CV

Academic Positions

• 2020-Present: Assistant Professor, Biology
  • University of Portland
  • Duties included: Tagging issues
• 2017-2020: Postdoctoral Fellow, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  • University of California, San Diego
  • Advisor: Nicholas Gravish

Education

• Ph.D in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Harvard University, 2017. Lab of Andrew Biewener.
• B.A. magna cum laude in Physics, Dance; Barnard College, 2010

Publications

1. Clifton, G., Stark, A., Li, C., & Gravish, N. (2023). The bumpy road ahead: the role of substrate roughness on animal walking and a proposed comparative metric. Journal of Experimental Biology.
2. Moore, T. & Clifton, G. (2023). Jumping over fences: why field-and laboratory-based biomechanical studies can and should learn from each other. Journal of Experimental Biology.
3. Chen, Y., Clifton, G., Graf, N., Durand, K., Taylor, J., Gong, Y., Grezmak, J., & Daltorio, K. (2022). Optimal planar leg geometry in robots and crabs for idealized rocky terrain. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.
4. Zhao, D., Bittner, B., Clifton, G., Gravish, N., & Revzen, S. (2022). Walking is like slithering: A unifying, data-driven view of locomotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
5. Chang, H., Chang, J., Clifton, G., & Gravish, N. (2021). Anisotropic compliance of robot legs improves recovery from swing-phase collisions. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.
6. Clifton, G., Holway, D., & Gravish, N. (2020). Uneven substrates constrain walking speed in ants through modulation of stride frequency more than stride length. Royal Society open science.
7. Clifton, G., Holway, D., & Gravish, N. (2020). Vision does not impact walking performance in Argentine ants. Journal of Experimental Biology.
8. Clifton, G., Holway, D., & Gravish, N. (2019). Rough substrates constrain walking speed in ants through modulation of stride frequency and not stride length. bioRxiv.
9. Clifton, G. & Biewener, A. (2018). Foot-propelled swimming kinematics and turning strategies in common loons. Journal of Experimental Biology.
10. Clifton, G., Carr, J., & Biewener, A. (2018). Comparative hindlimb myology of foot‐propelled swimming birds. Journal of anatomy.
11. Clifton, G. (2017). Anatomical Patterns, Kinematics, and Propulsive Strategies of Foot-Based Swimming Birds. .
12. Clifton, G., Hedrick, T., & Biewener, A. (2015). Western and Clark's grebes use novel strategies for running on water. The Journal of Experimental Biology.
13. Clifton, G. (2009). The Coefficient of Friction of the Pointe Shoe and Implications for Current Manufacturing Processes. Senior Seminar in Dance, Fall.

Service and leadership

• Program Officer elect, Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology, Division of Comparative Biomechanics