Congratulations, class of 2026 Cook Lab graduates!

On Saturday May 9th 2026, three exceptional Cook Lab members walked at Marquette University Graduation at Fiserv Forum. Alyssa Rada and Jordan Dubeck graduated with their Bachelor’s degrees, and Dr. Justine Nguyen received her Ph.D. and was hooded by Dr. Cook. Once both ceremonies concluded, Dr. Cook hosted a party to celebrate our graduates.

The Rada family poses with recent graduate, Alyssa at the center

Alyssa Rada joined the lab in Spring 2024 and worked full time in the lab Summer 2024 and 2025. In addition to assisting with various ongoing projects, she also conducted an independent research project investigating whether bees would fan in the dark. She presented this work and the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America in November 2025. She has accepted a position at Iowa State University where she will be pursuing her Ph.D!

Jordan poses outside of Wehr Life Sciences Building

Jordan Dubeck joined the lab in Fall 2023 and worked full time in the lab during Summer 2025. During her time with the Cook Lab, she conducted an independent research project on proboscis extension reflexes (PER) and assisted with several graduate-student led projects. She is also coauthor of a recently submitted manuscript led by Casey Lambert. Jordan has given numerous presentations at local, regional, and national conferences including the annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America in 2025 and the Big East Undergraduate Research Symposium in March 2026. She will be pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of California Davis in the fall!

Dr. Justine Nguyen poses with the cutest bouquet of crocheted flowers

Justine joined the Cook Lab as a Ph.D. student in 2021. She has had an incredibly productive and meaningful journey with the Cook Lab. She returned to Milwaukee to walk at graduation and be hooded by Dr. Cook but is already hard at work in a post-doc position. She joined Dr. Lewis Bartlett’s lab at the University of Georgia to continue exploring how social honeybees respond to stressors.