Yu Zeng Ph.D. (曾昱)

Hi, I’m Yu Zeng 曾昱, a biologist based in the University of South Florida at Tampa, Florida.

Research

I study how nature achieves the impossible—controlling motion at extreme speed, distance, and precision—and translate these principles into new scientific frameworks and engineering systems.

My research investigates novel biomechanical systems (such as legs, wings, tails and tongues) at organism-environment interface and in predator-prey interactions.

• Flight, gliding, and controlled aerial behaviors, mainly in insects and other arthropods
• High-performance prehensile and manipulative endeffectors in organisms (e.g. tongues, pincer appendages and limbs)
• Maneuverability (whole-organism, body parts, colonial)
• Biomaterial (genesis and evolution of hagfish slime thread)

Education

I received my Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from University of California at Berkeley, with support from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (advised by Robert Dudley & David Wake).

Recent updates

• Reuters TV interview on ballistic tongues — 2025-10-09
• interview with WMNF radio — 2025-09-17
• new paper on ballistic tongues — 2025-08-28
• orchid mantis paper featured by Science News — 2023-11-30
• new paper on orchid mantis gliding — 2023-11-29

More news →

Reviewed for

• Bioinspiration & Biomimetics
• Biotropica
• eLife
• Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution
• Integrative and Comparative Biology
• Integrative Zoology
• iScience
• Journal of Experimental Biology
• Journal of Insect Sciences
• Journal of Comparative Physiology
• PeerJ
• Physical Review Letters
• Phyllomedusa: Journal of Herpetology
• PLOS ONE
• Scientific Reports
• Zoomorphology