Callum Ross (rossc@uchicago.edu)
Organismal Biology and Anatomy
Committee on Evolutionary Biology
I received my PhD from Duke University in 1993 where I studied the biomechanical significance of the postorbital septum in anthropoid primates. I was at Stony Brook University for 10 years before moving to University of Chicago in 2004. My research centers around the biomechanics and evolution of visual and feeding systems in vertebrates, with particular emphasis on primates. My current research focus is on the responses of vertebrates to changes in food material properties, either through the evolution of morphology and behavior, or through adaptive modulation of skeletal morphology and behavior in individuals. I am Course Director for the Human Morphology (anatomy) courses at Pritzker School of Medicine.

David Reed (dreed@uchicago.edu)
Organismal Biology and Anatomy
I am interested in understanding the extent to which the bones and muscles of the feeding system are physiologically responsive to changes in loading condition, and if this response has any functional significance. I am currently working on a project which looks at the adaptive response of the cranium and mandible in Alligator mississipiensis to an experimentally controlled in vivo loading environment. This work will focus largely on bone deposition patterns and ligament orientation in and around sutures.

Jim O'Reilly (oreilly@uchicago.edu)
Organismal Biology and Anatomy
I am a comparative vertebrate physiologist, a functional morphologist and a herpetologist. My interests are wide-ranging but are primarily focused on the evolution of the physiological basis of movement and the origins of phenotypic and functional complexity in vertebrates. I approach questions in an explicit ontogenetic and phylogenetic context and incorporate methods from biomechanics, muscle physiology, neuroethology, and systematics. My current research program is focused in two main areas where I hope to contribute to our general knowledge of the evolution of complex functional systems; the evolution of prey capture movements in ectothermic vertebrates and the evolution of limbless locomotion in amphibians and reptiles. These two subjects are attractive to me for three reasons: 1) performance of feeding and locomotion are physiological attributes that appear likely to be of adaptive significance; 2) reptiles and amphibians display major post-embryonic increases in body size, often increasing four or more orders of magnitude in body mass, combined with subtle changes in design (in contrast to endotherms which usually exhibit small changes in body mass combined with radical changes in design); and 3) the evolution of reptiles and amphibians includes numerous convergent evolutionary events and many independent, relatively well-defined adaptive radiations.

I earned my undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan where I was introduced to Vertebrate Anatomy and Functional Morphology by Carl Gans. I then earned my Ph.d. from Northern Arizona University where I was mentored by Kiisa Nishikawa and Stan Lindstedt. I worked with Beth Brainerd as a Darwin Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Massachusetts Amherst before I joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at the University of Miami. I am currently a lecturer in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago.

Rhyan Washington (rlw@uchicago.edu)
I am currently a fourth year undergraduate majoring in biological sciences with a specialization in neuroscience. I joined Dr. Ross’ lab in my third year and ever since then my research interests have lied in biomechanics and neuromuscular control. My ultimate research goals include the brain and its neuro-modulation of rhythmic movements.

Lisa Bang (lisabang@uchicago.edu)
I am a second year in the College majoring in Biology with a specialization in Ecology and Evolution. I joined Dr. Ross’ lab in early 2008. My research interests lie in primate evolution and biomechanics.

Sarah Sung (panoptic@uchicago.edu)
Sarah Sung received her BA from the University of Chicago in June of 2003, and spent two years working as a research technician in a psychology lab focused on the neural basis of visual perception. She then worked in the Ross lab for a year before entering medical school.