Adam Summers: Natural History from Finding Nemo to Flipping Rocks in Your Local Tide Pool

For Adam Summers, natural history and the practice of biomechanics starts with those moments where you witness an animal or plant doing something that you can't quite understand.  How did that eagle fly upside down? How did that fly land on the ceiling? How did that suckerfish stick to that rock?  I find Adam to be one of the most captivating communicators of science and enthusiastic curiosity I've ever encountered, I think you will too. See his bio below and find his Twitter profile here.  Adam Summers is a professor in the department of Biology and in the School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences at the University of Washington. He now runs the comparative biomechanics and biomaterials lab at the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Labs. Current research topics include the evolution and mechanical properties of cartilage and tendon, swimming mechanics of sharks, respiratory patterns of sharks and rays and solid-solid interactions in aquatic organisms. This work has led to more than 90 publications and two patents. He has consulted on films (including one of my personal favorite movies, Finding Nemo), television and for 8 years his monthly column in Natural History Magazine – ‘Biomechanics’, brought comparative biomechanics to a wider audience.