Courtney "Nuka" Plante

Dr. Courtney "Nuka" Plante is a fursuiter and social psychologist, co-founder and lead analyst of the Anthropomorphic Research Project.

Biography
Plante graduated from the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in 2014 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State) in Ames, Iowa, USA. He is currently a professor at Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.

Plante has been diagnosed with Tourette syndrome.

Fandom involvement
Plante associates with the Montreal Furries and has, in the past, associated with the Ontario Furries, Alberta Furries and Kitchener-Waterloo Furries.

Fursona
The nickname Nuka and many of the details of his fursona are based on the character Nuka from artist Melissa Jewell (Nukascrue) and her (no longer operating) website, Mewtopia. Plante has also been a long-time fan of the Fallout series of video games, which prominently features a fictional brand of cola called Nuka Cola.

His fursona (and fursuit) is a neon-blue kitty (often wearing some kind of lab coat and goggles) with a love of marshmallows, Lego, and science. He is polydactyl, with an extra digit on his front-right paw. At conventions, Plante, as Nuka, is frequently seen donning one of several custom-made lab coats with artwork by his favorite artists.

Anthropomorphic Research Project (FurScience)
Plante has been collaborating with Dr. Kathy Gerbasi ("Dr. G"), Dr. Stephen Reysen, and Dr. Sharon Roberts since 2010 as part of the Anthropomorphic Research Project (today known as FurScience). For more than a decade, the team has conducted dozens of scientific studies of furries and related fandoms including anime fans and bronies.

Their work has included numerous international online studies as well as in-person surveys and field experiments conducted at Anthrocon, Texas Furry Fiesta, Oklacon, Furnal Equinox, Canfurence, and Eurofurence. He routinely gives talks about the furry research in his own psychology courses and at numerous professional conferences and furry conventions.

He has been a guest contributor for [adjective][species] and for Fur What It's Worth, and his research has been published in several chapters in Furries Among Us as well as in more than fifty scientific journal articles. His work with FurScience is frequently referenced in news stories, magazines, and articles citing research on the furry fandom.

Media
Plante was featured, with other fursuiters, on a furry centric episode of National Geographic Channel's Taboo.