DCB Officers and Elections

As of January 2023, your DCB officers are: 

• Chair: Brooke Flammang, chair.dcb@sicb.org
• Chair-elect: Misty Paig-Tran, empaig-tran@fullerton.edu
• Program Officer: Jimmy Liao, dpo.dcb@sicb.org
• Secretary: Laura Habegger, secretary.dcb@sicb.org
• Student and Postdoctoral Representative: Andrew Schulz, aschulz@is.mpg.de 

Welcoming our new division officers

Our election for the DCB Program Officer and Secretary was finalized during the Spring of 2023. We want to thank all our candidates Stephanie Crofts (College of the Holy Cross) and Glenna Clifton (University of Portland) who ran for Program Officer and Cassandra Donatelli (Chapman University) and Laura Habegger (University of North Florida) who ran for Secretary. Congratulations to Glenna Clifton and Cassandra Donatelli for winning the elections; both will take over their respective positions  after the 2024 SICB conference. We want to thank the 2023 Election Nominating Committee: Drs. Diego Sustaita (Chair), Chris Anderson, and Nicole Danos for their efforts on this process. Lastly, thanks to all DCB members for taking the time to vote.

Carl Gans Young Investigator Award Winner

The Carl Gans Young Investigator Award had an extremely competitive set of applicants. We would like to congratulate the winner:  Michael Granatosky, Assistant Professor at the New York Institute of Technology. The Gans Award Committee summarized the highlights of the winner in their discussion with this statement: “Dr. Granatosky has demonstrated remarkable excellence in the field of biomechanics, showcasing a deep understanding and innovative approach to the study of the musculoskeletal system. His research, which spans a wide range of species and employs diverse methodologies, stands out for its depth and breadth.”

We want to highlight  the great work done by the  Gans Award Committee members Drs. Cassandra Donatelli, Molly Gabler-Smith, and Saad Bhamia. Thanks to each for their time and their contribution to the Division.  

Best Student Presentation Competitions

This year we had 20  eligible submissions for the DCB Best Student Talk competition. Eight finalists were selected by DCB officers to be presented at the  Mimi A.R. Koehl and Stephen A. Wainwright Award for Best Student Talk in Biomechanics. This year’s finalists are listed below (in alphabetical order): 

• Hendrik Beck: “A planar omnidirectional treadmill to study insect locomotion”
• David Cuban: “Feeding efficiency of sunbirds and comparisons with other nectar-feeding birds”
• Jeffrey Hainer: “Post-spinal Transection Muscle Activation In The American Eel (Anguilla rostrata)”
• Kayla Lee: “The Human Shoulder’s Dual Challenge: Maintaining Torque and Speed During a High Demand Task”
• Eugene Lin: “Robophysical modeling of how orb-weavers crouch legs to modulate prey vibration sensing”
• Ananth Srinivas-Nurani:  “Finite element model validation in biomechanics using a 3D scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometer”
• Brian Woronowicz: “Tail-Assisted Climbing in Rats”
• Melody Young: “Climbing is hard (for literally everyone)”

This year we had 17  eligible submissions for the DCB Best Student Poster competition. Eight finalists were selected by DCB officers to be presented at the  Stephen Vogel Award for Best Student Poster in Biomechanics. This year’s finalists are listed below (in alphabetical order): 

• Haari Asghar: “A Selective Plane Illumination Microscope to Study Form-Function Relationships in Biological Needles”
• Raymond Fedrick: “Comparative Biomechanics of Feeding Performance in Dusky Salamanders”
• Darmon Kahvazadeh: “Unlocking the Mysteries Behind Ant Morphology using Ant in Motion”
• Lingsheng Meng: “A model of the cockroach antenna links tactile features to distinct motifs on a soft sensor”
• Aaron Omadutt: “Robotic model barnacle nauplii”
• Citlali Ramirez: “Seafaring with Added Cargo: Simulations of Swimming Blue Blubber Jellyfish with Prominent Oral Arms”
• Sara Siwiecki: “What is ctenophore jelly made of?”
• Melody Young: “Comparative grip strength across arboreal and non-arboreal tetrapods”

Make sure to attend the special sessions dedicated to DCB student award finalists at the 2024 meeting!

DCB Members Social

Mark your calendars to join us at SICB  for the DCB/DVM/DEDB joint members social on Wednesday January 3 at 8:30 pm!

Regional SICB Meetings 

Southeast Regional SICB DCB/DVM Meeting

All SICB members were invited to attend the Southeast Regional SICB DCB/DVM Meeting at Virginia Tech! This was a free, all-day event on Saturday, November 4, 2023, designed to build local community around integrative and comparative biology in a low-key, fun environment.  Website for the meeting (thanks to Josh Taylor): https://sesicb2023.mystrikingly.com/.

Southwest Regional Meeting 

SICB members were also invited to join the Southwest Regional Meeting of Organismal Biologists (SWOB) on November 4, hosted at the Claremont Colleges (Claremont, CA)! We planned an exciting day of science, including keynote speaker Dr. Wendy Saltzman (University of California, Riverside), featured talks, and a poster session. Learn more at https://swob2023.wixsite.com/swob2023.

DCB-DVM Mentor Mentee Program

The new DCB-DVM Mentor Mentee program is currently available! Please sign up at this link by November 15 as either a mentor and/or mentee (postdocs and senior graduate students have the opportunity to do both). You will be selected as a mentor or mentee and notified at the latest by December 15.

Students and Postdocs

The DCB Student and Postdoctoral Affairs Representative is available to serve as (1) a liaison between the student and postdoctoral members of our division and the division leadership, and (2) an advocate for the amazing research you’re all doing. If you are a student or a postdoc and you have suggestions, comments, concerns please contact Andrew Schulz by email (akschulz@gatech.edu) with your or SICB-related feedback, and she will pass them along to the DCB officers.

Social Media

To keep up with our latest news please check our Facebook group  feel free to send us your questions or tag @SICB_DCB_DVM in any tweets you’d like us to signal boost to our community!