NIMBioS Past Postdoctoral Fellow
Sandy Kawano
Dates: August 2014 – July 2016
Personal Website
Twitter: @MorphoFun
Project Title: On the measurement of phenotypic selection: A quantitative synthesis
Sandy Kawano (Ph.D. Biology, Clemson Univ., 2014) is conducting a quantitative comparison of the analytical methods for estimating phenotypic selection in order to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and is developing software to facilitate experimental and synthetic analyses on patterns of phenotypic selection. After completing her fellowship, Kawano joined the Structure and Motion Lab at the Royal Veterinary College next year as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellow. She also accepted a position as assistant professor of comparative physiology at California State University, Long Beach, to begin fall 2017.
LiveScience Profile Q&A with Dr. Kawano: From drawing to morphology: Sandy Kawano
NIMBioS Seminar: Towards a unified approach for quantifying phenotypic selection
Feature Story: Strolling salamanders provide clues on how animals evolved to move from water to land
Video Interviews:
Quantitative tools to study biological form and function
Science Minute: Salamander locomotion
Publications while at NIMBioS
- Kawano S. 2019. Selection gradients. In Oxford Bibliographies in Evolutionary Biology. Futuyma D (Ed). New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
- Moody KN, Kawano SM, Bridges WC, Blob RW, Schoenfuss HL, Ptacek MB. 2017. Contrasting post-settlement selection results in many-to-one mapping of high performance phenotypes in the Hawaiian waterfall-climbing goby Sicyopterus stimpsoni. Evolutionary Ecology.:1-28. [Online].
- Kawano SM, Economy DR, Kennedy MS, Dean D, Blob RW. 2016. Comparative limb bone loading in the humerus and femur of the tiger salamander: testing the "mixed-chain" hypothesis for skeletal safety factors. Journal of Experimental Biology 219: 341-353; doi: 10.1242/jeb.125799. [Online]. [Data available here]
- Kawano SM, Blob RW. 2015. Mixed chains of safety factors in the limb bones of salamanders: implications for differential limb function in the evolution of terrestrial locomotion. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 55: E94-E94.
- McInroe B, Astley HC, Gong C, Kawano SM, Schiebel PE, Rieser JM, Choset H, Blob RW, Goldman DI. 2016. Tail use improves soft substrate performance in models of early vertebrate land locomotors. Science. Online]
- Mcinroe BM, Astley HC, Kawano SM, Blob RW, Goldman DL. 2015. Biological and robotic modeling of the evolution of legged locomotion on land. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 55: E123-E123.
Presentations while at NIMBioS
- Kawano, SM. January 2016. A synthesis of quantitative methods to estimate patterns of phenotypic selection. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Oregon Convention Center.
- Kawano SM*, Blob RW. 2015. Hack the past: resurrecting the dead in silico. Ecological Society of America Centennial Meeting, Invited Ignite Session – "Hacking ecology: the infiltration of coding in ecology for data integration, analysis, and visualization". Baltimore, MD.
- McInroe B*, Astley H, Kawano SM, Blob RW, Goldman DI. 2015. Animal and robot experiments to discover principles behind the evolution of a minimal locomotor apparatus for robust legged locomotion. American Physical Society Meeting. San Antonio, TX.
- Kawano SM, Blob RW. 2015. Mixed chains of safety factors in the limb bones of salamanders: implications for differential limb function in th evolution of terrestrial locomotion. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Meeting. Division of Comparative Biomechanics Best Student Talk Finalist. West Palm Beach, FL.
- McInroe B*, Astley H, Kawano SM, Blob RW, Goldman DI. Biological and robotic modeling of the evolution of legged locomotion on land. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Meeting. West Palm Beach, FL.
- Kawano SM*, Blob RW. 2014. Biomechanical comparisons of modern analogs for understanding the functional evolution of terrestrial locomotion in early stem tetrapods. Society for Vertebrate Paleontology Meeting. Berlin, Germany.
- Kawano SM. July 2015. One small step for stem tetrapods, one giant leap for tetrapod evolution. University of Wisconsin, Parkside. Department of Biological Sciences.
- Kawano, SM. September 2014. Applying biological models to understand how vertebrate animals moved onto land. University of Texas, El Paso. Bioinformatics Program.
Media Coverage
- The walk of life: tails might have helped vertebrates evolve from sea to land. Clemson University (2016 July 7)
- First animals to set food on land used TAILS to 'walk': robot recreates strange waddle of mudskipper fish 360 million years ago. Daily Mail (2016 July 7)
- Mudskipper robot gives us a lesson in locomotion. GizMag (2016 July 8)
- Robot helps study how first land animals moved 360 million years ago. Georgia Tech (2016 July 7)
- Mudskipper robot mimics ancient land animals' first steps. LiveScience (2016 July 7)
- How tails may have helped ancient animals make the transition from water to land. Los Angeles Times (2016 July 8).
- Recreating ancient vertebrate's first step on dry land. NSF (2016 July 7)
- Ancient fish moving to land used their tails as crutches. PNAS Journal Club (2016 July 7)
- Robots help study how first land animals moved 360 million years ago. ScienceDaily (2016 July 7)
- Hightailing it out of the water, mudskipper style. ScienceNews (2016 July 7)
- Awkward robots show how tails propelled first land walkers to new heights. Smithsonian (2016 July 7)
- Una cola para salir del aqua. Tenga para que se entretenga (2016 July 7)
- Scientists use robots to study the evolution of ancient aquatic animals. Wall Street Journal (2016 July 7)
- How this robot is helping to explain the origins of life. Washington Post (2016 July 7)
- Salamander strut sheds light on evolution from sea dwelling to land dwelling. Nature World News (3 Dec 2015)
- Strolling salamanders provide clues on how animals evolved to move from water to land. Science Daily (30 Nov 2015)
- Strolling salamanders provide clues on how animals evolved to move from water to land. NSF News From the Field (30 Nov 2015)
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