John Placyk & Family
John Placyk was born and raised in Runnemede, New Jersey, a suburb of Philadephia. He spent his childhood and early adult life chasing amphibians and reptiles in cricks, Delware River tributaries, cranberry bogs, and the Pine Barrens of South Jersey. Ever cautious to avoid bumping into Mrs. Leed's 13th child, the Jersey Devil.
He completed a B.S. in Marine Science from the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Pomona, New Jersey in August of 1998 and then headed to the upper peninsula of Michigan to complete an M.S. in Biology in Dr. Brent Graves lab at Northern Michigan University. His M.S. research focused on the chemical ecology of plethodontid salamanders, specifically, on how red-backed salamanders use their visual and chemical senses to forage. Following the completion of his M.S. in the spring of 2000, he spent a summer studying wetland bird and shorebird behavior in Massachusetts and Connecticut with the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences. He joined Gordon Burghardt's Reptile Ethology Lab at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in August of 2000 and completed his dissertation examining the roles of genetics and environment on geographic variation in gartersnake behavior, morphology, and life-history traits in the summer of 2006. From August of 2006 until August of 2007, he was a postdoctoral research associate in Ben Fitzpatrick's population genetics lab at the University of Tennesse at Knoxville working with the endangered California tiger salamander. In August of 2007, he joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at the University of Texas at Tyler as an Assistant Professor.
Dr. Placyk currently lives in east Texas with his wonderful wife, Lana, beautiful baby, Willa, 2 horses (Star and Buddy), 2 donkeys (Tula and Tess), 9 dogs (Gizmo, Raney, Buffy, Shadow, Phoebe, Sunshine, June Bug, Miss Buggywink (a.k.a. Buggy; a.k.a. Wawa), and I.E.), 14 cats (Inky, Binky, Misty, Creamy, Dora, Mooch, Willa, Howard, Suzi, Georgiana, Poppy, Bubbles, Flossy Flower, Purrikins), 1 bearded dragon (Uncle Willy), and 4 goldfish (Miss Potter and company).
John and Willa
Lana, Willa, and Buddy