Author: Sam Trail
Date: June 14, 2023
Ph.D. candidate, Jamie Knaub, based in Dr. Marianne Porter’s Florida Atlantic Biomechanics (FAB) Lab recently presented her work at the 4th biennial Tomography for Scientific Advancement (ToScA) North America symposium in Austin, Texas! As a recipient of the Jim Elliott Award in 2021, her presentation was one of the featured talks at this year’s event!
Jim Elliott was a scientist looking for a way to quantify and map mineral concentrations in the body. To that mean, he pioneered the use of X-ray microtomography, or microCT. Computed Tomography, more commonly known as a CT scan, allows for detailed x-ray images of structures, such as bone and cartilage, inside the body. As described by ToScA, the Jim Elliott Award is presented to “those with a burning scientific question whose answer lies in some aspect of X-ray microtomography.” Knaub’s research fit the bill to a T!
As the recipient of this award, Knaub was able to travel to the University of Florida’s Nanoscale Research Facility to scan shark and cetacean (whales, dolphins, porpoises) vertebrae, which are otherwise too large to fit in the CT scanner available at FAU High School where Knaub scans other (much smaller) samples for her research. With her talk entitled “Thanks for the support: Quantifying vertebral morphology variation in marine megafauna,” Knaub presented what she has been learning thanks to funding from this award.
Way to go, Jamie!
