparatus; programmed and analyzed behavioral assays; conducted rodent genotyping and handling.
• Contributed to data analysis, manuscript preparation, and conference presentation materials.

December, 2022 - August, 2025

Undergraduate Honors Thesis - Barrett, The Honors College at ASU

• Independent research project with a committee of Dr. Jessica Verpeut, Dr. Federico Sanabria, and Dr. Yi-Mei Yang.
• “Investigating the Coordinated Role of the Hippocampus and Cerebellum in Spatial-Social Processing”, defended in March 2025.
• Designed and executed an independent research project examining the coordinated role of the hippocampus and cerebellum in spatial-social processing.
• Developed experimental protocols, conducted behavioral testing, analyzed data using R, Python, and QuPath, and prepared findings for honors thesis defense.

March, 2024 - April, 2025

Conflict & Cooperation Lab - ASU

• Undergraduate Research Assistant working at the ASU Department of Psychology's Conflict and Cooperation Lab, under the supervision of Dr. Athena Aktipis and Dr. Cristina Baciu.
• Conducted systematic literature reviews, performed quantitative data analysis, and contributed to lab publications.

January, 2022 - January, 2023

CGH Culture, Health, and Environment Lab  - ASU

• Research Fellow appointed through Barrett, the Honors College, at the Center For Global Health’s Culture, Health, and Environment Lab, supervised by Dr. Alexandra Brewis and Dr. Amber Wutich.
• Focused on cultural and environmental determinants of health, engaging in mixed-methods data collection and analysis.

August, 2022 -  December, 2022

Publications

Melick, A., Lukacik, D., Chawla, S., Schaefer, S. Y., Beeman, S. C., & Verpeut, J. L. A Fine Motor Task to Study Joint Kinematics in a Preclinical Model of Neurodegenerative Disease. Journal of Visualized Experiments. (220), e68128, doi:10.3791/68128 (2025).

June, 2025

Lukacik, D., Verpeut, J. L., Sanabria, F., & Yang, Y. (thesis, non peer-reviewed). Investigating the Coordinated Role of the Hippocampus and Cerebellum in Spatial-Social Processing. Arizona State University Library KEEP.

May, 2025

Selected Presentations

Lukacik, D. Investigating the Role of the Hippobellum in Spatial-Social Processing. Poster presented at the Barrett Celebrating Honors Thesis Symposium, Arizona State University.

April, 2025