Elizabeth L. Brainerd

Elizabeth L. Brainerd (born 1963) is an American biologist who has contributed to our understanding of the evolution of breathing.[1] and the biomechanics of vertebrates. She is one of the inventors of XROMM (X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology),[2] a technique for making 3D movies of internal structure that combines CT scanning with biplanar x-ray movies. She is one of the authors of Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution.[3]

Brainerd is the Robert P. Brown Professor of Biology professor of Biology[4] and of Medical Science in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island.

Early life and education

She was born in 1963 to Lyman and Susan Brainerd. She attended the Putney School in Vermont, then Harvard University, where in 1985 she graduated with an AB. She joined the lab of Karel F. Liem at Harvard where she earned a Ph.D. in 1991.[5] She then moved to Tom McMahon's lab for her post doctoral work as a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (1990-1993).[6]

Academic career

In graduate school Brainerd's mentors included Indonesian born ichthyologist Karel F. Liem and the paleontologists Farish Jenkins and Alfred (Fuzz) Crompton. Brainerd's first academic appointment was at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst (1994-2006). She then moved to Brown University where she runs the Functional Morphology and Biomechanics lab and teaches human gross anatomy in the medical school. She has been the president of the International Society of Vertebrate Morphologists[7] and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.[8]

Honors

Brainerd is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[9] She has won the Dean's Award for Excellence in Graduate Mentoring (2015)[10] and in 2018 was selected as a Gilliam Fellowship Mentor by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2020 she was named the Robert P. Brown Professor of Biology.[11]

Selected works

She has published more than 100 peer reviewed publications. Highlights include the realization that breathing is two separate events, inhalation and exhalation;[12] how lizards (and dinosaurs) run and breathe at the same time;[13][14] The invention of the 'Ram-Suction index' for studying prey capture; and the contribution of vertebral number and joint flexibility of C-starts in fishes.[15] She described the inflation mechanism of puffer fish[16] and the x-ray movies she generated were used by Pixar in animating the character Bloat in Finding Nemo.[17]

References
  1. "Major Transformations in Vertebrate Breathing Mechanisms", Great Transformations in Vertebrate Evolution, University of Chicago Press, 2015, pp. 47–62, doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226268392.003.0003, ISBN 9780226268255
  2. Brainerd, Elizabeth L.; Baier, David B.; Gatesy, Stephen M.; Hedrick, Tyson L.; Metzger, Keith A.; Gilbert, Susannah L.; Crisco, Joseph J. (2010). "X-ray reconstruction of moving morphology (XROMM): precision, accuracy and applications in comparative biomechanics research". Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology. 9999A (5): 262–79. doi:10.1002/jez.589. ISSN 1932-5223. PMID 20095029.
  3. Great transformations in vertebrate evolution. Dial, Kenneth Paul; Shubin, Neil; Brainerd, Elizabeth L. Chicago. ISBN 9780226268118. OCLC 894026103.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. "Today@Brown". today.brown.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  5. "Beth Brainerd – Profile | Qstorm". Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  6. "Listed by Term". socfell.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  7. "ISVM". www.isvm.info. Retrieved 2019-11-11.
  8. "Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology". sicb.org. Retrieved 2019-11-11.
  9. "Elected Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  10. "Brainerd, Elizabeth". vivo.brown.edu. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
  11. "Today@Brown". today.brown.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-22.
  12. Brainerd, E. L. (December 1999). "New perspectives on the evolution of lung ventilation mechanisms in vertebrates". Experimental Biology Online. 4 (2): 1–28. doi:10.1007/s00898-999-0002-1. ISSN 1430-3418.
  13. "Research by UMass Amherst Biologist Suggests that Lizards Offer Evolutionary Freeze-Frame". Office of News & Media Relations | UMass Amherst. Retrieved 2019-11-10.
  14. Owerkowicz, T. (1999-06-04). "Contribution of Gular Pumping to Lung Ventilation in Monitor Lizards". Science. 284 (5420): 1661–1663. Bibcode:1999Sci...284.1661O. doi:10.1126/science.284.5420.1661. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 10356394. S2CID 19857128.
  15. Brainerd, Elizabeth L.; Patek, Sheila N. (1998-12-30). "Vertebral Column Morphology, C-Start Curvature, and the Evolution of Mechanical Defenses in Tetraodontiform Fishes". Copeia. 1998 (4): 971. doi:10.2307/1447344. ISSN 0045-8511. JSTOR 1447344.
  16. Brainerd, Elizabeth L. (June 1994). "Pufferfish inflation: Functional morphology of postcranial structures inDiodon holocanthus (Tetraodontiformes)". Journal of Morphology. 220 (3): 243–261. doi:10.1002/jmor.1052200304. ISSN 0362-2525. PMID 29865387.
  17. "Beth Brainerd – Profile | Qstorm". Retrieved 2019-11-09.
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