Armita R. Manafzadeh
Man-off-ZAH-deh. PhD. Donnelley Fellow & NSF PRFB postdoc @ Yale. From August 2026: Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech. How do joints work and where do they come from? manafzadeh.com
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehExcited to share that our co-edited volume on the Iron Age Philistine cemetery from Ashkelon is now out! This volume presents the bioarchaeological findings from the c. 250 individuals, each with a dedicated catalogue entry that synthesizes their stratigraphic, osteological & artifactual contexts.
- Had lots of fun delivering the @sicb-dcb-dvm.bsky.social Carl Gans award lecture yesterday at @sicb.bsky.social #SICB2026! Grateful to have the support of so many incredible colleagues in comparative biomechanics.
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehJEB is proud to be sponsoring the 2026 @sicbjournals.bsky.social Carl Gans Lecture by Armita Manafzadeh @armanafzadeh.bsky.social at 13:30 in Oregon 201, the Oregon Convention Center Dr Manafzadeh's lecture is entitled 'Joints: form, function, and the future of comparative biomechanics'
- Reposted by Armita R. Manafzadeh🧪🐠 I am hiring a postdoc! Work will be on patterns of biodiversity across phylogenetic scales using teleost fishes as a model. Apply by end of Jan 2026 for full consideration apply.interfolio.com/179070 I encourage folks to reach out with any questions. Please Share!
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehThe Vertebrate Paleontology students did a great job 3D printing and painting skulls—look at that homology!
- Congratulations, @caleb-m-gordon.bsky.social et al.! Such creative work; nothing more satisfying than a good cross-field method-repurposing.
- Hey everyone! I’m excited to share that one of my thesis projects was just published in @currentbiology.bsky.social and featured on phys.org! In this paper, we use an old statistical approach developed by the US Navy in WW2 to predict the aquatic habits of various dinosaurs and marine reptiles 🦖🐊
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehHey everyone! I’m excited to share that one of my thesis projects was just published in @currentbiology.bsky.social and featured on phys.org! In this paper, we use an old statistical approach developed by the US Navy in WW2 to predict the aquatic habits of various dinosaurs and marine reptiles 🦖🐊
- Looking forward to joining the @royalsociety.org Proceedings B editorial board in 2026 – send us your papers!
- Excited to have the opportunity to share my perspective on comparative biomechanics in a plenary at this year's SICB meeting. Grateful to my mentors/collabs/students for their support along the way, and very honored to receive the Gans Young Investigator Award!
- Reposted by Armita R. Manafzadehthe word that best captures my feelings about receiving the Duke University 2025 Outstanding Postdoc award is just grateful grateful to sheila for the opportunity to grow as a scientist and grateful for my students for teaching me more than they know @dukepostdocs.bsky.social @snpatek.bsky.social
- Happy to share 2 more patellofemoral papers out of Fulkerson group: (1) On the importance of studying TTTG in 3-D to personalize treatment www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... (2) Dr. Fulkerson sharing his updated perspective on surgical planning for TTOs journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehNew: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
- An exciting update on the human joint side – we found that lateral patellar tracking and malalignment are correlated with progressive cartilage damage, and that the 3D metrics we've been developing to describe PF morphology can be used to quantify the risk. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehThe GRFP lives!! (due end of October) www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehCome and be our new Chair of Biology at @gtsciences.bsky.social! We are growing an incredibly exciting ecology and evolution group here at GT and would love a visionary eco-evo minded person at the helm to help us do that. Please spread the word! biosciences.gatech.edu/chair-search
- I'm recruiting a PhD student to join the lab at @gtsciences.bsky.social in Fall 2026! Broad taxonomic and topical freedom under the umbrella of vertebrate joint form and function. Information here: www.manafzadeh.com – please share 🦴🩻
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehNew Comparative Anatomy Textbook! Completely free to read and open access! doi.org/10.59319/YHF...
