My training is in biomechanics and comparative physiology. I received my B.A. in Biology from the University of Chicago and my Ph.D. from the Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Department at Harvard University. In my graduate work I used a broad comparative approach to examine the link between musculoskeletal morphology and the metabolic energy cost of running. As a postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern I focused on the physiological and mechanical behavior of skeletal muscle. My research program aims to integrate our understanding of muscle physiology with modern approaches in functional morphology and biomechanics.
| Stover KK, Sleboda DA, Brainerd EL, Roberts TJ. "Gastrocnemius Muscle Structural and Functional Changes Associated with Domestication in the Turkey." Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, vol. 11, no. 7, 2021. |
| Sleboda DA, Stover KK, Roberts TJ. "Diversity of extracellular matrix morphology in vertebrate skeletal muscle." Journal of Morphology, vol. 281, no. 2, 2020, pp. 160-169. |
| Sleboda DA, Wold ES, Roberts TJ. "Passive muscle tension increases in proportion to intramuscular fluid volume." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 222, no. Pt 21, 2019. |
| Ruttiman RJ, Sleboda DA, Roberts TJ. "Release of fascial compartment boundaries reduces muscle force output." Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 126, no. 3, 2019, pp. 593-598. |
| Roberts TJ. "Some Challenges of Playing with Power: Does Complex Energy Flow Constrain Neuromuscular Performance?." Integrative and Comparative Biology, vol. 59, no. 6, 2019, pp. 1619-1628. |
| Eng CM, Roberts TJ. "Aponeurosis influences the relationship between muscle gearing and force." Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 125, no. 2, 2018, pp. 513-519. |
| Camp AL, Roberts TJ, Brainerd EL. "Bluegill sunfish use high power outputs from axial muscles to generate powerful suction-feeding strikes." The Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 221, no. Pt 11, 2018, pp. jeb178160. |
| Kambic RE, Roberts TJ, Gatesy SM. "3-D range of motion envelopes reveal interacting degrees of freedom in avian hind limb joints." Journal of Anatomy, vol. 231, no. 6, 2017, pp. 906-920. |
| Sleboda, David A., Roberts, Thomas J. "Incompressible fluid plays a mechanical role in the development of passive muscle tension." Biology Letters, vol. 13, no. 1, 2017, pp. 20160630. |
| Lieber RL, Roberts TJ, Blemker SS, Lee SSM, Herzog W. "Skeletal muscle mechanics, energetics and plasticity." Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, vol. 14, no. 1, 2017, pp. 108. |
| Konow N, Cheney JA, Roberts TJ, Iriarte-Díaz J, Breuer KS, Waldman JRS, Swartz SM. "Speed-dependent modulation of wing muscle recruitment intensity and kinematics in two bat species." The Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 220, no. Pt 10, 2017, pp. jeb.144550. |
| Kram R, Roberts TJ. "A. V. Hill sticks his neck out." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 219, no. Pt 4, 2016, pp. 468-9. |
| Arellano CJ, Gidmark NJ, Konow N, Azizi E, Roberts TJ. "Determinants of aponeurosis shape change during muscle contraction." Journal of Biomechanics, vol. 49, no. 9, 2016, pp. 1812-1817. |
| Camp, Ariel L., Astley, Henry C., Horner, Angela M., Roberts, Thomas J., Brainerd, Elizabeth L. "Fluoromicrometry: A Method for Measuring Muscle Length Dynamics with Biplanar Videofluoroscopy." Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological genetics and physiology, vol. 325, no. 7, 2016, pp. 399-408. |
| Holt NC, Danos N, Roberts TJ, Azizi E. "Stuck in gear: age-related loss of variable gearing in skeletal muscle." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 219, no. Pt 7, 2016, pp. 998-1003. |
| Kambic RE, Roberts TJ, Gatesy SM. "Guineafowl with a twist: asymmetric limb control in steady bipedal locomotion." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 218, no. Pt 23, 2015, pp. 3836-3844. |
| Sawicki GS, Sheppard P, Roberts TJ. "Power amplification in an isolated muscle-tendon unit is load dependent." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 218, no. Pt 22, 2015, pp. 3700-9. |
| Astley HC, Haruta A, Roberts TJ. "Robust jumping performance and elastic energy recovery from compliant perches in tree frogs." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 218, no. Pt 21, 2015, pp. 3360-3. |
