Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Fall 2026
AGENDA OPENING REMARKS Frank LaFerla, PhD Dr. Lionel and Fay Ng Dean and Distinguished Professor
LECTURE Monica Daley, PhD Professor Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Q&A RECEPTION
About the Lecture Mysteries of Muscle and Movement: From Molecular Motors to Lifelong Mobility
About the Speaker Monica Daley, PhD Professor Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Monica A. Daley is Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), with joint appointments in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. She earned her B.S. in Biology from the University of Utah, her Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Predoctoral Fellow, and completed postdoctoral training in neuromechanics and human rehabilitation at the University of Michigan as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow. From 2008 to 2019, she served on the faculty of the Structure and Motion Laboratory at the Royal Veterinary College in London before joining UCI in 2019. Daley directs UCI’s Center for Integrative Movement Sciences, an interdisciplinary initiative connecting researchers and students with a nationwide movement science network. Her research integrates muscle physiology, biomechanics, sensorimotor control, and bioinspired robotics, bringing together clinicians, engineers, and roboticists to investigate movement across diverse animal species. Passionate about mentoring researchers at all career stages, she has received the Human Frontier Science Program Young Investigator Award, serves as a Monitoring Editor of the Journal of Experimental Biology, and is a Fellow of the American Society of Biomechanics.
Give the Gift of Discovery! Hazel Carpenter Executive Director of Development hazeljc@uci.edu | 949.824.8387 Madison Bellan Director of Development mbellan@uci.edu