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A puerility dear of drawing and an innate curiosity brought Sandy Kawano to the field of consolidative geomorphology , a limb of biology manage with the study of the form and social system of organism and their specific features . She studies multifariousness in animal body shapes . As a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis ( NIMBioS ) , Kawano investigate the different methods used to analyze how lifelike selection influences morphology . At NIMBioS , she aims to explicate an undefendable - source , user - friendly computer program that would provide a systematic approach for measuring how selection on sound structure can give to evolution and generate biodiversity .
For her research in the field of integrative morphology, Sandy Kawano creates 3-D fossil models such as this one, of amphibian Eryops, shown here at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Name : Sandy KawanoAge:29Institution : National Institute for Mathematical and Biological SynthesisHometown : San Jose , CaliforniaField of Study : Integrative morphology
National Science Foundation : What is your theatre of operations and why does it revolutionise you ?
Sany Kawano : I am an consolidative morphologist , so I employ a variety of techniques to understand how and why so many diverse body shapes have stand up in animal over time . nontextual matter played a major role in my love for syllable structure . When I was young , I would draw quite regularly and was connive by how diverse creature were . As I would draw my pet Pisces the Fishes , I marvel why I had to draw my Carassius auratus with a unretentive body and fan - shaped tail , but my alga sucker Pisces was longsighted and lithesome . Why should they look so different when they both live in water ? Why do n’t organisms stick to one basic consistence shape ?
For her research in the field of integrative morphology, Sandy Kawano creates 3-D fossil models such as this one, of amphibian Eryops, shown here at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
However , I did n’t decide to consider morphology until I worked as an undergraduate in the lab of Professor Peter Wainwright at the University of California , Davis . He and his research laboratory teach me about the study of functional morphology , which suffice exactly the type of questions that have chivvy me for my total life . consolidative sound structure inspires me because it supply a comprehensive approach to answering why the world is so divers , what creates this diversity , and how the breathing in that we get from nature can be apply to do good our own lives .
NSF : Please trace your current enquiry .
S.K.:For my postdoctoral enquiry at NIMBioS , I am evaluating the analysis used to quantify how innate excerpt operates to shape the morphology of organism . Russell Lande and Stevan Arnold wrote a seminal paper in 1983 that provided a quantitative method to gauge how strong option was operate on to change a morphological trait and in what way , which has attend an crucial role in understanding how natural selection can contribute to development and the generation of biodiversity . Lande and Arnold ’s work in this area has inspired thousands of studies , including raw coming for quantifying selection , but we still face numerous challenge in understanding how extract operates , especially on gravid sets of data . A number of these challenges are due to analytic limitations or disagreement over how to best handle these challenges . For my current work , I am developing a deductive reasoning of the current status of estimating selection on syllable structure , with an accent on the strengths and helplessness of the various method used to quantify selection . at last , my plan is to educate an clear - seed , exploiter - friendly computer program that would provide a more taxonomic approaching for measuring how choice on morphology can serve as a major driver of evolution .
NSF : What do you wish good about your work ?
S.K.:How moral force my job is ! When the great unwashed hear that I am a morphologist , they often think : “ So you work out on bones and utter clobber ? ” Although a good portion of my workplace has involved contain direct measuring of anatomic structures ( for example , bones , muscles ) , those data point are only one composition to solving the puzzle . I also implement statistics , mathematical molding , high-pitched - hurrying videography , computer programming , engineering , and latterly began developing 3 - D model of fossil bones . My research has taken me to British Columbia , the island of Hawai’i , Spain , Uruguay and across the continental United States . A day in my life has include snorkel diving to catch fish , driving gravy holder to catch fish on near shoring islands , visiting natural history museum across the United States , acquire 3 - D models of fogey with a laser digital scanner and then replicating them with a 3 - 500 printing machine , generating computer codification running several thousands of agate line , sharing the fruits of my scientific toil with others through schoolroom talking to and group discussion presentation , and even serving as a scientific consultant for the amusement industry . I also meet Professor Neil Shubin , who wrote the bookYour Inner Fish , which inspired my doctorial work . I ’m hold up my wildest dreams with my calling .
