Assistant Professor of Biology

 

I am a functional morphologist fascinated with the ways that animals produce movement to navigate their environment and interact with it. In the lab, we are interested in observing and quantifying what organisms can do and how they do it.  We study the physiological mechanisms that generate and control body movement, how these mechanisms determine an organism’s ability to do a task (i.e., its performance), and how differences in performance affect what types of environments or resources they can use. We use a combination of experimental and modeling approaches to explore the interconnections between morphology, performance, ecology, and evolution of different groups of animals.

Our research is currently focused on two major topics:
  1. The relationship between body size, wing shape, and flight abilities of birds. We use high-speed recordings of birds in flight to investigate the aerodynamic mechanisms they employ to perform flight behaviors such as hovering and landing maneuvers. 
  2. The evolution of the feeding system in primates. Primates exhibit a large range of morphological diversity of the skeletal and muscular systems associated with feeding. Using 3D modeling techniques, we explore how morphological differences can affect the feeding performance of primates, especially how this limits the size and type of foods that they can consume. 

To learn more about what we do in the lab, please visit our website.

Office: Spencer Hall 156/ (931) 598-1745