Personal Statement
I am a biomechanist using innovative 3D visualisation and animal models to study musculoskeletal mechanics at the interface between the head and body: the neck.

I completed my BSc in Marine Biology with a minor in technical theatre at Hofstra University (US), and my MSc and PhD at Brown University (US). My PhD developed new ways to see and measure muscle motion and 3D shape change in living animals with x-ray video. I discovered fish power feeding not with head muscles as expected, but almost entirely with the swimming muscles of the body. As a postdoctoral researcher at Brown, I co-led (as Co-PI) a US NSF grant building a new framework for studying the anatomy, mechanics and evolution of fish body muscles as dual-function motors powering swimming and feeding.

I joined the University of Liverpool in 2018 on a BBSRC Discovery Fellowship, during which overturned the idea that fish bodies only bend in 2D. I showed fish move the backbone three-dimensionally and have a functional neck. In 2022 I became a Tenure Track Fellow in the Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences, where I continue to use fish models to investigate spinal biomechanics, dynamic muscle deformation, and bio-inspired robotic devices.

Research Overview
I am part of the Evolutionary Morphology and Biomechanics Group, where I use fish as models to investigate:
1) the motion and functional morphology of the neck and spine
2) the 3D architecture and deformation of muscles during contraction
My research includes in vivo data collection with x-ray video, ex vivo anatomical studies (MRI, CT, etc.) and 3D digital animations.