- Our paper on entry point-transition point angle elevation in patellofemoral instability patients, led by PhD student Johannes Sieberer and featuring his awesome Python/C# 3D curvature visualization tool (zenodo.org/records/1121...), is out now in OJSM: doi.org/10.1177/2325...
- ✨Some news✨: after finishing my postdoc, I’ll be starting my lab as an Assistant Professor at Georgia Tech. Join us in Atlanta to study how joints work and where they come from!
- Thanks to generous funding from the Institute, we’ll be launching a world-class #XROMM facility dedicated to tech innovation. Opportunities to come for students (through the Quantitative Biosciences, Biology, or Applied Physiology PhD programs) and postdocs beginning in August 2026.
- Great writeup by @caleb-m-gordon.bsky.social! 🐢
- Can simple #algorithms tell cryptic species apart? by Caleb Gordon, MPhil, B.A. iobopen.com/2025/05/04/c... On doi.org/10.1093/iob/... #morphology #machinelearning #science #conservation #turtles #organisms #biology
- A nice conceptual summary of what we’ve learned so far in the Fulkerson group about the importance of studying kneecaps in 3D, led by med student Nancy Park (who just matched ortho at Duke — congrats, Nancy!!), is out today in Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review: journals.lww.com/sportsmedart...
- Very much looking forward to this symposium (even though I'll be Zooming in while everyone's in Bordeaux). Thanks to @hugodutel.bsky.social for the invitation!
- 🗓️ Save the date! 26-28 May 2025 | Université de Bordeaux, France. Symposium and workshop : Biomechanical simulation techniques in evolutionary morphology and biomedical sciences. More info and registration: www.eventbrite.fr/e/1263754958...
- Reposted by Armita R. Manafzadeh🗓️ Save the date! 26-28 May 2025 | Université de Bordeaux, France. Symposium and workshop : Biomechanical simulation techniques in evolutionary morphology and biomedical sciences. More info and registration: www.eventbrite.fr/e/1263754958...
- Our latest Fulkerson group paper, led by student J. Sieberer, is out in The Knee (my favorite journal name yet). We create & test an AI-driven workflow to automatically calculate patellar tilt in 3-D, facilitating clinical diagnosis of patellar instability. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehWe are recruiting trainees for the Integrative Movement Sciences Summer Institute. Students will gain research experience in dynamic muscular control of movement across organizational scales from molecular mechanisms to whole-body movement in complex environments. Learn more: tinyurl.com/5n7w6pey
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehI'm the guest editor on this special issue on TBI. Awesome work from the Dean lab 🧪 💀
- Our paper led by Mike Schindler is out #OA in @anatrecord.bsky.social. We explore how the craniofacial hinge joint balances mobility & stability in helmeted hornbills, birds w/ high-impact head-butting behavior. Thanks to Mason Dean for inviting me to join the fun! tinyurl.com/595v6dzz
- Our paper led by Mike Schindler is out #OA in @anatrecord.bsky.social. We explore how the craniofacial hinge joint balances mobility & stability in helmeted hornbills, birds w/ high-impact head-butting behavior. Thanks to Mason Dean for inviting me to join the fun! tinyurl.com/595v6dzz
- So proud of Dr. @caleb-m-gordon.bsky.social, PhD for his successful dissertation defense yesterday. Listening to the way Caleb talks about his research reminds us all of why we got into this business to begin with. Congratulations, Dr. Gordon 🐬🦖
- Finally took a trip on the ferry to hang out with the anatomy crew down at Stony Brook — thanks so much to Kimi Chapelle and Drew Moore for the invitation!!
- Had a lovely time chatting with The Parrot Club of Connecticut about avian joints from beaks to toes last night 🦜🦴
- So excited for you, @caleb-m-gordon.bsky.social!! Can't wait! 🦎🌊
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehHey BlueSky! I’ll be defending my PhD dissertation on Monday, Feb 24 from 1–2pm US ET. Message me for Zoom info if you’re interested!
