Wikipedia

Brooke E. Flammang

Brooke E. Flammang is an American biologist at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.[1] She specializes in functional morphology, biomechanics, and bioinspired technology of fishes.[2] Flammang is a discoverer of the radialis muscle in shark tails. She also studies the adhesive disc of the remora, and the walking cavefish, Cryptotora thamicola. Her work has been profiled by major news outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, BBC Radio 5, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic Wild. She was named one of the "best shark scientists to follow" by Scientific American in 2014.[3]

Brooke E. Flammang
Dr. Flammang in 2023
Dr. Flammang, 2023
Born
Brooke Elizabeth Flammang

Bridgeport, Connecticut
Alma mater
Known for
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Education

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Flammang received her M.S. in marine science from Moss Landing Marine Laboratories at California State University Monterey Bay where she was in the Gregor Cailliet lab studying the distribution and reproductive ecology of deepsea catsharks from the family Scyliorhinidae of the Eastern Pacific.[4] She completed her Ph.D. in biology and a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where she worked with George V. Lauder on a variety of projects, such as fluid dynamics and volumetric imaging of fish locomotion, bioinspired robotics, and bluegill sunfish and shark functional morphology and locomotion.[4][5][6]

Academic career

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Flammang was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology (2010–2013) and a faculty member in the Division of Continuing Education (2009–2014) at Harvard University. She has served as assistant professor in the Federated Department of Biology at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (2014–2021) and currently serving as associate professor (2021–Present).[1] She also holds appointments as a Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology Associate of Ichthyology[7] and as a graduate faculty member at Rutgers University.

Research

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Dr. Flammang's research uses integrative approaches to address the physical basis of behavior in an evolutionary comparative context, investigating the ways in which organisms interact with their environment and drive the evolutionary selection of morphology and function. By combining the research expertise we have in ecology, evolutionary biology, comparative anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, hydrodynamics, and biologically-inspired robotics, we are able to approach broad-impact evolutionary questions from an experimental perspective and directly test the relationship between an organism and its environment, ultimately leading to the development of new technologies useful in ecological and organismal monitoring.

Her current research focuses on the remora adhesive disc, from describing its function and morphology to understanding the hydrodynamics and mechanism of its attachment.[8][9][10] She also works on the walking cavefish, Cryptotora thamicola, to understand the unique morphological adaptations found in walking fishes.[11][12] Her work has been profiled by the New York Times,[11] the Washington Post,[13] Wired,[11][14] You're the Expert radio show,[15] BBC Radio 5,[16] CBC Radio,[17] Discovery Channel,[18] and National Geographic Wild[19] She was named one of the "best shark scientists to follow" by Scientific American in 2014.[3]

She has made advances to the use of 3D Particle Image Velocimetry for understanding the fluid dynamics of locomotion in fish.[20] Her lab focuses on functional morphology and comparative biomechanics, along with bioinspired robotics, the evolution of tetrapods, and the fluid dynamics of swimming.[2]

Most cited papers

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  • Esposito C. J., Tangorra J. L., Flammang B. E., Lauder G. V. (2012), A robotic fish caudal fin: effects of stiffness and motor program on locomotor performance. Journal of Experimental Biologyl 215:56 LP – 67.[21] According to Google Scholar, this paper has been cited 196 times.[22]
  • Flammang BE, Lauder GV. Caudal fin shape modulation and control during acceleration, braking and backing maneuvers in bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus. Journal of Experimental Biology. 2009 Jan 15;212(2):277-86. According to Google Scholar, this paper has been cited 114 times.[22]
  • Flammang B. E., Lauder G. V., Troolin D. R. and Strand T. E. (2011), Volumetric imaging of fish locomotion. 7. Biology Letters doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2011.0282[23] According to Google Scholar, this paper has been cited 81 times.[22]
  • Flammang BE, Lauder GV. Speed-dependent intrinsic caudal muscle recruitment during steady swimming in bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus. Journal of Experimental Biology. 2008 Feb 15;211(4):587-98. According to Google Scholar, this paper has been cited 78 times.[22]
  • Flammang, B. E. (2010), Functional morphology of the radialis muscle in shark tails. Journal of Morphology., 271: 340–352. doi:10.1002/jmor.10801[24]
  • Flammang B. E., Suvarnaraksha A, Markiewicz J, Soares D. (2016), Tetrapod-like pelvic girdle in a walking cavefish. Science Reports 6:23711.[12] This paper demonstrated how Cryptotora thamicola walks and climbs waterfalls with a tetrapodal gait and has a pelvic girdle with morphological features consistent with terrestrial vertebrates.

