401 PLSB

Education

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow, Royal Veterinary College, 2016 - 2017
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, 2014 - 2016
PhD. Biological Sciences, Clemson University, 2014
B.S. Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity; University of California, Davis; 2008
A.S. Biological Sciences, De Anza College; 2005

Research Interests

I am a teacher-scholar with a strong dedication to making science accessible to all learners and supporting learners’ successes with authentic training-through-research opportunities. My mission is to “advance the science and the scientist” so I interweave research and education to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes that enhance scientific literacy while fostering the development of broadly trained learners. My dedication to student mentoring inspired me to become an Assistant Professor at Cal State Long Beach (a teaching-intensive PUI) but my passion for working in dynamic research communities and natural history museums drove me to The George Washington University (an R1 that was originally a teaching intuition). I am the Principal Investigator of the Fins and Limbs Lab and have been awarded >$3 million in external funding to advance our work on the evolutionary biomechanics and comparative physiology of vertebrate locomotion across aquatic and terrestrial environments. Our work integrates data from field stations and natural history museums across the U.S.A to capture “what nature is made of” in contemporary and macroevolutionary timescales. As the Associate Director of Mountain Lake Biological Station, I am excited to leverage my skills in supporting the professional development of scientists (+ engineers!) and expanding research infrastructure to foster a vibrant, inclusive, and dynamic community of lifelong learners in Field Biology. Interested in joining the Fins and Limbs Lab? Check out our website at https://sandykawano.weebly.com!  

Common themes in the Fins and Limbs Lab include

• Comparative biomechanics of animal locomotion, particularly water-land transitions in fishes and salamanders
• Functional morphology of musculoskeletal systems in vertebrates
• Mechanical properties of bones
• Ecophysiology of locomotion
• Strength and mode of phenotypic selection on morphological traits

Our research is highly interdisciplinary and integrates techniques such as

• 3D high-speed videography to quantify motions of anatomical parts,
• Multi-axis force sensors to quantify the forces causing and related to motions,
• Electromyography to characterize the activity of muscles the power these motions,
• Mechanical testing to characterize the material properties of structures,
• (Micro-)CT imaging to study the external and internal morphology of structures,
• Respirometry to assess the metabolic requirements of animals,
• Computational models to conduct experiments that are logistically difficult (or impossible) otherwise,
• Machine learning to conduct high-throughput and systematic analyses of big datasets.

Representative Publications

Click HERE for a full list of my publications on Google Scholar.

(Legend: † = co-first authors, U = undergraduate, G = graduate student, P = postdoc)

Kawano SM, di Santo V. 2025. Chapter 3: Biomechanics of terrestrial locomotion in fishes, In: Integrative Fish Biomechanics. Volume 41 in Fish Physiology. T. Higham and G. V. Lauder, eds. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.fp.2025.06.002.

Kawano SM, Martin J, Medina JG, Doherty CU, Zheng GU, Hsiao EG, Evans MJ, de Queiroz K, Pyron RA, Huie JMG, Lima RU, Langan EM, Peters Alan, Irschick DJ. 2024. Applying 3D models of giant salamanders to explore form-function relationships in early tetrapods. Integrative and Comparative Biology icae129. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icae129.

Anderson PSL, Kawano SM. 2022. Different traits at different rates: the effects of dynamic strain rate on structural traits in biology. Integrative and Comparative Biology icac066. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icac066.

Kawano SM, Blob RW. 2022. Terrestrial force production by the limbs of a semi-aquatic salamander provides insight into the evolution of terrestrial locomotor mechanics. Journal of Experimental Biology 225(7): jeb242795. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.242795.

Higham TE, Ferry LA, Schmitz L, Irschick DJ, Starko SP, Anderson PSL, Bergmann PJ, Jamniczky HA, Monteiro LA, Navon DP, Messier J, Carrington E, Farina SC, Feilich KP, Hernandez LP, Johnson MA, Kawano SM, Law CJP, Longo SJ, Martin CH, Martone PT, Rico-Guevara A, Santana SE, and Niklas KJ. 2021. Linking biomechanical models and functional traits to investigate phenotypic diversity. TREE 36(9): 860-873. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.05.009.

McInroe BG,†, Astley HC†, Gong C, Kawano SMP, Schiebel PG, Rieser JMP, Choset H, Blob RW, Goldman DI. 2016. Tail use improves performance on soft substrates in models of early vertebrate land locomotors. Science 353(6295): 154-158. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaf0984.

Kawano SMP, Economy DRG, Kennedy MS, Dean D, Blob RW. 2016. Comparative limb bone loading in the humerus and femur of the tiger salamander Ambystoma tigrinum: testing the “mixed-chain” hypothesis for skeletal safety factors. Journal of Experimental Biology 219: 341-353. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.125799.