University of California, Berkeley
Department of Integrative Biology, Mail Code 3140
Berkeley, California 94720-3140
Lab phone: 510-643-5183
Fax: 510-643-6264
Email: shrevz@berkeley.edu
My research studies the mechanical control of animal locomotion. I use a highly mathematical approach based on dynamical systems theory and control theory of nonlinear systems, but with a distinctly empirical focus – doing experiments and data driven analysis rather than theoretical modeling. One of the big challenges of such an interdisciplinary research program is that the methods don't quite exist: for almost every aspect of my work, from the measurement instrumentation, through data acquisition and statistical inference, I find myself having to adapt, extend and combine existing tools in novel ways. As a consequence, a big part of my time is spent on developing and extending experimental methods.
The mainstay of my thesis is the study of rapid running in cockroaches using mechanical perturbations and state-space modeling. I've pursued additional projects by collaboration with other graduate students and undergraduates that had specific interests.