| Konow, Nicolai, Cheney, Jorn A., Roberts, Thomas J., Waldman, J. Rhea S., Swartz, Sharon M. "Spring or string: does tendon elastic action influence wing muscle mechanics in bat flight?." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 282, no. 1816, 2015, pp. 20151832. |
| Camp AL, Roberts TJ, Brainerd EL. "Swimming muscles power suction feeding in largemouth bass." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 112, no. 28, 2015, pp. 8690-5. |
| Konow N, Roberts TJ. "The series elastic shock absorber: tendon elasticity modulates energy dissipation by muscle during burst deceleration." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 282, no. 1804, 2015, pp. 20142800. |
| Sawicki GS, Robertson BD, Azizi E, Roberts TJ. "Timing matters: tuning the mechanics of a muscle-tendon unit by adjusting stimulation phase during cyclic contractions." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 218, no. Pt 19, 2015, pp. 3150-9. |
| Azizi E, Roberts TJ. "Geared up to stretch: pennate muscle behavior during active lengthening." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 217, no. Pt 3, 2014, pp. 376-81. |
| Kambic, R. E., Roberts, T. J., Gatesy, S. M. "Long-axis rotation: a missing degree of freedom in avian bipedal locomotion." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 217, no. 15, 2014, pp. 2770-2782. |
| Cheney JA, Konow N, Middleton KM, Breuer KS, Roberts TJ, Giblin EL, Swartz SM. "Membrane muscle function in the compliant wings of bats." Bioinspiration & biomimetics, vol. 9, no. 2, 2014, pp. 025007. |
| Holt, NC Roberts, TJ Askew, GN. "The energetic benefits of tendon springs in running: is the reduction of muscle work important?." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 217, no. 24, 2014, pp. 4365-71. |
| Holt, N. C., Roberts, T. J., Askew, G. N. "The energetic benefits of tendon springs in running: is the reduction of muscle work important?." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 217, no. 24, 2014, pp. 4365-4371. |
| Astley HC, Roberts TJ. "The mechanics of elastic loading and recoil in anuran jumping." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 217, no. Pt 24, 2014, pp. 4372-8. |
| Astley, H. C., Abbott, E. M., Azizi, E., Marsh, R. L., Roberts, T. J. "Chasing maximal performance: a cautionary tale from the celebrated jumping frogs of Calaveras County." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 216, no. 21, 2013, pp. 3947-3953. |
| Roberts TJ, Konow N. "How tendons buffer energy dissipation by muscle." Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, vol. 41, no. 4, 2013, pp. 186-93. |
| Azizi E, Roberts TJ. "Variable gearing in a biologically inspired pneumatic actuator array." Bioinspiration & biomimetics, vol. 8, no. 2, 2013, pp. 026002. |
| Astley HC, Roberts TJ. "Evidence for a vertebrate catapult: elastic energy storage in the plantaris tendon during frog jumping." Biology letters, vol. 8, no. 3, 2012, pp. 386-9. |
| Langman VA, Rowe MF, Roberts TJ, Langman NV, Taylor CR. "Minimum cost of transport in Asian elephants: do we really need a bigger elephant?." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 215, no. Pt 9, 2012, pp. 1509-14. |
| Konow N, Azizi E, Roberts TJ. "Muscle power attenuation by tendon during energy dissipation." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 279, no. 1731, 2012, pp. 1108-13. |
| Matson A, Konow N, Miller S, Konow PP, Roberts TJ. "Tendon material properties vary and are interdependent among turkey hindlimb muscles." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 215, no. Pt 20, 2012, pp. 3552-8. |
| Roberts TJ, Azizi E. "Flexible mechanisms: the diverse roles of biological springs in vertebrate movement." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 214, no. Pt 3, 2011, pp. 353-61. |
| Kim HR, Liu K, Roberts TJ, Hai CM. "Length-dependent modulation of cytoskeletal remodeling and mechanical energetics in airway smooth muscle." American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, vol. 44, no. 6, 2011, pp. 888-97. |
| Roberts TJ, Abbott EM, Azizi E. "The weak link: do muscle properties determine locomotor performance in frogs?." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 366, no. 1570, 2011, pp. 1488-95. |
| Azizi E, Roberts TJ. "Muscle performance during frog jumping: influence of elasticity on muscle operating lengths." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol. 277, no. 1687, 2010, pp. 1523-30. |
