Research People

Head of the Structure & Motion Laboratory

Alan Wilson

Alan is a Professor of Locomotor Biomechanics and leader of the Locomotion (Muscle, Tendon and Biomechanics) Research Group. Read more about Alan's research here.

Faculty

Monica Daley

Monica is a Senior Lecturer in Locomotor Biomechanics. Her research team investigate the integrative physiology and biomechanics of how animals move through complex terrain.

Professor Hutchinson is a Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics. John's research straddles the fields of evolutionary biology and biomechanics, with an emphasis on how very large animals stand and move and how locomotion evolved in different groups of land vertebrates.

Justin Perkins

Justin is a Lecturer in Equine Surgery at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC). He holds the RCVS Certificate in Equine Surgery (Soft Tissue), the ECVS Diploma in Large Animal Surgery and is a European Specialist in Large Animal Surgery

Thilo Pfau

Thilo is currently focusing on the use of inertial sensor based technology (as well as traditional kinetics and kinematics) to detect and quantify movement anomalies in animals. This covers a range of tasks and animals with the main emphasis on lameness and ataxia in horses. He is supported in this undertaking by his PhD students (currently Sandra Starke and Emil Olsen) and a number of undergraduate students who undertake their research projects with him. In addition, his work also includes lameness quantification in cows and dogs. He is collaborating with Veterinarians in the Equine and Small Animal Referral Hospital as well as internationally.

Stephanie Pierce

Stephanie is a Temporary Lecturer in Evolutionary Biomechanics examining the locomotion potential of early tetrapods.

Andrew Spence

Andrew Spence is a Lecturer in Biomechanics. His dedicated laboratory web page is at www.spencelab.com

News: new BBSRC grant awarded! Andrew has been awarded a 3-year BBSRC grant entitled “Foundations of Neuromechanical Systems Biology.” With co-investigators Prof. John Hutchinson and Prof. Dominic Wells, this project will use a technique from the frontier of molecular genetics, optogenetics, to tease apart the contributions of the nervous and mechanical systems to fast legged locomotion. Further details about the project are available here.

Renate Weller

Renate is a senior lecturer in large animal diagnostic imaging dividing her time between clinical work, research and teaching in large animal diagnostic imaging and locomotor biomechanics.

Thomas Witte

Tom is a Lecturer in Equine Surgery. Recognised as an RCVS, American and European Specialist, his clinical interests include head and neck surgery and minimally invasive surgery. His research focuses on the biomechanics and control of the locomotor system and upper respiratory tract.

Research Fellows

Peter Falkingham

Peter is a Marie Curie International Outgoing Research Fellow, based at both the RVC and Brown University, USA. His research is primarily focused on foot-sediment interactions in the context of understanding dinosaur limb kinematics through computer simulation of footprint formation. Additional research interests include computational techniques in palaeontology and 3D data acquisition.

Jeffery Rankin

Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Musculoskeletal Modeling and Simulation

Post Docs

Yvonne Blum

Yvonne is a postdoctoral researcher in the Structure & Motion Laboratory, investigating the principles of bipedal locomotion in uneven terrain.

Oliver Dewhirst

Tatjana Hubel

Tatjana is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Locomotion Research Group. Tatjana's research interest covers the mechanics of terrestrial locomotion as well as the mechanics and aerodynamics of animal flight.

Behzad Momahed Heravi

Behzad is a postdoctoral researcher in the CARDyAL project at the Structure and Motion Laboratory. His research is focused on RF-based positioning and cooperative localisation in extended mobile wireless sensor networks.

Heather Paxton

Heather is a postdoctoral researcher in the Structure & Motion Laboratory, supervised by John Hutchinson. Her current research focuses on broiler chickens. This is part of a BBSRC funded grant entitled 'Towards the chicken of the future: Biomechanical Compromises and Constraints on Locomotion and Breathing in Broiler Chickens.'

Steven Portugal

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher on the CARDyAL project (funded by EPSRC) investigating flocking behaviour in birds. In particular, the potential aerodynamic benefits of 'Vee' flight formation in migrating birds such as geese and ibis.

Kyle Roskilly

After successfully defending his PhD in 2011, Kyle has stayed with the Structure & Motion Laboratory as a Post Doc. His PhD research focused on developing motion tracking systems for humans and animals.

Benjamin Smith

Simon Wilshin

Postdoctoral Researcher in Integrative Biomechanics

PhD Students

Jo Gordon

Jo is a PhD student in the Structure & Motion Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Monica Daley in collaboration with Professor Alan Wilson. Her project funded by the BBSRC is investigating the role of pinnate muscles in mechanics and control of stable locomotion in the guinea fowl.

Luis Lamas

Luis is a PhD Student at the Structure & Motion Laboratory investigating musculoskeletal development. In his research he is developing an integrated approach of various techniques from the biomechanics, engeneering and biology fields to construct robust, validated computer models able to predict the mechanical environment of bones during growth and relate this to their morphological and mechanical adaptations.

Anna Liedtke

Anna is a PhD student in the Structure & Motion Laboratory, supervised by Dr. Andrew Spence and Prof. John Hutchinson. Her research focuses on how animals use sensory feedback in the neural control of locomotion.

Diamanto Mamuneas

Diamanto is a BBSRC funded PhD student with the SHOAL group working on the collective behaviour of animals.

Julia Molnar

I am a PhD student in the Structure & Motion Laboratory, supervised by John Hutchinson, Jennifer Clack, Renate Weller, and Stephanie Pierce. My research focuses on the biomechanics of evolutionary transitions between water and land. Specifically, I am studying the role of the vertebral column in locomotion in two groups: stem tetrapods and basal crocodylomorphs.

Emil Olsen

Emil is a visiting PhD student in the Structure & Motion Laboratory. His research examines Equine cervical vertebral stenotic myelopathy (CVSM) and is supervised by Dr Thilo Pfau, Dr Renate Weller, Dr. Richard Piercy and Dr. Pia H Andersen.

Becky Parkes

Sandra Starke

Sandra is a PhD student in the Structure & Motion Laboratory, supervised by Thilo Pfau and Stephen May. Her research focuses on the biomechanics of sound and pathological equine gait and visual perception of movement asymmetry.

Victoria Unt

Victoria is a PhD student in the Structure and Motion Lab, supervised by Renate Weller and Stephen May. Her research is based on the biomechanics of horses.

Sharon Warner

My PhD research focusses on how animals with extreme foot designs overcome the mechanical consequences of foot impact.

Alison Wills

Alison has completed a BSc in Veterinary Science at The Royal Veterinary College. During this time she performed two locomotion projects in the Structure & Motion Laboratory. She is looking forwards to continuing her work in this field.

Office and Project Management

Hazel Halliday

Hazel works part time, three days a week and can usually be contacted on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Her remit at the RVC covers the Hawkshead based arm of the Comparative Biomedical Sciences department and is firmly centred on the Structure & Motion Laboratory.

Structure & Motion Laboratory