Malcolm Gordon

Professor Emeritus
Department: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
LS 1118
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Tel: (310) 825-4579
Fax: (310) 206-3987
msgordon@ucla.edu
Website
Keywords: Ecuador

Research Interests

My personal research and research-related interests presently (2010) focus in two major areas. Both are themes I have pursued with varying levels of activity for many years. Students reading this statement should know that I am no longer accepting new graduate students into my laboratory. My present collaborations are with undergraduate students, postdoctoral associates, and colleagues.
(i) The functional morphology, biomechanics, kinematics, and hydrodynamics of swimming in fishes using different methods of locomotion. This is the major, usually extramurally funded, activity in the laboratory. Emphasis is on rigid-bodied, median and paired fin (MPF) swimming fishes in the Order Tetraodontiformes. Species used are marine (e.g., puffers, spiny puffers, boxfishes, cowfishes, trunkfishes). Much of this work involves direct visualization and analysis of patterns of fluid flow around swimming fishes using 2- and 3-dimensional laser-based digital particle imaging velocimetry. This work is collaborative, primarily with colleagues at the Graduate Aeronautical Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (GALCIT), Pasadena, CA.
(ii) I am working with an international group of co-authors to write a new, advanced level textbook on animal biophysics and biomechanics. The book will be directed primarily toward students having strong physical science and engineering backgrounds.