Liao Lab News

Dr. James Liao to Speak at TEDxUF 2025 Conference April 12

TEDxUF’s 16th annual conference will convene visionaries and changemakers from diverse fields to explore how we can actively shape a future in constant flux.

Liao Lab Welcomes Ruiheng Wu

Ruiheng joins the Liao Lab as a Research Scholar.

Liao Lab Welcomes Dr. Zihao Huang

He joins the Liao Lab as a Postdoctoral Research Associate working on fish schooling.

Liao Lab Welcomes Dr. Fan Yang

She joins the Liao Lab as a Postdoctoral Research Associate working on unsteady fish behaviors.

Bailey-Niblett Family Endowment Helps Fund Trip to Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) Conference

The Bailey-Niblett Family Endowment recently helped fund Dr. Ishani Mukherjee's trip to the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) Conference.

Liao Lab welcomes Circiumariu Dragos

He joins the Liao Lab as a research scholar, funded by the European project 'iNavigate'. During his stay, he is interested in developing hardware and software to remotely monitor the movement of fishes.

Dr. James Liao Wins 2024 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics!

Congratulations to Whitney Laboratory Professor of Biology Dr. James Liao for winning the 2024 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics at a ceremony at MIT! Dr. Liao accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.

Dr. James Liao Receives Grant from the National Institutes of Health NIDCD

Dr. Liao is collaborating with colleagues at Case Western, University of Washington, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) to understand the role that important proteins play in how humans, fish and other vertebrates maintain healthy hearing and balance.

Liao Lab welcomes Dr. Ishani Mukherjee

As a postdoc, Ishani will address impactful questions on fish schooling and broaden her expertise through interdisciplinary research at the Liao Lab.

Liao Lab Welcomes Dr. Liang Li

Dr. Li has joined the Liao Lab as a Research Scholar for three months, funded by the European project 'iNavigate'. During his stay, he is interested in conducting experiments with flow visualizations of fish swimming, collecting schooling fish data, experimenting with schooling robots, and more.

Image showing experimental kinematic and pectoral fin muscle recordings with hypothesized location of vortices in order to understand passive movement of the pectoral fins.

Liao Lab Publishes in Journal of Experimental Biology

Congratulations to Brendan Gibbs, Ph.D. Otar Akanyeti, Ph.D. (previous Liao Lab Post Doc), and Dr. James Liao who published a paper titled "Kinematics and muscle activity of pectoral fins in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) station holding in turbulent flow" in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Dr. Brendan Gibbs of the Liao Lab defends his PhD!

On March 1st, Brendan Gibbs, a graduate student advised by James Liao, Professor of Biology, successfully defended his Ph.D. entitled “From the field to the neuron: an integrative approach to understanding natural animal behavior”.

Date with a Fly credit: Julia Schlee, MPINB

Ten questions to guide behavioral experiments

The 10-step “guideline”, entertainingly written and published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, encourages researchers to (re-)engage with their animals’ ecology and lifestyle.

Larval Zebrafish, credit: 7dpf larva, akiramuto.net/archives/458, CC BY 4.0, Credit: National Institute of Genetics

Fish sensory cells have close evolutionary ties to sensory cells of humans and other vertebrates

Congratulations to Whitney researchers Dr. Elias Lunsford, Dr. Yuriy Bobkov, Brandon Ray, Dr. James Liao and Dr. James Strother who published a paper titled "Anion efflux mediates transduction in the hair cells of the zebrafish lateral line" in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Liao Lab welcomes Glenn Greenwald

Glenn Greenwald joined the Liao Lab as a part-time laboratory technician, where he is working on the snook and red drum movement projects.

Brendan Gibbs - 2023 Matthaei Ecological Scholar

This summer he is working under Dr. James Liao to set up a new project, with an additional 10 receivers, spearheaded by the FWC and the Rehage Lab at FIU to track snook movements in response to rising ocean temperatures.

Dr. James Liao Promoted to Full Professor

A big congratulations to Dr. James Liao, Whitney Laboratory Associate Professor of Biology, who has received promotion to Full Professor from the University of Florida!

PhD student Brendan Gibbs Publishes in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods

Congratulations to PhD Student Brendan Gibbs for his recent publication "Recording central nervous system responses of freely-swimming marine and freshwater fishes with a customizable, implantable AC differential amplifier" in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

Elias Lunsford wins Best Student Presentation at The Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB)

Congratulations to Liao Lab Ph.D. student Elias Lunsford for winning the Best Student Paper competition at The Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) last week in the Division of Neurobiology, Neuroethology and Sensory Biology.