Daniel Meister

About me

I was born/grew up in: I was born in North Bay, Ontario, but have lived in various places across Canada, the United States, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium

I now live in: Fredericton, New Brunswic

I completed my training/education at:  have a BSc in Kinesiology and am working on my Masters degree at the University of New Brunswick.

What I do at work

I’m currently a master’s student and am working for CELLAB at the University of New Brunswick. I do my own research and help others with their research. I am currently conducting research into how 24-Hour Movement Behavior affects our bodies. 24-hour movement behavior is the combination of physical activity, inactive time, and sleep.  

I also help monitor participants and do testing in a couple of other studies. One of these is looking at how resistance training can help older diabetics maintain their functional ability and control their blood sugar. Another study is looking at how a walking activity can help individuals living with Diabetes control their Blood Sugar levels.

A typical day for me involves reviewing previous scientific literature, and monitoring participants in the different studies. I also use different statistical tools to analyze data. In all of these tasks I need to using the critical thinking and skills that I learned from my STEM education.

My career path is

I am actually using the CELLAB job as a steppingstone in my career. My hope is to one day make it into medical school and become a doctor. Getting to this point in my career involved networking with my university profs and showing them that I was a good student. Because of that, I was offered a job at the CELLAB which I have really enjoyed. I currently have a BSc in Kinesiology. I am working on my Masters while applying to medical school.

I am motivated by

I love making new discoveries and furthering our scientific knowledge. It's really exciting running the statistics to test a research question, and being the very first person to see the results. For me that is the most interesting part of my job! I really enjoy getting to work with the various participants in the studies.

How I affect peoples’ lives

What I love about my job is being able to see results and make discoveries that no-one else has ever seen before. Then I get to share those results with the world. The discoveries that we make can influence how exercise is recommended to help people with their health conditions.

Outside of work I

I really enjoy travelling and being outdoors! Almost every weekend, you can find me travelling somewhere to either explore a new area or to visit a friend. I also enjoy running, biking, and playing piano. I enjoy spending time with my wife, family and friends.

My advice to others

Get to know your university professors. Discover what research areas they are interested in, as well as what you are interested in. If you can demonstrate that you are a good student, professors will gladly offer you the opportunity to help them work on their research!