Join us with Sheila Patek, PhD Thursday, February 17 at 5:00pm (PST) to explore the interdisciplinary insights from the fastest creatures.
The fastest, repeated-use movements on the planet are produced by small organisms that have harnessed energetic control of elastic materials to propel their movement. Whether the bullet-like impacts of mantis shrimp hammers or the bizarre leaps of legless larvae, these systems exemplify how biological systems explore the limits of physics and present capabilities not yet achieved by engineering. We will explore the biological realm of the ultrafast, tradeoffs of moving at the outer limits of physics, and interdisciplinary translation of this extraordinary world where organisms play exquisitely with mechanical power.
Sheila Patek, PhD
Prof. Sheila N. Patek, Ph.D., is the Hehmeyer Professor of Biology and a Bass Fellow at Duke University. Dr. Patek received an A.B. with honors in Biology from Harvard University followed by a Ph.D. in Biology from Duke University. Later, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at UC Berkeley. She has received numerous honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the George A. Bartholomew Award for distinguished contributions to comparative physiology, and a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University. Dr. Patek currently serves as Deputy-Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Experimental Biology, and Director of Muser, which is both a program at Duke and an open-source software application developed by her and others to facilitate equitable and transparent access to research in academia. She also regularly presents internationally, through both academic and public lectureships – including a mainstage TED talk. Her lab’s research has been featured in hundreds of media outlets, including the New York Times, National Public Radio (NPR), Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC), British Broadcasting Corp (BBC), National Geographic, and others.
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