Nicholas Gidmark

Meet Professor Gidmark

I am broadly interested in examining animal form & function using the lenses of comparative anatomy, muscle physiology, and biomechanics. My research centers around two comparative themes: 1) exploring the diversity of vertebrate musculoskeletal systems; and 2) linking physiological properties of muscles to whole-organism performance. Both themes are ideally suited to collaborative studies with student researchers because they involve tangible interactions ("How wide must a predator open its mouth to eat a given prey?") and intrinsically relate to how one's own body moves and functions. I've spent the majority of my career studying fishes (though I'm an equal opportunity zoologist), and I'm particularly interested in how organisms obtain and process their food. Methods and tools employed in the Gidmark lab include CT scanning, 3D printing, Animal surgery, 3D biomechanical modelling, electromyography (muscle activity), High-speed videography (light and x-ray), Muscle stimulation & force measurement, Xray Reconstruction Of Moving Morphology (www.XROMM.org), and Clearing & staining -- come by my office (SMC B220) or lab (SMC B010) and take a look!

Years at Knox: 2016 to present

Email Professor Gidmark: njgidmark@knox.edu

Education

Ph.D., 2012, Brown University
B.A., 2006, University of Minnesota.

Teaching Interests

Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, Animal Physiology, Fish Biology

Selected Professional Accomplishments

Honors/Grants

• Knox Faculty Research / Creative Work Grant: 3D Anatomical Dataset for Exploring Minnow Anatomy, 2016-2017
• Ellen Brown Scripps Foundation grant, PI: Build your imagination: a maker space for the sciences. June 2016. $31,230.
• Mentor to undergraduate awardee of Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology's Best student poster prize, Division of Comparative Biomechanics (2016)
• Mentor to undergraduate awardee of Society for Northwest Vertebrate Biology Best Student Presentation Prize (2015)
• Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Best Student Presentation prize (2012)
• American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists E.C. Raney Award (2010)
• Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research, muscle mechanics of cyprinid pharyngeal jaws (2010)
• Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research, trophic morphology in North American minnows (2005)
• Sigma Xi Best Student Presentation, top prize (2005)
• Ludden Scholarship, College of Natural Resources, University of Minnesota (2005)
• American Fisheries Society undergraduate scholarship, 1st place winner  (2004)

Publications

Peer-Reviewed

*Kaczmarek, EB and NJ Gidmark. 2020. The bite force-gape relationship as an avenue of biomechanical adaptation to trophic niche in two salmonid species. Journal of Experimental Biology. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.223180 (* denotes undergraduate co-author)  

Orsbon, CP, NJ Gidmark, TR Gao, and CF Ross. 2020. XROMM and diceCT reveal a hydraulic mechanism of tongue base retraction in swallowing. Scientific Reports. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64935-z.

Walker, JD, F Pirschel, NJ Gidmark, JN MacLean, and NJ Hatsopoulos. 2020. A platform for semiautomated voluntary training of common marmosets for behavioral neuroscience. Journal of Neurophysiology. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00300.2019

*Pos, KM, SC Farina, MA Kolmann, and NJ Gidmark. 2019. Pharyngeal jaws converge by similar means, not to similar ends, when minnows (Cypriniformes: Leuciscidae) adapt to new dietary niches. Integrative and Comparative Biology https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icz090 (* denotes undergraduate co-author)  

Gidmark, NJ, *KM Pos, *B Matheson, *E Ponce, and MW Westneat. 2019. Functional Morphology and Biomechanics of Feeding in Fishes. In: V. Bels and IQ Whishaw, eds. Feeding In Vertebrates: Evolution, Morphology, Behavior, and Biomechanics. Springer (* denotes undergraduate co-author) 

Arellano, C, N Konow, N Gidmark, and TJ Roberts. 2019. Evidence of a tunable biological spring: elastic energy storage in aponeuroses varies with transverse strain in vivo. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.2764

*Roberts, A, SC Farina, RR Goforth, and NJ Gidmark. 2018. Evolution of skeletal and muscular morphology within the functionally integrated lower jaw adduction system of sculpins and relatives (Cottoidei). Zoology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.zool.2018.06.006 (* denotes undergraduate co-author)  

Orsbon, CP, NJ Gidmark, and CF Ross. 2018. Dynamic Musculoskeletal Functional Morphology: integrating diceCT and XROMM. The Anatomical Record https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.23714

​Christopher J. Arellano, Nicholas J. Gidmark, Nicolai Konow, Emanuel Azizi, and Thomas J. Roberts, "Determinants of Aponeurosis Shape Change During Muscle Contraction," Journal of Biomechanics 49.9 (2016): 1812-1817.