- Fun to see our recent work on the landing page for Research at Yale today!
- Thrilled to share: out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social (!) just in time for Thanksgiving, the dinosaurian history of how your turkey does the twist. Fibular reduction enabled mid-drumstick mobility, unlocking extreme knee long-axis rotation in theropods 🍗🦖🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08251-w
- Reposted by Armita R. Manafzadeh“If the freeze is not stopped, I might lose my house." Some NSF-funded postdocs are having trouble paying rent and credit card bills because their salaries were paused this week, even though the federal funding freeze memo was rescinded. www.statnews.com/2025/01/30/t...
- Reposted by Armita R. Manafzadeh
- Very pleased to have been invited to crash the muscle-tendon party in Finland this summer – will be speaking on 24 July and subjecting everyone to a side of #joints. Come join us!
- Registration and abstract submission are now open for the CNB Muscle-tendon mechanics across species Satellite meeting in Helsinki Finland July 23rd-26th 2025 before the main ISB meeting. Meeting website: www.jyu.fi/en/events/mu... Abstracts due Feb 14th registration.contio.fi/jyu/Registra...
- 10 yrs ago (oof), a real grown-up scientist™️ (Sarah Werning) came to my first talk and made me feel like I could make it in science. I still haven't decided whether to forgive her. It's fun/weird to be back at #SICB2025 a whole decade later. Catch my talk tomorrow (Saturday) @ 2:45pm.
- Shab-e Yalda Mobarak! || Happy Solstice! 🍉❄️ شب یلدا مبارک
- Aw, what a lovely start to my Friday. Thanks so much, @stevebrusatte.bsky.social! ☺️
- You should invite @armanafzadeh.bsky.social who's published groundbreaking work on dinosaur locomotion, the evolution of bird flight, and biomechanics recently! And she gives engaging talks!
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehA fun collaborative paper out in Nature on RAVEN: a bird-inspired robot that uses it’s legs to propel flight take off. An example of how robots can test ideas about integrated function in animals. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Armita R. Manafzadeh
Are you interested in learning about how engineering and physics can be applied to study the motions of #plants, #invertebrates, and #animals? Here's a non-exhaustive list of Comparative Biomechanists to get started! 🦋 🐟 🦎 🌿 🧪 go.bsky.app/HvHFgvB Apologies for any that I may have been missed.at://did:plc:7squbpked5xdckhvtmr2b2qt/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lc3xy2n4na2o - Incredibly cool work by @kevinhatala.bsky.social et al.!! 👣
- Excited to share our latest paper, new in Science! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehExcited to share our latest paper, new in Science! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehHappy #fossilfriday! Hind limb skeleton of an alvarezsaurid dinosaur, Jaculinykus! This dinosaur shows a great fibular reduction. Fibular reduction evolved convergently along lineage towards living birds and could allow modification of knee mobility, revealed by this week’s paper!
- Thrilled to share: out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social (!) just in time for Thanksgiving, the dinosaurian history of how your turkey does the twist. Fibular reduction enabled mid-drumstick mobility, unlocking extreme knee long-axis rotation in theropods 🍗🦖🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08251-w
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehThat video is hypnotic, tbh. 🧪
- Thrilled to share: out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social (!) just in time for Thanksgiving, the dinosaurian history of how your turkey does the twist. Fibular reduction enabled mid-drumstick mobility, unlocking extreme knee long-axis rotation in theropods 🍗🦖🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08251-w
- Reposted by Armita R. ManafzadehSo the tiny, pathetic toothpick fibula bone in birds *does* have a purpose! Amazing. Innovative and provocative work from @armanafzadeh.bsky.social & colleagues here!
- Thrilled to share: out in @natureportfolio.bsky.social (!) just in time for Thanksgiving, the dinosaurian history of how your turkey does the twist. Fibular reduction enabled mid-drumstick mobility, unlocking extreme knee long-axis rotation in theropods 🍗🦖🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08251-w
