David Sparks Joins the Liao Lab

Please welcome David Sparks to Whitney Laboratory! He joins Dr. James Liao’s lab as a Ph.D. student.

David received a B.S. in Biology from Wheaton College (IL) in 2017, where he worked as a Laboratory Assistant for the Research Methods and Microbiology & Immunology courses under Dr. Jovanka Tepavčević. He then volunteered as a basic researcher at Mount Sinai (NY) in the Center for Anatomy and Functional Morphology and in the Center for Comparative Medicine and Surgery. He conducted histological studies at Mount Sinai under Dr. Joy Reidenberg and Dr. Virginia Gillespie on cetacean rete microanatomy and spearheaded the development of a pressure wave-resistant combat helmet. A first year Ph.D. student of the Liao Lab, David is interested in understanding locomotor responses to sensory stimuli through biomechanical techniques.