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Kathleen Hoffman and lamprey locomotion

Interdisciplinary research in mathematical biology

Dr. Kathleen Hoffman is a member of an interdisciplinary team of researchers that studies neuromechanical properties of vertebrate locomotion using the lamprey as a model system. 

The team, consisting of Dr. Tim Kiemel (Kinesiology, UMCP), Dr. Lisa Fauci (Mathematics, Tulane), Dr. Megan Leftwich (Mechanical Engineering, GWU), and Dr. Eric Tytell (Biology, Tufts), integrates mathematical models and laboratory experiments to study the interactions between the  components of the locomotion systems.

This group, along with Drs. Phil Holmes and Lex Smits (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton), Dr. Avis Cohen (Biology, UMCP), and Dr. Michael Shelley (Courant Institute, NYU) sponsor a yearly workshop—funded by a Research Coordination Network grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)—on neuromechanical locomotion designed to bring together researchers from different model systems: bats, flies, cockroaches, salamanders, for example, and different specializations: engineering, mathematics, biology.  In addition, the group has a yearly research meeting and routinely send students and postdocs to receive training in other disciplines.

Go to  the link below for a feature article at UMBC's home page on Dr. Hoffman's work.

Posted: March 16, 2014, 2:33 PM