Concord Field Station

Andrew A. Biewener

Lyman Professor of Biology
Director, Concord Field Station
Editor, Journal of Experimental Biology
Chair, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

Research interests: A variety of research projects concerned with the biomechanics, energetics and neural control of animal locomotion are carried out within our group. These studies seek to compare musculoskeletal design requirements across diverse groups of species and locomotor conditions in order to understand general principles that govern the biomechanical and physiological design of the musculoskeletal system.

Recent publications:
Biewener, A.A. and Gillis, G.B. (1999) Dynamics of muscle function during locomotion: Accommodating variable conditions. J. Exp. Biol. 202, 3387-3396. (pdf 197kb)
Biewener, A.A. and Corning, W.R. (2001) Dynamics of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) gastrocnemius function during swimming versus terrestrial locomotion. J. Exp. Biol. 204, 1745-1756.
Biewener, A.A. (2002) Future directions for the analysis of musculoskeletal design and locomotor performance. J. Morph. 252, 38-51.

Stacey Combes

Research interests: My research strives to link the worlds of field-based insect flight ecology with lab-based insect flight mechanics to understand the physical foundation of diverse, natural flight behaviors. I focus on flight performance at the level of the whole organism, asking both how flapping wings interact physically with the fluid surrounding them, as well as how insects use other appendages to control the way forces act upon the body. I have developed systems in which it is possible to study freely flying insects responding to natural stimuli in a manner that is both repeatable and quantifiable, working with wild insects in their natural habitats whenever possible. I draw on a wide variety of experimental and theoretical techniques from both biology and engineering to answer questions at the interface of flight biomechanics and behavioral ecology.

Recent publications:
Combes, SA, TL Daniel. (2005) Flexural stiffness in insect wings: Effects of wing venation and stiffness distribution on passive wing bending. American Entomologist, Spring 2005: 42-44. (pdf)
Combes, SA, TL Daniel. (2003) Flexural stiffness in insect wings. I. Scaling and the influence of wing venation. J. Exp. Biol. , 206(17): 2979-2987. (pdf)
Combes, SA, TL Daniel. (2003) Flexural stiffness in insect wings: II. Spatial distribution and dynamic wing bending. J. Exp. Biol., 206(17): 2989-2997. (pdf)

Daniel E. Lieberman

Department of Anthropology, Skeletal Biology Lab

Professor Lieberman is based at Harvard's main campus in Cambridge but has an active research program at the Concord Field Station.