Primary Investigator
Jason Bourke, Ph.D.
Dr. Bourke studies the paleophysiology and functional morphology of birds and reptiles (sauropsids) using computational modeling approaches such as Computational Fluid Dynamics and Finite Element Analysis.
His work has investigated nasal air conditioning, blood pressure changes and aeroacoustics, leading to important studies on respiration and nasal air conditioning in dinosaurs and early hominids, along with how arterial networks affect blood pressure in giraffes.
Current Lab Members
Carley Goodwin — Doctoral student
Carley is studying how unique nasal structures of leaf-nosed bats affect the sound they produce. She has presented her CFD work at several conferences so far.
Kelsey Morris — Undergraduate
Kelsey is working on describing the vascular anatomy of monitor lizards for our monitor lizard anatomical atlas project. She has presented her work at both local and national conferences.
Jake Madison — Biomedical Master's Student
Jake is working on describing how the nerves and blood vessels intertwine past the muscles in the head of monitor lizards. His work is part of our larger monitor lizard anatomical atlas project.
Past Lab Members
Nicole Fontenot D.O.
Dr. Fontenot joined the lab in 2018 and spent her medical school tenure working on various projects involving airway and bone segmentation / modeling for crocodylians and dinosaurs. Her work in the lab has led to several coauthored publications.
Patrick Matulich D.O.
Dr. Matulich joined the lab in 2019 and worked on various lab project involving airway segmentation. Some of his work has since been presented on at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting.
Aubrey Hibbs — MS
Aubrey joined the lab in 2023 in the NYITCOM-AR Biomedical Masters program. Aubrey was the first to work on the monitor lizard atlas project and produced a detailed account of the head vasculature in savannah monitors. He presented his work at the 2024 Anatomy Connected Meeting in Toronto.