Presenters

This list is arranged according to the four themes for sessions. Names are in alphabetical order for each session. The final program will be arranged by thematic relationships. All listed speakers have been invited and accepted.

Locomotion and Motility

• John O. Dabiri, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
  Jellyfish Swimming and the Dynamics of Animal Vortex Wakes, Revisited
  Dr. Dabiri studies the dynamics of jellyfish swimming as a model system for understanding the fluid dynamics of animal locomotion in general. His research combines new experimental methods with classical theoretical analyses to understand the role of vortex dynamics in biological fluid transport.
  
• Michael Dickinson, Division of Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
  The Control of Aerodynamic Maneuvers in Fruit Flies
  Professor Dickinson is a leading researcher on insect flight. Much of his work has involved the fruit fly, Drosophila, thus focusing his research in animal locomotion on a model genetic organism. He also uses bioinspired models of flying insects for studies of unsteady aerodynamics.
  
• Daniel Grunbaum, Biological Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
  Ecological Consequences of Biomechanical Constraints on Swimming and Sensing in Protists
  One of Professor Grunbaum's research areas is study of the sensory and behavioral bases for odor location by marine animals. He does laboratory and field experiments to test mathematical models of the ways in which fluid flows affect distributions of odor plumes. He has also studied animal locomotion in unsteady flows.
  
• Naomi Kato, Department of Marine Design and Engineering, Tokai University, Shizuoka, Japan
  Median and Paired fin Controllers for Biomimetic Marine Vehicles
  Professor Kato is a leading researcher on the design and performance of bioinspired autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). He heads an active and diverse research program that studies propulsion and control systems for AUVs. In addition, he and his associates develop a range of underwater robots.
  
• Geoffrey Spedding, Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  The Aerodynamics of Small Wings: Performance Measurements and Analysis
  Professor Spedding has worked in both biology and engineering departments on problems in bird flight aerodynamics, in mechanical models of insect wings, and in models of low and high-speed airfoils. He has also worked extensively in advanced analysis methods for 1- and 2-D data.
  
• Z. Jane Wang, Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
  Fore and Hind Wing Interactions in Dragonfly Flight
  Professor Wang is primarily a theoretician whose research focuses on the unsteady aerodynamics of insect flight. She also studies the fluid mechanical problems associated with the development of bioinspired miniature surveillance aircraft.

Muscle

• Graham Askew, School of Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
  Power Modulation in Bird Flight Muscles
  Professor Askew studies muscle physiology and biomechanics, with emphasis on how the mechanical properties of skeletal muscle determine the biomechanics and energetics of animal movement. Current research focuses mostly on various aspects of flight in birds.
  
• Andrew Biewener, Concord Field Station, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
  Muscle dynamics during locomotion: from active power modulation and force economy to passive dynamics
  Professor Biewener is one of the world's experts on terrestrial locomotion in vertebrates, specializing on muscle and skeletal mechanics. His broad comparative research includes studies of running, walking, and flying.
  
• V. Reggie Edgerton, Department of Physiological Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  Elements of recovery of locomotion following spinal cord injury
  Professor Edgerton studies motor control in humans, with implications for the treatment of spinal injuries. He has experimented extensively on the effects of loss of motor stimulation on limb muscle function. He has pioneered the use of robotic devices for both the treatment and study of sensory-motor integration.
  
• Robert Full, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
  Biological inspiration: artificial muscles and robotics
  Professor Full studies the locomotion of multi-legged systems, including crabs, cockroaches, and millipedes. He helped pioneer the field of biologically inspired robotics, in which principles from organisms are used to construct novel mechanical designs. Important parts of this work focus on muscle design and function.
  
• Hans Hoppeler, Department of Anatomy, University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland
  Functional, structural and molecular consequences of eccentric muscle work
  Professor Hoppeler is a muscle physiologist whose research emphasizes the physical aspects of muscle contraction properties. He also has a major research interest in the functional morphology of vertebrate, especially mammalian, respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
  
• Peter Ruben, Department of Biology, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
  Sodium channel defects: Molecular mechanisms underlying myopathies
  Professor Ruben studies the role of excitable ion channels in the genesis of several important muscle and brain diseases, including cardiac arrhythmias and epilepsies. His research makes use of an interesting model system, toxin-resistant ion channels in garter snakes, to gain insight into the role of proteins in muscle function.
• Douglas Swank, Department of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
  Designing Molecular Motors: Myosin Structural Regions that Determine Muscle Mechanical Properties
  Professor Swank's research focuses on understanding the molecular basis for muscle fiber type properties. Using Drosophila, he combines protein engineering, single molecule biophysical assays, muscle mechanics, and locomotion assays for a fully integrative picture of the influence of protein structure on muscle function.
  

