Alyssa Hernandez, PhD

Functional Morphologist, Biomechanist, Engineer

Figure 1: Using biology and engineering to understand adhesive systems in nature. Blue box: Organisms use different strategies for adhesion depending on ecological conditions. For example, intertidal clingfish must maintain stability in rocky, aquatic environments, while leaf beetles require quick, reversible attachment for locomotion. Yellow box: Adhesive systems are diverse (e.g. clingfish suction disc or beetle adhesive hairs and claws), and often incorporate multiple mechanisms/structures for attachment. Red box: Thorough biological evaluation translates to relevant physical models for comparative biomechanical studies, which can also inform biologically inspired devices for real world applications.(e.g. fish-inspired suction discs attaching marine monitoring tags (top) or insect-inspired leg spines for walking robots (bottom)).

ABOUT ME

I am currently an Assistant Professor at Bard College. As a biologist, I am interested in how the relationship between form, function, and ecology shapes animal performance in diverse environments. My research examines how insects control adhesion on various surfaces, or how animals modify their locomotion strategies (e.g. running, climbing, flying) to navigate complex, unpredictable environments. Building on these questions, my work also focuses on developing bioinspired adhesive devices for robotic applications, using a holistic approach that integrates ecology, evolutionary biology, and biomechanics. I draw on diverse animal groups (e.g. clingfish, insects) as inspiration for this work, developing tools that can improve a variety of real-world applications. I am also interested in using these fabricated models as tools for biological research. These 3D-printed and robotic models allow me to test hypotheses about animal locomotion and functional morphology in a way that complements traditional biomechanical studies. Ultimately, I want my research to highlight how biology and engineering can inform each other, producing models that serve both engineering applications and comparative morphological studies.

Topics of interest include:

Functional morphology of biological adhesive systems
Insect locomotion
Bioinspired devices for ambulatory robots and aquatic monitoring tags
Robots and physical models for biomechanical studies

PREVIOUS WORK

My research career started as an undergrad at Cornell University, where I received my Bachelor of Science in the Department of Natural Resources. I was broadly-trained as an ecologist during my degree, but I had a particular interest in entomology and insect/plant interactions. After graduating, I did a year-long term as an AmeriCorps intern, where I served the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District in Half Moon Bay. During that time, I focused on citizen science and spent my term educating local farmers about beneficial insects and native plants. While I loved my time as an AmeriCorps, I realized that I missed research and soon joined UC Berkeley as a research entomologist. This research focused on integrative pest management, considering reduced risk methods for controlling common crop pests.

After a few years at Berkeley, I decided to pursue my PhD and joined Professor Brian Farrell's lab in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. During that time, I became fascinated with biomechanics and functional morphology, and pursued a new research path. While my research continued to focus on plant-insect interactions, I instead focused on insect locomotion, specifically evaluating adaptive functional morphologies utilized for attachment and locomotion on plant surfaces. This fascination with adhesive systems seen in nature inspired my postdoctoral work, where I served as a fellow in Professor Robert Wood's Harvard Microrobotics Lab. There I developed bioinspired adhesive devices for various robotic applications.

Contact Me

Thanks for your interest in my research! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email at ahernandez@bard.edu