Royal Veterinary College

Faculty Member, Veterinary Basic Sciences

Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics

Thesis Title: The evolution of hindlimb anatomy and function in theropod dinosaurs

About

I'm an American biologist who has found a new home in the UK. I got my BS degree in Zoology at the University of Wisconsin in 1993, then received my PhD in Integrative Biology at the University of California with Kevin Padian in 2001, and rounded out my training with a two-year National Science Foundation bioinformatics Post Doc at the Biomechanical Engineering Division of Stanford University with Scott Delp.

I started at the RVC as a Lecturer in Evolutionary Biomechanics in 2003 in the Department of Veterinary Basic Sciences and was promoted to Reader in 2008. My interests are in the evolutionary biomechanics of locomotion, especially in large terrestrial vertebrates. I've studied birds, extinct dinosaurs and their relatives, elephants, and crocodiles. See my Research Interests page for details. I am now an Associate Editor for the Journal of Theoretical Biology (manuscripts must be submitted through their website).


My RVC team comprises:

Postdocs:
1. Dr Stephanie Pierce (NERC tetrapod locomotion postdoc)
2. Dr Olga Panagiotopoulou (BBSRC mammalian foot biomechanics postdoc; EU Marie Curie Fellow)
3. Dr Jeffrey Rankin (RVC Computer Modelling and Simulation Fellow)
4. Heather Paxton (broiler chicken biomechanics)
[5. Dr Vivian Allen (Univ Jena/VW amniote locomotion postdoc collaborator)]

PhD students:
1. Sharon Warner (mammalian foot biomechanics and pathology)
2. Julia Molnar (tetrapod/crocodile locomotor evolution)
3. Luis Lamas (emu musculoskeletal ontogeny and bone mechanics/modelling)
4. Aleksandra Birn-Jeffery (co-supervisor with Monica Daley; bird stability and scaling)

Outside PhDs (as co-supervisor/major collaborator):
1. Thibaud Souter (Paris w/Anick Abourachid; bird/dinosaur pelvic morphometrics and function)
2. Michael Pittman (UCL w/Paul Upchurch; dinosaur tail mechanics/evolution)
3. Ashley Heers (U Montana-Missoula w/Ken Dial et al.; bird flight origin and evolution)

Technicians:
1. Julia Molnar (NERC technician; Scientific Illustrator)
2. Philip Pickering (Biomechanics Research Technician)

Many undergraduate/MSc projects (average 8 per year)!

Former students/postdocs:
1. Lei Ren (was BBSRC elephant postdoc)
2. Dimitrios Tsaopoulos (was BBSRC elephant postdoc)
3. Charlotte Miller (elephant foot/limb mechanics)
4. Pattama Ritruechai (co-supervisor w/Renate Weller and James Wakeling; horse back mechanics)
5. Victoria Herridge (NHM w/Adrian Lister; dwarf elephant scaling)

Contact Information