Dr. Timothy Edward Higham is a Full Professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at the University of California, Riverside. His research focuses on biomechanics, functional morphology, and ecology, with a particular emphasis on animal locomotion, predator-prey interactions, and adhesion in geckos.
Dr. Higham earned his B.Sc. in Zoology from the University of Calgary in 2000, followed by an M.S. in Biology from the University of Cincinnati in 2003. He completed his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Davis, in 2006 under the mentorship of Peter C. Wainwright. He then conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University from 2006 to 2008, working with Andrew Biewener on muscle function and biomechanics.
He began his faculty career as an Assistant Professor at Clemson University in 2008 before joining UC Riverside in 2011. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2015 and Full Professor in 2021. In addition, he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and conducted research at the University of Freiburg and the Museum Koenig in Germany from 2017 to 2018.
Dr. Higham has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles in top scientific journals, including Current Biology, Journal of Experimental Biology, Functional Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology. His work has gained significant media attention, with coverage in Scientific American, BBC News, National Geographic, New York Times, and many other outlets.
He has been awarded several NSF grants, including funding for research on gecko adhesion, the evolution of biomechanics, and predator-prey interactions. His leadership extends beyond research, having organized multiple symposia at international conferences and serving as an editor for Scientific Reports and Physiological and Biochemical Zoology.
Dr. Higham has extensive field experience, conducting research in Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (Canada), Namibia, French Guiana, Trinidad & Tobago, the Mojave Desert, and South Africa. His commitment to student mentorship is evident through his supervision of numerous Ph.D. and M.S. students, many of whom have secured academic positions.
In addition to his academic work, Dr. Higham actively participates in STEM outreach programs, mentoring middle and high school students through design challenges and educational events. He is a member of several professional societies, including the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, the British Ecological Society, and the Canadian Society of Zoologists.
With a distinguished career spanning research, teaching, and mentorship, Dr. Higham continues to make significant contributions to the fields of biomechanics and functional morphology, advancing our understanding of animal movement and evolution.
Dr. George V. Lauder is a leading American biologist specializing in biomechanics, functional morphology, and biorobotics. He currently holds the position of Henry Bryant Bigelow Professor of Ichthyology at Harvard University and serves as the Curator of Ichthyology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Additionally, he is a Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.
Dr. Lauder's research focuses on the biomechanics of fishes and the development of robotic models to study aquatic locomotion. His work has significantly advanced the understanding of fish locomotion, particularly through the use of digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) techniques. This approach has provided new insights into the hydrodynamics of fish swimming and has informed the design of bio-inspired robotic systems.
After completing his undergraduate (A.B., 1976), master's (M.A., 1978), and doctoral (Ph.D., 1979) degrees in biology at Harvard University, Dr. Lauder served as a Junior Fellow at Harvard's Society of Fellows from 1979 to 1981. He then joined the University of Chicago as a faculty member, followed by a tenure at the University of California, Irvine, where he was a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. In 1999, he returned to Harvard University, where he has continued his influential research and teaching.
Dr. Lauder's contributions to science have been recognized by his election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society. He has also served on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, Journal of Morphology, and Soft Robotics.
Dr. Colin Brauner was educated in Canada at the University of British Columbia (Ph D), followed by a Post-doctoral fellowship at Aarhus University and the University of Southern Denmark, and was a Research Associate at McMaster University. He is a Professor of Zoology, UBC and Director of the UBC Aquatics Facility. He has been a Co-Editor of the Fish Physiology series since 2006. His research investigates environmental adaptations (both mechanistic and evolutionary) in relation to gas-exchange, acid-base balance and ion regulation in fish, integrating responses from the molecular, cellular and organismal level. The ultimate goal is to understand how evolutionary pressures have shaped physiological systems among vertebrates and to determine the degree to which physiological systems can adapt/acclimate to natural and anthropogenic environmental changes. This information is crucial for basic biology and understanding the diversity of biological systems, but much of his research conducted to date can also be applied to issues of aquaculture, toxicology and water quality criteria development, as well as fisheries management. His achievements have been recognized by the Society for Experimental Biology, UK (President’s medal) and the Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research (J.C. Stevenson Memorial Lecturer) and the Vancouver Marine Sciences Centre (Murray A. Newman Award for Aquatic Research). He is a former President of the Canadian Society of Zoologists.
Dr. Tony Farrell is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Zoology & Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. His research had provided an understanding of fish cardiorespiratory systems and has applied this knowledge to salmon migratory passage, fish stress handling and their recovery, sustainable aquaculture and aquatic toxicology. He has over 490 research publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals and an h-factor of 92. He has co-edited of 30 volumes of the Fish Physiology series, as well as an award-winning Encyclopedia of Fish Physiology. As part of his application of physiology to aquaculture, he has studied the sub-lethal impacts of sea lice and piscine orthoreovirus on the physiology of juvenile salmon. Dr. Farrell has received multiple awards, including the Fry Medal, which is the highest honour to a scientist from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, the Beverton Medal, which is the highest honour to a scientist from the Fisheries Society of the British Isles, the Award of Excellence, which is the highest honour of the American Fisheries Society and the Murray A. Newman Awards both for Research and for Conservation from the Vancouver Marine Sciences Centre. He is a former President of the Society of Experimental Biologists and a former Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Fish Biology. He served as a member of the Minister’s Aquaculture Advisory Committee on Finfish Aquaculture for British Columbia and was a member of the Federal Independent Expert Panel on Aquaculture Science.
Dr. Erika Eliason is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her BSc from Simon Fraser University, MSc and PhD from the University of British Columbia, and held an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Sydney and Carleton University. As an ecological physiologist, Dr. Eliason uses a combination of field and lab-based studies to investigate how fish cope with anthropogenic stressors (e.g. temperature, fisheries interactions). Much of her research focuses on how climate change affects physiological performance across populations, age, body size, and sex in marine and freshwater fishes. Tackling both basic and applied questions, Dr. Eliason’s research is informing conservation policy and enhancing the management of natural resources. Dr. Eliason has served on the editorial board for ICES Journal of Marine Science, Journal of Fish Biology and Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Dr. Eliason has been a Co-Editor of the Fish Physiology series since 2020. She was awarded the Cameron Award for the Best PhD Thesis in Zoology in Canada from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, the Boutilier New Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Zoologists, President’s Medal from the Society for Experimental Biology, and was a Hellman Fellow at UC Santa Barbara.
