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Faculty Bio

Dr. David Boerma is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the ̨ÍåSWAGUniversity and a Research Associate in the Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History.

Awards and Honors

• National Science Foundation, 2019, NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology

PhD, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2019

MS, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2017
Ecology and Evolutionary Biolgy

BS, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 2013
Biological Sciences

Research Interest

At its heart, my research is an expression of my personal fascination, curiosity, and delight with the natural world. In my case, the objects of this interest are the evolutionary histories of animal bodies and animal movement. How are animal bodies built, and how do their components work together to interact with and move through changing environments? How have evolutionary forces shaped, refined, or disrupted the architecture and mechanics of animal bodies throughout the history of life on Earth? These are the questions that give shape and direction to my research program.

In my lab, these questions most often find their focus on animal flight, especially in the case of bats, which are the only mammals that have evolved this remarkable ability. Our work explores the evolutionary, anatomical, and biomechanical details of bat flight using a variety of resources and approaches, including museum collections, high-resolution micro-computed-tomography (µ-CT) scanning, lab- and field-based animal experiments, high-speed videography, and phylogenetic comparative methods. Together, these form an integrative toolkit with which to measure and interpret the great transformations in bat bodies (evolutionary morphology), the biomechanics of flight (evolutionary biomechanics), and the ways in which these traits interacted with aspects of ecology throughout diversification.

Past Courses

BIO 102: General Biology II
BIO 251: Principles of Human Anatomy
BIO 395: Independent Study in Biology

Publications

Evolutionary integration of forelimb and hindblimb proportions within the bat wing membrane inhibits ecological adaptation compared to birds
Orkney, A. A., Boerma, D. B. & Hedrick, B. P. (2024). Nature. (Issue 9) , pages 111-123.