NSF : What would your Tweet say about your work ? What would your elevator speech say ?
S.K.:Morphology is fun(ctional ) ! in reality , that ’s already on my Twitter visibility . syllable structure is useable because not only can it tell us about what a structure is up to of and be apply to benefit various aspects of our liveliness , but it can also be a sport calling !
sound structure is not a “ dead ” subject as many have incorrectly presumed . It is as alert and divers as the awe - revolutionise creatures whose “ beautiful forms ” have caught our oddment , urge on our lives , and left us breathless as far back as we can remember . sound structure can serve as an explanatory tool , helping us infer the biota of out animals whose clue consist hidden in their fossil . Yet , it also has many other of import applications . The link between morphology and function has been so rife in nature and influential in our lives that it has lead to bio - inspired inventions , such as subcutaneous needle resemble the inconspicuous feeding tube of the mosquito , the Mercedes - Benz boxfish - inspire car providing a roomy yet streamlined fomite , and aeroplane wing that get much of their energy - preserve aim from flowing bird offstage . My enquiry concentrate on unravelinghowdifferent geomorphology go forth andwhy , in order of magnitude to understand the factor that drive the multifariousness of creatures , both living and nonextant . I have studied how the morphological transformations from finned fishes to limbed tetrapods ( four - legged beast ) influenced the evolutionary invasion of land in vertebrate animals , how fishes practice dissimilar body plans to climb waterfalls , and I am now essay to improve the technique used to appraise how morphologic variety is generate .
NSF : Which professional acquisition are you most majestic of ? / What stands out as your crowning achievement ?
S.K.:I am grateful to have more than one ! First , when one of the undergraduate students in my vertebrate biota lab signed up to become an undergraduate teaching assistant a year after taking my lab , she suppose that the understanding she was there was because I inspire her to pursue research and teach others about why we should do it craniate biology . Whether she live it or not , that was my proudest moment as an instructor . Yes , receiving awards , publishing papers , delivering presentation , etc . , are all rewarding experience , but prompt the next contemporaries of scientist is whole young level of expiation . secondly , joining the amazing team at NIMBioS , as a postdoctoral inquiry associate degree , has been a major triumph in my career . I am honored to wreak amongst some of the most extraordinary mathematicians and scientists , and have hit a major milestone in get the numerical and computational skills to help launch my career and cast my research program .
NSF : On the other hand , what has been your most discouraging professional present moment and how did you go back ? What did you learn ?
S.K.:My most discouraging professional moment occurred as I was graduating high school . I had my philia set on obtaining a B.S. in evolution , ecology and biodiversity ( EEB ) at the University of California , Davis ( UCD ) , because it has one of the best EEB program in the nation . However , I did n’t have the good grades or practical program and so I was rejected . I was devastated . Rather than treating this as a failure , I get this as a awaken - up call to face up my weakness and try out that I could come after as a biologist . I enrolled in a community college to fill in my general education , studied more efficiently , actively participated in work grouping and office hours , decreased my hours at my part - time job , immersed myself in lit , and participated in an honor beau monde . After two twelvemonth , I in the end shift to UCD . We all confront discouraging moments in our lives , but what specify us is not what challenge we face but how we overcome them . I determine that even a big “ bankruptcy ” could become a victory with enough industriousness and tenaciousness , so every rejection is an chance to become a better and stiff scientist .
NSF : What is the best professional advice you ever received ?
S.K.:Dr . Roi Holzman , who was a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Wainwright ’s science laboratory while I was an undergraduate scholar , offer me numerous ivory of sapience and bestowed upon me the expert advice I have receive thus far : “ mean large . ” He recommend me to focus on what big scientific dubiousness I would answer with my experiments , how my results would contribute to the forward motion of science , and what broad implications this would have for society . His advice helps me to keep the big word-painting in mind and prepares me for when I talk to others about why my enquiry is important . It ’s because of Roi that I transmute my fascination in amphibious Pisces to studying how the phylogeny from fishes to four - legged vertebrate animals allowed our distant ancestor to move onto estate . “ believe big ” also encourages me to constantly take care for ways to take a research project to new heights , such as by applying new technique , approaching an old question from a refreshing position , integrating multiple disciplines for a more comprehensive analytic thinking , and by re - evaluating paradigms in science . Roi ’s advice motivate me to dig deeply , aim higher , and go further with every professional effort .
