Structure and Motion Laboratory

People

Dr Alexis Wiktorowicz Conroy

Alexis graduated with a biology degree from the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 2002. She pursued her interests in marine biology and comparative physiology, working with Terrie M Williams on seasonal differences in bottlenose dolphin blubber characteristics.

Inspired by the interaction between physiology and ecology, Alexis worked on her PhD with Malcolm S Gordon at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Here she studied the biomechanics and kinematics of swimming pufferfishes, which entailed examining locomotion patterns and measuring recoil movements and drag forces. Her collaborators included Dean Lauritzen, Mori Gharib (Caltech), Jay Hove (University of Cincinnati), Hao Liu (Chiba University, Japan) and John Dabiri (Caltech).

Alexis joined the Structure and Motion lab in January 2008 to explore the field of terrestrial biomechanics. At present Alexis is working on the influence of locomotor behaviour on appendicular skeleton organisation at the macro and micro-structural levels.

Research Interests

Comparative and ecological physiology

Biomechanics of locomotion and manoeuvrability

Energetics

Flow visualisation (DPIV) and computational fluid dynamics.

Publications

Gordon, M.S., Lauritzen, D.V., and A.M. Wiktorowicz. 2008. Passive Mechanisms Controlling Posture and Trajectory in Swimming Fishes. In Biomechanisms of Swimming and Flying, ISABMEC (ed. N. Kato). Tokyo, Japan: Springer. Pg. 53-65.

Wiktorowicz, A.M., Lauritzen, D.V., and M.S. Gordon. 2007. Passive and Powered Control Mechanisms Contributing to Smooth, Dynamically Stable Swimming in Pufferfishes. Experiments in Fluids. (43) 725-735.

Gordon, M.S., Lauritzen, D.V., and A.M. Wiktorowicz. 2007: Unrecognized Passive Controls of Posture and Trajectory in Many Actively Swimming Aquatic Animals. The Proceedings of the Seventeenth (2007) International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, ISOPE. Lisbon, Portugal. July 1-6, 2007. (2) 1138-1142.

E-mail: awiktorowicz at rvc.ac.uk

Structure and Motion Lab These pages maintained by the SML Contact: Alan Wilson