I 
am the Alumni Council Thomas Jefferson Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia.
My research is in developmental biology, specifically on the molecular, cellular, and mechanical mechanisms by which individual cells collectively generate the patterned forces that shape and reshape the developing embryo, mostly the embryo of the frog, Xenopus laevis, but with comparative work on other species.
Our experimental approach is to characterize region-specific tissue behaviors and their large-scale mechanical interactions by comparing microsurgically isolated explants and corresponding regions of whole embryos. We then probe these specialized explant preparations with molecular, pharmacological, microsurgical, and mechanical manipulations under high resolution imaging to determine the molecular and cellular events underlying the tissue-shaping forces.