Daniel L. Geldof and Nicholas J. Gidmark. 2016. Heterochrony in Two Sculpins of the Genus Psychrolutes: Growth Outpaces Skeletal Development in an Apex Predator among Ichthyoplankton. Copeia: September 2016, Vol. 104, No. 3, pp. 683-690.

Arellano, CJ, NJ Gidmark, N Konow, E Azizi, and TJ Roberts. 2016. Determinants of aponeurosis shape change during muscle contraction. Journal of Biomechanics 49(9): 1812-1817.

Gidmark, NJ, E LoPresti, CJ Taylor and EL Brainerd.  2015.  Functional morphology of durophagy in black carp, Mylopharyngodon piceus. Journal of Morphology. doi:10.1002/jmor.20430

Gidmark, NJ and AM Simons. 2014. Chapter 12: Cyprinidae: Minnows, Shiners & Carps. In: BM Burr and M Warren (eds). North American Freshwater Fishes, Volume I. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Gidmark, NJ, J Tarrant and EL Brainerd. 2014. Convergence  function and masticatory between the pharyngeal jaws of grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella, and oral jaws of amniote herbivores. Journal of Experimental Biology.

Gidmark, NJ, E LoPresti, N Konow and EL Brainerd. 2013. Bite force is limited by the force- length relationship of skeletal muscle in black carp, Mylopharyngodon piceus. Biology Letters 9(2). doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.1181. Coverage: news.science360.gov, eurekalert.org, sciencedaily.com, scienceblog.com, redorbit.com, nsf.gov, sciencenewsline.com, esciencenews.com, phys.org

Gidmark, NJ, KL Staab, EL Brainerd and LP Hernandez. 2012. Flexibility in starting posture drives flexibility in kinematic behavior of the kinethmoid-mediated premaxillary protrusion mechanism in a cyprinid fish, Cyprinus carpio. Journal of Experimental Biology 215: 2262-2272.

Laulicht, B, NJ Gidmark, A Tripathi and E Mathiowitz. 2011. Localized drug delivery from magnetic pills. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108(6): 2252-2257.

Gidmark, NJ, JA Strother, JM Horton, AP Summers and EL Brainerd. 2011. Locomotory transition from water to sand and its effects on undulatory kinematics in sand lances (Ammodytidae). Journal of Experimental Biology 214: 657-664.

Simons, AM and NJ Gidmark. 2010. Systematics and Phylogenetic Relationships of Cypriniformes. In: Grande, T. (ed). Gonorynchiformes and of Ostariophysan Relationships A Comprehensive Review. Science Publishers Press.

Presentations

With Orsbon, C.P.; & Ross, C.F., "High bite forces maintained across gapes may circumvent length-tension constraints via dynamic architecture in Macaque monkey jaws," Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA. January 4-8, 2017.

With Orsbon, C.P.; & Ross, C.F., "Form and Function Dynamics of the Primate Hyoid Apparatus: The Relationship Between Hyoid Posture and Muscle Behavior," Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology annual conference. January 2017.

With Kaczmarek, E.B., "The force-length relationship of skeletal muscle as a biomechanical adaptation to trophic niche in salmonid fishes," Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting, Brighton, UK. July 3-7, 2016.

With F. Giammona, F, E. Kaczmarek, and A. Roberts, "Muscle physiology and architecture as an axis of variation in functional diversity," Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, Portland, OR. January 3-7, 2016.

With Giammona, F; Kaczmarek, E; Alex Roberts ('18), "Muscle physiology and architecture as an axis of variation in functional diversity," Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, Portland, OR. January 3-7, 2016.

With Roberts, A.S.; Farina, S.C., "Feeding Mechanics and Functional Morphology in the Jaws of Sculpins," Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, Portland, OR. January 3-7, 2016.

With Giammona, F.F.; Blais, J., "Quantifying differences in musculo-skeletal morphology of the feeding apparatus across Pacific Salmon species," Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, Portland, OR. January 3-7, 2016.

With Kaczmarek, E.B., "The force-length relationship of skeletal muscle as a biomechanical adaptation to trophic niche in salmonid fishes," Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Annual Meeting, Portland, OR. January 3-7, 2016.