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Lizard Adhesive Performance, Functional Morphology, and Behavior

I am a PhD student in the Integrated Bioscience Program at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio. I am currently studying lizard adhesion and adhesive locomotion under conditions relevant to their ecology with co-advisors Dr. Peter Niewiarowski (Department of Biology) and Dr. Ali Dhinojwala (Department of Polymer Science). More specifically, I am interested in how variation in adhesive system morphology and lizard behavior is related to performance and function on naturally occurring and ecologically relevant surfaces (e.g., rough, wet, dirty, soft). Recent projects of mine include: the effect of water on gecko adhesive locomotion and the effect of partial claw clipping on the adhesive force of Anolis sagrei. Please feel free to learn more about me, my research interests, or contact me if you have any questions.

Recent News

  • New paper published today in Designs! - I was involved in a collaborative course at the University of Akron where we investigated how to facilitate user interaction with Julian F.V. Vincent’s BioMimetic Ontology (BMO). To accomplish this, we integrated the BMO with a semantic translation tool, the Engineering-to-Biology Thesaurus designed by Jacquelyn K.S. Nagel. Later, we developed a web-based user interface that […]
  • New paper published today in Acta Herpetologica - Today, our most recent paper investigating the effect of partial claw clipping on brown anoles was published in Acta Herpetologica! Check it out here!
  • New paper published online in the Journal of Herpetology - My paper entitled, “Geckos go the Distance: Water’s Effect on the Speed of Adhesive Locomotion in Geckos”, was published online in the Journal of Herpetology! Check it out here: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1670/16-010
  • Geckos featured on UA’s Snapchat - Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to discuss some of our work with geckos on the University of Akron’s Snapchat account! The goal of the video was to educate potential UA undergraduate students about the research opportunities available within the Department of Biology. Video coming soon!  

All website photos courtesy of: Austin M. Garner, Sarah Han, or Mena Klittich.