Animals have perfected the art of flying in a way that engineers can only dream of replicating. Assistant Professor of Biology Alison Weber has been awarded just over $400,000 by the National Science Foundation to continue her research on flight sensory systems and help understand those secrets of the natural world. The project, titled "BRC-BIO: Neural mechanisms underlying stable flight in insects," lays the foundational groundwork for new sensing technologies with the potential to enhance human-made flight systems.
Weber's neuroscience lab investigates how animals gather the sensory information they need to move, make decisions, and survive in the world in the context of insect flight. An animal's ability to fly requires rapid sensory feedback to remain stable and compensate for changes in the environment. Weber's work aims to understand how they achieve this with such minimal energy and excellent efficiency. Her lab studies the sensory neurons in the wings of moths and examines how they respond to their environment during flight.
The NSF grant will support three facets of Weber's research: recording directly from sensory neurons, understanding animal behavior, and modeling the collected information to understand the processing that is happening behind the scenes.
Weber's lab includes six students, split among three teams – electrophysiology, behavioral, and computational – that support every part of the research process. Weber emphasizes the importance of community within the lab and having colleagues you enjoy working with to support scientific investigation.
Some of her students work part-time in the lab, and others are doing their senior theses. For Faizah Shaik '27, her experience in the lab has proved fundamental in making her feel prepared to pursue a Ph.D. after graduating.
"It's great to be a part of a collective and to do your part in investigating a larger question. It feels really good knowing you're solving it one step at a time."
Alison Weber
Assistant Professor of Biology Alison Weber teaches in the Bi-College Neuroscience Program. She joined Bryn Mawr's faculty in 2023, and this year is teaching courses on Sensory Physiology and Biological Exploration, as well as the Neuroscience senior capstone.