On March 4, 2019, Professor David L. Hu gave a public talk entitled, “How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls". Prof. Hu is a mechanical engineer who studies the interactions of animals with water. Originally from Rockville, Maryland, he earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and his Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT, and is now Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biology and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award for young scientists, the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics, and the Pineapple Science Prize (the Ig Nobel of China). He is the author of the book "How to walk on water and climb up walls", published by Princeton University Press. Insects walk on water, snakes slither and fish swim. Animals move with astounding grace, speed and versatility, but how do they do it and what can we learn from them? From the incredible efficiency of the wet dog shake to colonies of ants building rafts out of their own bodies, Prof. Hu shows how animals have adapted and evolved to traverse their environments, taking advantage of physical laws with results that are startling and ingenious.
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Last updated August 19, 2019