Barry Andrew Trimmer is an American scientist, and the ''Henry Bromfield Pearson Professor of Natural Sciences'' at Tufts University. In addition to his primary appointment in th
Department of Biology
he holds secondary appointments i
Biomedical Engineering
and in Neuroscience at the Tuft
Graduate School of Biomedical Science
His research primarily focuses on neurobiology, biomechanics / neuromechanics and soft-bodied locomotion.

Biography

Trimmer was born in England and received both his Bachelor of Arts, B.A. and Ph.D. from Cambridge University, concentrating in neurobiology. He was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard Medical School, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California Berkeley and the University of Oregon before joining Tufts University as an Assistant Professor in 1990. He is director of th
Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Laboratory
at Tufts University. His research focus is on the ''Neuromechanics of Locomotion'', the science of how animals control their movements. In addition to his work on living systems, Professor Trimmer specializes in the application of found biological principles to the design and fabrication of ''Soft Robots''. Dr. Trimmer is also ''Editor in Chief'' of the journal
Soft Robotics
'. His lab designs and builds a variety of soft robots that are used to test hypotheses about locomotion and to explore new types of control systems. His interests in living systems and robots converge in his recent research that seeks to "grow" robotic devices using a combination of biosynthetic materials, cellular modulation, and tissue engineering. These ''Biosynthetic Robots'' will be versatile, safe, biocompatible and biodegradable. Trimmer and his Tufts colleague David L. Kaplan gained international attention in 2007 upon successfully creating the world's first soft robotics, soft-bodied robot. The robot, or SoftBot, is composed of silicone elastomers and resembles a tobacco hornworm, a caterpillar that Trimmer has studied since 1990.In the Lab: Robots That Slink and Squirm - ''New York Times''
/ref> Barry A. Trimmer: List o
Published Work

Footnotes

External links

Tufts Biomimetic Devices Laboratory (BDL)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trimmer, Barry Harkness Fellows Tufts University faculty Living people 21st-century American biologists Year of birth missing (living people)