Awards

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Flammang is the principal investigator for a National Science Foundation (NSF) Rules of Life RAISE grant[25] to address the evolution of terrestrial locomotion.[26] She has been recognized by the Journal of Experimental Biology as an Early Career Researcher of note,[16] and was awarded the Dorothy M. Skinner Award in 2013 by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. In 2017, she was awarded the Carl Gans Award by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.[16] She was the 2019 recipient of the Bioinspiration and Biomimetics Steven Vogel Young Investigator Award.[27] as well as the 2019 recipient of the NJIT CSLA Rising Star Research Award.[28]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Brooke Flammang-lockyer - Biological Sciences". Federated Department of Biological Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Flammang Lab". New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  3. ^ a b Shiffman, David (August 8, 2014). "The Best Shark Biologists and Conservationists to Follow During Shark Week". Scientific American. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  4. ^ a b "Brooke Flammang - Google Scholar Citations". Google Scholar. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  5. ^ "fluid loco lab: publications". New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  6. ^ "Fish Biomechanics & Hydrodynamics (Including Shark Skin Function)". People.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  7. ^ "MCZ Associates". Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ), Harvard University. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  8. ^ Flammang, Brooke (1 April 2015). "Functional Morphology of the Remora Adhesive Disc". The FASEB Journal. 29 (1 supplement): 865.9. doi:10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.865.9.
  9. ^ Nadler, Jason H.; Flammang, Brooke E.; Beckert, Michael (1 November 2015). "Remora fish suction pad attachment is enhanced by spinule friction". Journal of Experimental Biology. 218 (22): 3551–3558. doi:10.1242/jeb.123893. PMID 26417010. S2CID 14543035.
  10. ^ Beckert, Michael; Flammang, Brooke E.; Anderson, Erik J.; Nadler, Jason H. (1 October 2016). "Theoretical and computational fluid dynamics of an attached remora (Echeneis naucrates)". Zoology. 119 (5): 430–438. doi:10.1016/j.zool.2016.06.004. PMID 27421679.
  11. ^ a b c Zimmer, Carl (2016-03-24). "Researchers Find Fish That Walks the Way Land Vertebrates Do". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  12. ^ a b Soares, Daphne; Julie Markiewicz; Suvarnaraksha, Apinun; Flammang, Brooke E. (24 March 2016). "Tetrapod-like pelvic girdle in a walking cavefish". Scientific Reports. 6: 23711. Bibcode:2016NatSR...623711F. doi:10.1038/srep23711. PMC 4806330. PMID 27010864.
  13. ^ Feltman, Rachel (March 24, 2016). "This weird little fish can walk up waterfalls". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  14. ^ Pennisi, Elizabeth (30 November 2011). "THE SECRET OF SUPER-FAST SHARK SWIMMING". Wired. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  15. ^ "You're the Expert – Sharks and Remoras – 47:42". radiopublic.com. Retrieved 2019-05-31.
  16. ^ a b c "Early-career researchers: an interview with Brooke Flammang". The Journal of Experimental Biology. 221 (1): jeb174318. 10 January 2018. doi:10.1242/jeb.174318. PMID 29321290. S2CID 31466630.
  17. ^ "Fish with pelvis built for walking discovered in Thailand". CBC News. March 28, 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  18. ^ Emspak, Jesse (July 23, 2017). "The Monofin: Will High-Tech Tail Help Phelps Beat a Great White Shark?". Live Science. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  19. ^ Tennenhouse, Erica (October 9, 2018). "These freaky fish use their fins to 'walk' across the seafloor". National Geographic Wild. Archived from the original on October 11, 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  20. ^ "Particle Image Velocimetry Systems for Quantitative Flow Measurements of Bio-Locomotion". Tsi.com. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  21. ^ Lauder, George V.; Flammang, Brooke E.; Tangorra, James L.; Esposito, Christopher J. (1 January 2012). "A robotic fish caudal fin: effects of stiffness and motor program on locomotor performance". Journal of Experimental Biology. 215 (1): 56–67. doi:10.1242/jeb.062711. PMID 22162853. S2CID 1759189.
  22. ^ a b c d "Google Scholar". Scholar.google.com. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  23. ^ Flammang Brooke E.; Lauder George V.; Troolin Daniel R.; Strand Tyson E. (23 October 2011). "Volumetric imaging of fish locomotion". Biology Letters. 7 (5): 695–698. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2011.0282. PMC 3169073. PMID 21508026.
  24. ^ Flammang, Brooke E. (20 May 2019). "Functional morphology of the radialis muscle in shark tails". Journal of Morphology. 271 (3): 340–352. doi:10.1002/jmor.10801. PMID 19827156. S2CID 7550907.
  25. ^ "NSF Award Search: Award#1839915 - RoL: FELS: RAISE: A Phylogenomically-Based Bioinspired Robotic Model Approach to Addressing the Evolution of Terrestrial Locomotion". National Science Foundation. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  26. ^ "First Steps: Scientists launch evolutionary study to explore the origins of fish that walk". Louisiana State University. Retrieved 20 May 2019.
  27. ^ "Steven Vogel Young Investigator Award - Bioinspiration & Biomimetics - IOPscience". iopscience.iop.org. Retrieved 2019-10-31.
  28. ^ "NJIT CSLA Annual Awards". csla.njit.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-27.
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