Taylor Dick is a Senior Lecturer in The School of Biomedical Sciences. She was awarded her PhD in 2016 from Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada). Her PhD research, in partnership with the Concord Field Station at Harvard University, focused on developing an experimental and modelling framework to predict in vivo motor function using advanced image-driven musculoskeletal models. Following this, she conducted a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University- The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) where her research focused on using wearable assistive devices (e.g., exoskeletons and prosthetics) to augment or restore movement-with a particular focus on how devices influence lower limb biomechanics and neuromuscular function. She has implemented innovative imaging approaches to discover how humans recover from unexpected perturbations during movement, which provided critical biological insight for the design of robotic devices capable of assisting movement in real-world environments.
Taylors research team have developed a uniquely integrative and highly translational approach to studying neuromuscular function that combines motion analysis, advanced tissue imaging, and muscuoloskeletal modelling to answer fundamental questions about how movement underpins evolution, health, and disease. Her current research is focused on.
Exploring the mechanisms of neuromuscular function using both experimental and modelling approaches
Understanding how the anatomy and biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system adapt to challenges such as size, age, and disease. To do this, her team has developed quantitative imaging technologies to visualize and interrogate the mechanisms that underpin motor function in humans and other animals
Designing and applying wearable assistive technologies, such as exoskeletons and prosthetics, to enhance performance in healthy individuals or to restore mobility in those with deficits.
Taylor has established herself internationally as an emerging leader in biomechanics research. This reputation is supported by prestigious awards, invited talks and review papers, and media attention. Her research has been funded through competitive grant schemes and industry partnerships, with total research support exceeding $3.6 million. Her contributions to research and mentorship have been recognized with a 2024 Queensland Tall Poppy Award, 2024 International Union of Physiologists Junior Faculty Award; 2024 International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology Kevin P. Granata Award, and the 2021 International Society of Biomechanics Jaquelin Perry Emerging Scientist Award. Taylor has been nominated (2020 and 2021) for the Faculty of Medicine Rising Star of the Year Award. Taylor is an elected Executive Council member of the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) and the elected Chairperson of the Comparative Neuromuscular Biomechanics Technical group. She is a passionate promotor of STEM for young girls—having co-developed the led a government-funded nationwide program to boost girls’ engagement in STEM, BRInC https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/faculties/health/brinc
She currently advises 12 PhD candidates, 1 Master’s student, and 5 Honours students. She has successfully advised 5 PhD, 2 Master’s and 9 Honours students to completion since commencing her faculty position at UQ in 2017.
For more information about her program of research, visit her lab website: https://biomedical-sciences.uq.edu.au/research/groups/neuromuscular-biomechanics
My lab investigates the physiological and behavioural responses of fish, frogs and reptiles to changing environmental conditions including assessing and predicting the impact of human-induced environmental change. A major thrust of this research is within the emerging field of Conservation Physiology. We are particularly interested in the capacity and plasticity of physiological systems (e.g. respiratory, cardiovascular, osmoregulatory, digestive and musculo-skeletal) to compensate and maintain performance under changing environmental conditions.
We combine lab-based experimental studies with fieldwork, and take an integrative approach that utilises ecological, behavioural, physiological and genomic methodologies. In the field we utilise remote sensing technology (acoustic and satellite telemetry, archival tags) to investigate the movement patterns and behaviours of animals in relation to environmental conditions.
Current projects include:
assessing the effects of increasing temperatures on sharks, frogs, turtles and crocodiles;
determining the physiological basis for the impact of increasing UV-B radiation on frogs;
diving behaviour and physiology of freshwater turtles and crocodiles;
acoustic and satellite tracking of sharks, turtles and crocodiles in Queensland;
regulation of physiological function in aestivating frogs
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Available for supervision
Dr T. Thang Vo-Doan is a Lecturer of the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Biology I, University of Freiburg, Germany (2019-2023). He was also a Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore (2016-2018). He was awarded his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, NTU in 2016. He received his M.Eng. degree in Manufacturing Engineering and B.Eng. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam in 2010 and 2008 respectively. He was awarded the prestigious Human Frontier Science Program Cross-disciplinary Fellowship (2019-2022).
He directs the UQ Biorobotics lab after joining in the University of Queensland. Current research activities of the lab focus on insect-machine hybrid robots, bio-inspired robotics, insect structures and functions, biomechanics, fast lock-on tracking, and brain imaging in untethered insects.
Rebeka R. Zsoldos is an animal biomechanist who graduated at the Animal Science Faculty of the University of Kaposvar/Hungary (2008). In Vienna/Austria, she then completed her PhD on the biomechanics of the equine cervical vertebral column at the Movement Science Group at the Veterinary University (2011), followed by her own collaborative research project titled “Generic Motion Models based on Quadrupedal Data” at the University of Natural Resources together with the Veterinary University and the University of Bonn/Germany (Multimedia, Simulation and Virtual Reality Group). During this time, she taught Animal Biomechanics to undergraduate and graduate students. Having completed the project, she continued work with her collaborators at the University of Bonn in Germany. After that she worked on a mathematical approach to the elastic behaviour and shape of the equine spine as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Computational Sciences Group, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Thuwal in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
