Bonnie Sumner
Major Advisor
Susan Larson
Education
BA, Anthropology and Integrative Physiology | University of Colorado, Boulder, 2011
Email
bonnie.sumner@stonybrook.edu
Research Interests
I am interested in human bipedalism and the evolutionary processes that selected for this unique gait. I intend on addressing the question of how and why bipedalism evolved from both a comparative morphological and experimental approach. By furthering the general understanding of human and hominid locomotion through experimental biomechanics, I can begin to address the numerous questions that arise from the fossil record. I will then expand upon this by comparing the morphology of humans to non-human bipeds, both facultative and habitual. I received a B.A. in Anthropology and Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 2011. During my time there I worked in the Locomotion Laboratory in the Integrative Physiology Department studying modern human muscle activity during running and walking, with a specific emphasis on human evolution. I was lucky enough to attend a paleoanthropological field school in Laetoli, Tanzania through the University of Colorado, Denver. In addition to my work in the Locomotion Laboratory, I was also a laboratory aid, undergraduate learning assistant, and tutor for the Physical Anthropology Laboratory class. Since my graduation from CU Boulder I have worked as a researcher in several different positions. Most notably I worked to characterize and establish signal quality of EMG textile sensors for Smartex s.r.l., the results of which were recently presented at the 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE by the company director.
