PENDLETON — Sometimes Luke Hanlin shakes his head in disbelief when he thinks about what he’s getting a chance to do with his life — scientific research with the goal of improving human health.
Halin, 37 — who graduated from Pendleton Heights High School in 2000 — earned his Ph.D. this spring from the biological health psychology department at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, just outside Boston.
That’s where he focused and worked in his field of study, biopsychosocial stressors and their effects on the immune system.
Hanlin’s work has earned him the position of Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Tufts Medical Center under the supervision of Dr. Perrie O’Tierney-Ginn, the principal investigator in the Mother Infant Research Institute.
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“The fact that I am getting to add to humanity’s body of knowledge as well as helping people live healthier lives is nothing short of me realizing my childhood dreams,” Hanlin wrote in an email to The Times-Post.
As a child, Hanlin was a very active boy always involved in sports, said his mother, Laura Kopanski.
From eighth-grade basketball to ninth-grade football, he was always on the go and trying new things; when he got to high school he participated in varsity soccer and swimming.
“One of my very proudest moments of him as a child was when I attended his fifth-grade parent-teacher conference and his teacher said, ‘Luke is extremely intelligent and will do great things in his life, and I believe I will read about Luke in the newspaper one day.’ That made my heart sing for this kid,” Kopanski said.
Not only was Hanlin a good athlete in middle school and high school, he also formed a rock band and played with the group throughout high school. During those years he learned to play the saxophone while also taking piano lessons for a few years.
His new professional work will focus on two major projects with the goal of understanding how a mother’s body and the placenta interact to regulate nutrient metabolism and delivery.
Pretty heady stuff for a small-town kid, Kopanski said.
Hanlin completed his undergraduate degree in psychology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis before pursuing his master’s and doctoral studies in Massachusetts.
Through his years of studies, Hanlin has attended and presented research findings at scientific conferences in the United States and around the world. Locations include Boston, San Francisco, Miami and Seattle, as well as Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Scotland, Canada and, most recently, Spain.
“I am very surprised and happy that conference travel is a big part of the gig,” Hanlin said.
“I’ve gotten to go to some really amazing places, see the sites, meet the people, eat the food, then nerd out super hard.”
Hanlin has written and co-authored several scientific articles in professional publications while also participating in collaborative research efforts with Harvard University.
His long-term career goal is to be an independent principal investigator running his own research lab.
