I am an aerospace engineer by training, and I study how animals fly. During my PhD at Lund University, I used wind tunnel experiments and wake measurements to quantify the aerodynamic performance of birds and bats, focusing on how forces and power are generated during flapping and gliding flight. This work combined particle image velocimetry (a flow visualisation technique) with force measurements to link flow structures in the wake to aerodynamic performance.
Since joining the Oxford Flight Group in 2017, I have worked primarily with Harris’ hawks in a high-precision motion capture environment to investigate how birds use visual information to guide flight, particularly during pursuit, obstacle avoidance, and perching. My core interest is the modelling of animal flight mechanics: building simplified, physics-based models that bridge behaviour, aerodynamics, and control. By combining experiments with low-order mathematical models, I aim to better understand the principles of biological flight and contribute insights relevant to robotics, ecology, and the mitigation of bird–structure interactions.
