Overview of research program
My research applies biomechanics and physiology as explanatory tools to address the interplay between phenotypic and functional diversity. Specifically, I integrate physics and engineering with anatomy to study the performance of biological systems in response to the physical demands placed by the environment. How physiological features of the musculoskeletal system drives whole-organismal performance can then be used to answer fundamental questions in ecology and evolution. Fishes have been an important study system in my research due to their impressive diversity, but my research is driven by the scientific question.
I apply interdisciplinary approaches involving theoretical and empirical methods, including:
Please see below for some broad themes in our research group.
I apply interdisciplinary approaches involving theoretical and empirical methods, including:
- Evaluating biological form-function relationships of living animals with biomechanical experiments,
- Deriving the physical principles of complex biological systems with mathematics and statistics,
- Developing computational models of the musculoskeletal system to determine how animals perform different behaviors, and
- Estimating phenotypic selection with methods from quantitative genetics.
Please see below for some broad themes in our research group.

The ability to successfully evade a predator has dire consequences to survival. However, escape responses are far from stereotypical. To investigate the factors that lead to phenotypic diversity of escape responses, I have collaborated with various researchers from around the world and have used fishes as a study system. Click here for more info!

The evolutionary invasion of land by tetrapods is one of the most seminal events in vertebrate history. I have led various biomechanical analyses to investigate how the morphological changes observed across the transition from aquatic fishes to terrestrial tetrapods in fossil tetrapodomorphs contributed to the invasion of land. Click here for more info!

Phenotypic selection is an important evolutionary process, and plays a vital role in generating biodiversity. I have participated in numerous studies, using the waterfall-climbing goby fish system, to assess which factors contribute to different patterns of morphological selection. Click here for more info!

The importance of phenotypic selection in promoting evolutionary changes has been of interest since the time of Darwin, and our ability to understand and quantify how selection operates has been revolutionized in the past few decades through synergisms between evolutionary principles and applications from mathematics and statistics. Click here for more info!