STEVEN VOGEL
James B. Duke Professor, Department of Biology

Contact Information
034 Biological Sciences
919-684-3791 phone (alt 684-2507)
919-660-7293 fax
svogel@duke.edu

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Education

	PhD	Flight Performance and Aerodynamics of Drosophila, Harvard University, 1966
	AM	Harvard University, 1963
	BS	Tufts University, 1961, Magna cum laude

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Experience

	2001-present	James B. Duke Professor, Biology, Duke University
	1993-2001	James B. Duke Professor, Zoology, Duke University,
	1999	Golden Jubilee Distinguished Professor, Raman Research Inst, Bangalore
	1993	Richard H. Lufkin Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Tufts University
	1979-1993	Professor, Zoology, Duke University
	1989	Instructor, Tjärnö Marine Laboratory, Sweden
	1979, 1981, 1983	Instructor, Friday Harbor Laboratory, University of Washington
	1972	Instructor, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole
	1971-1979	Associate Professor, Zoology, Duke University
	1966-1971	Assistant Professor, Zoology, Duke University
	1962	Instructor, Tufts University

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Selected Publications

1. Vogel, S., C.O. Ellington, Jr., and D.C. Kilgore, Jr., 1973.Wind-induced ventilation of the burrow of the prairie-dog, Cynomys ludovicianus. J. Comp. Physiol. 84:1-14.
2. Vogel, S., 1983. Air flow through giant silkmoth antennae. J. Insect Physiol. 29: 597-602.
3. Vogel, S., 1987. Flow-assisted mantle cavity refilling in jetting squid. Biol. Bull. 172: 61-68.
4. Vogel, S., 1989. Drag and reconfiguration of broad leaves in high winds. J. Exp. Bot. 40: 941-48.
5. Vogel, S., 1992. Twist-to-bend ratios and cross-sectional shapes of petioles and stems. J. Exp. Bot. 43: 1527-32.
6. Vogel, S., 1992. Vital Circuits: On the Pumps, Pipes, and Workings of Circulatory Systems. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 315.
7. Vogel, S., 1994. Life in Moving Fluids: The Physical Biology of Flow, 2nd Ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 467.
8. Vogel, S., 1998. Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People. New York: W. W. Norton. pp. 382. (Also Penguin Books, 1999; also translations into Chinese, Spanish, German, Italian, Finnish.)
9. Vogel, S., 2001. Prime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle. New York: W. W. Norton. pp. 370
10. Vogel, S., 2003. Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 592.

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Short Research Interest Descriptor

Comparative, that is, biological rather than human or medical, biomechanics; emphasizing the organismal level; also explorations of the relevance of biomechanics to aspects of human culture such as the history of technology.

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Research Interest

Biological fluid mechanics:

My work over the past forty years has focussed on the features of organisms that reflect their interactions with moving fluids. Within this area, though, my projects have been an eclectic lot—both air and water as fluids, a diverse assortment of organisms, and a variety of physical phenomena. I've looked at the special aerodynamics of flight in very small insects and the passage of air through pinnate insect antennae. I've investigated the manner in which the shapes of broad leaves reflect, on one hand, the avoidance of overheating during periods of very low wind and, on the other, the avoidance of excessively high drag or flutter in potentially destructive winds. I've searched for ways in which systems from sponges to the burrows of prairie dogs use ambient fluid flows to induce self-ventilation. And I've looked at the consequences of pressure variation along flexible bodies in flows, with squid, scallops, and macroalgae. Finally, I've done some writing, although no direct gathering of data, on the general principles underlying the design of internal fluid transport systems, especially vertebrate circulatory systems. My general approach has been to investigate how living systems are either constrained by or capitalize upon specific physical phenomena.

Comparative biomechanics in general:

It seems much less easy when working with organisms than with human technology to keep a decent distance between fluid and solid mechanics. It is solids, after all, that constitute the materials and structures adapted to deal with the fluids. Thus I have been drawn into such things as the design of a new creep-testing machine and, from the work on leaves in high winds, into the significance of variation in a flexural to torsional stiffness ratio. The value of the latter seems relevant to petioles, stems, tree trunks, feathers, arthropod appendages, and systems supported as fiber-wound, pressurized cylinders.

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