Personal Info

E-mail: richard.bomphrey(at)zoo.ox.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1865 271223
Web Link: Animal Flight Group - http://users.ox.ac.uk/~zool0261/richardbomphrey.html

Academic Background:

I took the Biological Sciences undergraduate course at Exeter University before reading for a DPhil in the Aerodynamics of insect flight at the Department of Zoology, Oxford University.

My first Postdoc was spent in Bath University’s Mechanical Engineering Department working on insect jumping locomotion with a view to the design of jumping robots at the Centre for Biomimetic and Natural Technologies. I then enjoyed two Postdocs back in Oxford, the first funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the second by the European Research Council (ERC). Both concerned stability and control in insect flight. I now hold a research fellowship with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) investigating the aerodynamics of insect wings.

Teaching Interests:

Undergraduate: Biomechanics; Animal Locomotion (Flying, Swimming, Running); Scaling.

Research Interests:

My field is at the interface of biology and engineering. I use biomechanics as a tool to investigate evolutionary biology and, specifically, how the physical environment determines the morphology of flying insects. Following the biomimetic principle, I use a comparative approach to examine extant solutions to particular ecological strategies, unravelling design criteria from historical constraint ultimately to inform wing design in modern unmanned vehicles. Other recent work has included the development of a virtual reality chamber for flies and hawkmoths which provides a range of optical stimuli for tethered insects in an attempt to determine how steering is affected by cues from the compound eyes.

Selected Publications:

J. Young, S.M. Walker, R.J. Bomphrey, G.K. Taylor and A.L.R. Thomas, 'Details of insect wing design and deformation enhance aerodynamic function and flight efficiency', Science (2009, in press)

R.J. Bomphrey, G.K. Taylor and A.L.R. Thomas, 'Smoke visualization of free-flying bumblebees indicates independent leading-edge vortices on each wing pair', Experiments in Fluids. Doi: 10.1007/s00348-009-0631-8 (2009)

G.K. Taylor, M. Bacic, R.J. Bomphrey, A.C. Carruthers, J. Gillies, S.M. Walker and A.L.R. Thomas, 'New experimental approaches to the biology of flight control systems', Journal of Experimental Biology (2008) 211, 258–66.
R.J. Bomphrey, 'Insects in flight: Direct visualization and flow measurements', Bioinspiration and Biomimetics 1, S1-S9 (2006)
R.J. Bomphrey, G.K. Taylor, N.J. Lawson and A.L.R. Thomas, 'Digital particle image velocimetry measurements of the downwash distribution of a desert locust Schistocerca gregaria', Journal of the Royal Society: Interface 3, 311–17 (2006)
R.J. Bomphrey, N.J. Lawson, N.J.Harding, G.K. Taylor and A.L.R. Thomas, 'The aerodynamics of Manduca sexta: Digital particle image velocimetry analysis of the leading-edge vortex', Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 1079–94 (2005)