| Roberts TJ, Azizi E. "The series-elastic shock absorber: tendons attenuate muscle power during eccentric actions." Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 109, no. 2, 2010, pp. 396-404. |
| Azizi, Emanuel, Roberts, Thomas J. "Biaxial strain and variable stiffness in aponeuroses." Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, vol. 153, no. 2, 2009, pp. S128. |
| Azizi E, Roberts TJ. "Biaxial strain and variable stiffness in aponeuroses." The Journal of Physiology, vol. 587, no. Pt 17, 2009, pp. 4309-18. |
| Azizi E, Halenda GM, Roberts TJ. "Mechanical properties of the gastrocnemius aponeurosis in wild turkeys." Integrative and Comparative Biology, vol. 49, no. 1, 2009, pp. 51-8. |
| Roberts TJ, Gabaldón AM. "Interpreting muscle function from EMG: lessons learned from direct measurements of muscle force." Integrative and Comparative Biology, vol. 48, no. 2, 2008, pp. 312-20. |
| Gabaldón AM, Nelson FE, Roberts TJ. "Relative shortening velocity in locomotor muscles: turkey ankle extensors operate at low V/V(max)." American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology, vol. 294, no. 1, 2008, pp. R200-10. |
| Nelson FE, Roberts TJ. "Task-dependent force sharing between muscle synergists during locomotion in turkeys." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 211, no. Pt 8, 2008, pp. 1211-20. |
| Azizi E, Brainerd EL, Roberts TJ. "Variable gearing in pennate muscles." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 105, no. 5, 2008, pp. 1745-50. |
| Roberts TJ, Higginson BK, Nelson FE, Gabaldón AM. "Muscle strain is modulated more with running slope than speed in wild turkey knee and hip extensors." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 210, no. Pt 14, 2007, pp. 2510-7. |
| Roberts, T.J. "Integrated muscle-tendon function during running accelerations." Journal of Biomechanics, vol. 39, 2006, pp. S360. |
| Roberts, T. "A STEP FORWARD FOR LOCOMOTOR MECHANICS." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 208, no. 22, 2005, pp. 4191-4192. |
| Roberts TJ, Belliveau RA. "Sources of mechanical power for uphill running in humans." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 208, no. Pt 10, 2005, pp. 1963-70. |
| Roberts TJ, Scales JA. "Adjusting muscle function to demand: joint work during acceleration in wild turkeys." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 207, no. Pt 23, 2004, pp. 4165-74. |
| Nelson FE, Gabaldón AM, Roberts TJ. "Force-velocity properties of two avian hindlimb muscles." Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, vol. 137, no. 4, 2004, pp. 711-21. |
| Gabaldón AM, Nelson FE, Roberts TJ. "Mechanical function of two ankle extensors in wild turkeys: shifts from energy production to energy absorption during incline versus decline running." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 207, no. Pt 13, 2004, pp. 2277-88. |
| Biewener, A. A. "Muscle mechanical advantage of human walking and running: implications for energy cost." Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 97, no. 6, 2004, pp. 2266-2274. |
| Griffin TM, Roberts TJ, Kram R. "Metabolic cost of generating muscular force in human walking: insights from load-carrying and speed experiments." Journal of Applied Physiology, vol. 95, no. 1, 2003, pp. 172-83. |
| Roberts TJ, Marsh RL. "Probing the limits to muscle-powered accelerations: lessons from jumping bullfrogs." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 206, no. Pt 15, 2003, pp. 2567-80. |
| Roberts TJ, Scales JA. "Mechanical power output during running accelerations in wild turkeys." Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 205, no. Pt 10, 2002, pp. 1485-94. |
| Roberts TJ. "The integrated function of muscles and tendons during locomotion." Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, vol. 133, no. 4, 2002, pp. 1087-99. |
National Institutes of Health, R01 AR055295
"Elastic mechanisms in locomotion"
PI: T. Roberts and E. Azizi
1/2023 - 5/2028, $2,240,070
National Institutes of Health, R01 AR055295
"Elastic mechanisms in locomotion"
PI: T. Roberts and E. Azizi
6/2016 - 5/2022, $1,716,019
National Science Foundation EFRI 1832795
"SoRo: Muscle-like Cellular Architectures and compliant, distributed sensing and control for soft robots
PI: T. Roberts, A. Dollar, J. Trinkle, J. Smith
12/01/18-11/30/22, $2,000,000.
