Douglas Warrick

Douglas Warrick is a professor in biophysics at the zoology department of Oregon State University, specializing in the study of functional/ecological morphology, aerodynamics, and the evolution of vertebrate flight, working with many bird species, including hummingbirds and seabirds.

Career

Born in Nebraska, Warrick worked for a biological consulting firm from 1987 to 1992, including work on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Today he continues to participate in studies of seabird mortality from oil spills. Warrick's research was published in Nature, a leading scientific journal, and his research conclusions were widely reported in the international media such as Scientific American, the BBC, the Associated Press news wire, and the United States National Science Foundation.

Inspiration for art

Warrick et al.'s Nature (2005) article inspired Jennifer MacMillan and Bradley Eros to create their own "experiment" - investigating the "cross-pollination of scientific visualization and poetic document". Their art work added "star studies, satellite recordings, subaquatic and botanical investigations, liquid crystals, visual music performance generated from the scientific instrument, high speed motion studies, a discussion of subatomic physics, and readings of the 10 most beautiful experiments of science."

Selected publications Douglas R. Warrick, Bret W. Tobalske, Donald R. Powers (2009) Lift production in the hovering hummingbird, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol. 276, No. 1674. (7 November), pp. 3747–3752. Bret W. Tobalske, Jason W. D. Hearn and Douglas R. Warrick (2009) Aerodynamics of intermittent bounds in flying birds, Experiments in Fluids Volume 46, Number 5 / May, 2009 Douglas R. Warrick, Bret W. Tobalske & Donald R. Powers (2005) Aerodynamics of the hovering hummingbird, Nature 435, 1094-1097 23 June K. P. Dial, A. A. Biewener, B. W. Tobalske & D. R. Warrick (1997) Mechanical power output of bird flight, Nature 390, 67-70 6 November