RPI Biology Professor Doug Swank, Ph.D., was recently awarded the prestigious Marion J. Siegman Lectureship Award from the American Physiological Society. The award recognizes researchers who have made outstanding contributions to the understanding of muscle contraction and motility. 

Swank joined RPI in 2005. He runs the Swank Laboratory for Muscle Physiology and Disease Research, a world leader in Drosophila muscle mechanics which investigates the physiological and mechanical properties of muscles and the mechanisms behind muscle and cardiac diseases. 

Some of his most recent research focuses on stretch activation, which is used by insect flight muscle and vertebrate heart muscle to increase the amount of force and power generated during each contraction cycle. In his latest paper, Swank and colleagues describe how stretch activation can also combat muscle fatigue in invertebrates. 

“This award reflects Professor Swank’s leadership in research in the field of muscle contraction and motility," said Jennifer Hurley, Ph.D., head of the Department of Biological Sciences at RPI. “We are so proud to count him among our colleagues, to learn from his expertise, and to watch him change the lives of the students he teaches here in the department.”