National Institutes of Health, R01 AR055295
"Elastic mechanisms in locomotion"
PI: T. Roberts
8/2012 - 7/2016, $1,594,000.
Air Force Office of Scientific Research AFOSR 12RSL086
Dynamics of bat wing musculature
co-PIs: S. Swartz and T. Roberts
06/01/12-02/30/16, $1,220,000.
National Science Foundation IOS0925077
Kinematics and kinetics of long-axis rotation in avian bipedal locomotion.
co-PIs: S. Gatesy and T. Roberts
07/01/09-06/31/14, $423,000.
National Institutes of Health, R01 AR055295
"Elastic mechanisms in locomotion"
PI: T. Roberts
8/2008 - 7/2012, $937,152.
National Science Foundation NSF 0642428
"Integrated muscle-tendon function in frog jumping"
PI: T. Roberts
4/2007 - 3/2010, $385,000.
W. M. Keck Foundation
"A proposal to design and build a dynamic 3-D Skeletal imaging system"
PI: E. Brainerd; Co-PI: T. Roberts and 6 others
12/2007-12/2010, $1,800,000.
Brown University, Research Seed Funding Award
"Development and Verification of CTX Imaging for Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Research"
PI: E. Brainerd; Co-PI: T. Roberts and 3 others
1/2006-12/2006, $100,000.
National Institutes of Health, RO1 AR046499
"Dynamics of force production during running"
PI: T. Roberts
2001-2005, $557,502
Department of Education GAANN training grant
"Analysis of complex behaviors"
PI: S. Arnold; Co-Investigator: T. Roberts and 7 others
2001-2003, $304,500.
Medical Research Foundation of Oregon
"Influence of muscle force-velocity properties on running mechanics"
PI: T. Roberts
2000-2001, $25,000
Eng, C. M., Azizi, E., & Roberts, T. J. (2018). Structural determinants of muscle gearing during dynamic contractions. Integrative and comparative biology, 58(2), 207-218.
Sleboda, D. A., & Roberts, T. J. (2017). Incompressible fluid plays a mechanical role in the development of passive muscle tension. Biology letters, 13(1), 20160630.
Roberts, T. J. (2016). Contribution of elastic tissues to the mechanics and energetics of muscle function during movement. Journal of Experimental Biology, 219(2), 266-275.
Roberts, T. J., & Konow, N. (2013). How tendons buffer energy dissipation by muscle. Exercise and sport sciences reviews, 41(4).
Astley, H.C., Roberts, T.J. (2012). Evidence for a vertebrate catapult: elastic energy storage in the plantaris tendon during frog jumping. Biol. Lett 8: 386-389.
Konow, N., Azizi, E., Roberts, T.J. (2012). Muscle power attenuation by tendon during energy dissipation. Proc. Biol. Sci 279: 1108-1113.
Roberts, T.J., Azizi, E. (2011). Flexible mechanisms: the diverse roles of biological springs in vertebrate movement. J. Exp. Biol 214: 353-361.
Azizi, E., Brainerd, E. L. and Roberts, T. J. (2008). Variable gearing in pennate muscles. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A 105, 1745-50.
Gabaldon, A. M., Nelson, F. E. and Roberts, T. J. (2008). Relative shortening velocity in locomotor muscles: turkey ankle extensors operate at low V/Vmax. Am. J. Physiol. Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol. 294, R200-10.
Roberts TJ and Marsh RL. (2003) Probing the limits to muscle-powered accelerations: lessons from jumping bullfrogs. J. Exp. Biol. 206: 2567-2580.
Roberts, T. J. (2002). The integrated function of muscles and tendons during locomotion. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. A: 133, 1087-1099.
Roberts, T. J., Marsh, R. L., Weyand, P. G. and C. R. Taylor. (1997). Muscular force in running turkeys: the economy of minimizing work. Science 275, 1113-1115.
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | AM | Harvard University |
| 1995 | PhD | Harvard University |
| 1988 | BA | University of Chicago |
Member, American Physiological Society
Member, American Society of Biomechanics
Member, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
Member, Sigma Xi
Member, American Society of Biomechanics
Member, Society for Experimental Biology
| BIOL 2430 - Topics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
| BIOL 2440 - Topics in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology |
