Richard Bomphrey

Richard Bomphrey

EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellow

Post Doctoral Research Fellow at St Anne’s College

 

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 to ultimately 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.

 

Contacts

Email: richard.bomphrey@zoo.ox.ac.uk
Phone: 01865 271224
 
 

Selected Publications

  • Bomphrey, R. J., Taylor, G. K., Thomas, A. L. R. (2009). 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.
  • Taylor, G. K., Bacic, M., Bomphrey, R. J., Carruthers, A. C., Gillies, J., Walker, S. M., and Thomas, A. L. R. (2008) New experimental approaches to the biology of flight control systems. Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 258-266.
  • Bomphrey, R. J. (2006). Insects in flight: Direct visualization and flow measurements. Bioinspiration and Biomimetics 1, S1-S9.
  • Bomphrey, R. J., Taylor, G. K., Lawson, N. J. and Thomas, A. L. R. (2006). Digital particle image velocimetry measurements of the downwash distribution of a desert locust Schistocerca gregaria. Journal of the Royal Society: Interface 3, 311-317.
  • Bomphrey, R. J., Lawson, N. J., Harding, N. J., Taylor, G. K. and Thomas, A. L. R. (2005). The aerodynamics of Manduca sexta: Digital particle image velocimetry analysis of the leading-edge vortex. Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 1079-1094
  • Young, J., Walker, S.M., Bomphrey, R. J., Taylor, G. K., Thomas, A. L. R. (2009). Details of insect wing design and deformation enhance aerodynamic function and flight efficiency. Science.