Thomas Arthur McMahon (April 21, 1943 – February 14, 1999) was an author and the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Mechanics and Professor Biology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He was born in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

, and grew up in

Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by ...

. A pioneer in biomechanics, McMahon studied

terrestrial locomotion Terrestrial locomotion has evolution, evolved as animals adapted from ecoregion#Marine, aquatic to ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial environments. Animal locomotion, Locomotion on land raises different problems than that in water, with reduced f ...

and the relationship of body size to shape and helped to develop devices for cardiac assistance and orthopedic biomechanics. He used simple mathematical models to explain complex phenomena and validated his models through experiments. His book ''

Muscles, Reflexes and Locomotion Thomas Arthur McMahon (April 21, 1943 – February 14, 1999) was an author and the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Mechanics and Professor Biology at Harvard University. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, and grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. A ...

'' is considered a classic on the mathematics, chemistry, biology, and mechanics of

animal locomotion In ethology, animal locomotion is any of a variety of methods that animals use to move from one place to another. Some modes of locomotion are (initially) self-propelled, e.g., running, swimming, jumping, flight, flying, hopping, soaring and gli ...

. His work with basilisk lizards showed how they run on water. McMahon was the inventor of the "tuned track," a special springy running surface installed in Harvard's Gordon indoor track and tennis facility. Subsequent tuned tracks were installed at Yale University and at Madison Square Garden in New York and are credited with improving running times as well as cutting in half the number of injuries. McMahon wrote four well-regarded novels, the last published posthumously. ''Loving Little Egypt'' won the 1988 Rosenthal Award from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

. Characters in McMahon's novels are also credited with inventions, for example the odor amplifier.

Novels

* ''Principles of American Nuclear Chemistry: A Novel'' (1970),

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

, . * ''McKay's Bees'' (1979),

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins, based in New York City. Founded in New York in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John, the company operated as J. & J. Harper until 1833, when ...

, . * ''Loving Little Egypt'' (1987),

Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...

, . * ''Ira Foxglove'' (2004), Brook Street Press, .

References

External links

* 1943 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists Scientists from Dayton, Ohio Writers from Lexington, Massachusetts Harvard University faculty 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Massachusetts 20th-century American non-fiction writers American male non-fiction writers {{US-novelist-1940s-stub