Internal Flows

• N. Michele Holbrook, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
  Masters of microfluidics: hydrodynamics of fluid transport in trees
  One of Professor Holbrook's research interests is the physiology of fluid flows within plants. She has contributed important insights into how water moves between the roots and the leaves in tall trees.
  
• Jay Hove, Department of Integrative Genomics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
  Flow-induced cardiac development
  Dr. Hove has a major research interest in the interactions between fluid flows in the hearts and circulatory systems of developing vertebrate animals and the structures of those systems. He has helped to develop methods for visualizing and quantifying flows at the microscopic level, using early stage zebrafish larvae as subjects.
  
• Ghassan Kassab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
  A bioengineering model of coronary circulation
  Professor Kassab's work primarily focuses on understanding the biomechanics and adaptation mechanisms of the coronary circulation system in order to predict its responses to such diseases as hypertension and hypertrophy. One project is an effort to quantify regional coronary blood flow.
  
• Keith A. Mott, Department of Biology, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA
  Information processing by stomatal networks
  Professor Mott's research centers on the functioning of stomata in intact plant leaves. He uses experimental and modeling approaches to study both 'patchy' stomatal closure and interactions among stomata in different areas of a leaf.
  
• S. Laurie Sanderson, Department of Biology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA
  Biological vs. industrial crossflow filtration: ways to avoid a dead end
  Professor Sanderson uses a range of innovative techniques for studying the biophysics of suspension feeding in living fishes. Her work has uncovered many new phenomena, including the importance of cross flow filtration in a range of filter feeding species.
  

Materials

• Margaret J. McFall-Ngai, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, WI, USA
  Fiat lux: convergence in the biochemical and molecular design of eyes and photophores
  Professpr McFall-Ngai is a leading student of the biology of symbiotic relationships between organisms, especially microorganisms and complex multicellular organisms. She and her group are investigating many aspects of the genetic, molecular, and biochemical bases for the symbiosis that, among other things, produces light used by a bioluminescent squid. They recently discovered a new group of light reflective proteins (which they named reflectins) in the light organs of that squid.
  
• Stanislav Gorb, Biological Microtribology Group, Max-Planck-Institute of Developmental Biology, Tuebingen, Germany
  Bioinspired attachment devices: what can we learn from evolution
  Professor Gorb is a leading figure in the study of the systems used by many kinds of animals, especially insects, to attach themselves to a variety of different substrates. An important goal of his work is the determination of design principles that may inspire new ideas for surface active materials.
  
• John Gosline, Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
  Spider silk or hagfish silk, that is the question: alternate routes to the production of high performance protein fibers
  Professor Gosline's research field is comparative biomechanics, concentrating on the design of structural materials in animal skeletons and on the mechanics of locomotion in soft-bodied animals. Recent work focuses on the characterization of the molecular structure of the protein fibers in the webs of orb-weaving spiders.
  
• Cheryl Hayashi, Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA
  Spider silk: design, performance, and evolution
  Professor Hayashi studies spider silks at multiple levels of biological integration. She has worked on the molecular genetics and evolution of silk genes, the protein sequences in different types of silk, and on the biomechanical properties of strands of various silks.
  
• Adam Summers, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
  Building for strength and stiffness with a viscoelastic material - secrets of the cartilaginous skeleton
  Professor Summers studies the effects of material properties on the forms and structures of a variety of organisms. His primary model system is based on comparisons between cartilaginous and bony fishes. Investigations include the comparative biochemistry of cartilage, ultra- and micro-structural morphology, gross anatomy, and functions at the organismic level.
  
• David A. Tirrell, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA
  A bioengineering approach to materials synthesis and design
  Professor Tirrell's research group combines organic, biological, and materials chemistry to make new polymeric systems of controlled molecular and supramolecular architectures. They study two kinds of systems: artificial proteins made by artificial genes in microbial cells and flexible polymeric nanowires and nanotubes made by a membrane templating technique.

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