NSF : What is the most surprising aspect of your piece of work ?
S.K.:Many people are alarmed at how computational and mathematical morphological study can be . Although I have spent a clean share of my work out in the field or interacting directly with animals or bones , most of my study is acquit on computers . I own more computers and punishing drives than purses . No caper . Mathematics is at the heart and soul of morphology . What do a nautilus shell , sunflowers , and DNA have in common ? Their morphology can be explained by mathematics , specifically theFibonacci chronological succession . When you measure the distance of a osseous tissue , that ’s a Euclidean aloofness . concerned in knowing how fast that osseous tissue is moving while the animal is ply ? Calculus is your answer ! Some of my friends are shocked when they see that my analyses are scripts with thousands of lines of computer codification , or that I rarely use simple statistical glide slope as I am seek to account for various aspects of the data to obtain a more comprehensive analytic thinking about the design emerge . These are all expert aspects , though , and cypher is actually a quite a little of fun !
NSF : What exciting development lie in in the future tense for your field ?
S.K.:Probably one of the most exciting advancements in the field of morphology ( and anatomy ) is the blowup of ameliorate computational capabilities , allowing us to search the relationship between morphology and single-valued function at new levels . Biomedical equipment , such as high - powered x - ray machines , allow us to analyse the fogy osseous tissue of animals that are still embedded in careen or the intricate internet of easy tissues that surround a os , for example . vitaliser and biomechanists employ 3 - 500 model of fossil bones and then hold details about the sound structure of living fauna to bring fossils , such as dinosaur , to life . The app of progressively more sophisticated engineering science with greater noesis about anatomy and syllable structure will further improve our model of how unlike parts of an brute contribute to its overall biota and why those morphological traits persisted or diversify over fourth dimension .
NSF : Who is your # 1 hero and why ?
S.K.:Although I have Cuban sandwich for different aspects of my life , one of my big heroes is my undergraduate consultant , Professor Peter Wainwright . Peter introduced me to the functional morphology and course biomechanics of fish , and I ’ve been thieve ever since . In summation to make many important contribution to our sympathy about the kinship between morphology and office , such as many - to - one mapping , and spearhead the bailiwick of fish - feeding biomechanics , I know of no one else who is uncoerced to go so far above and beyond the call of duty to assist students with attaining their career destination . He attain out to me while I was an undergraduate student and took me under his wing so that I could lead my first independent research labor . I will always be grateful to him for giving me a chance at inquiry and helping me live up to my potency . Over the eld he has throw me valuable words of advice and kind word of boost , demonstrated how to foster residential district within the lab , and actively assisted my professional development . His huge enthusiasm , devotion and hold for science and teaching are inspiring and are what further me to quest after a life history as an consolidative morphologist .
NSF : What do you do when you ’re not in the research laboratory or out in the field ?
S.K.:When I get the spare luck , I jazz to be out of doors and particularly love sportfishing , tramp and trail running . I have also late taken up photography and scuba diving . Nature is a constant source of inspiration for me , and I use the pattern that I see in nature to fire my curiosity in understanding why there are so many dissimilar organisms , why they subsist where they do , why they move and run through they elbow room they do . Even after spend all twenty-four hours reading scientific articles , I still enjoy reading outside of body of work . I ’m a full-grown fan of Christian Bible by biomechanist Steve Vogel and also enjoy reading about preservation biology and the philosophy of science . One of my favourite books isA Sand County Almanacby Aldo Leopold ; I bonk his ability to publish with such eloquence and article of faith about maintain biodiversity by upgrade scientific ethics , and I touch back to his Word any metre I need a pick - me - up . I also love watching bad freak movies , specially if it has “ mecha , ” “ tops , ” “ mega ” or “ versus ” in the title . What can I say , I ’m well-chosen being a grind !
