Rate My Professor Johan van Leeuwen

Johan van Leeuwen is Emeritus Professor of Animal Mechanics at Wageningen University & Research, where he has headed the Experimental Zoology group since 1999. He also served as director of the Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences graduate school until 2022. He obtained an MSc in Biology with honours and a PhD, also with honours, on the biomechanics of prey-capture in fish. He has held key leadership positions including member of the World Council of Biomechanics, convenor of the Biomechanics group of the Society for Experimental Biology, and member of the Academic Board of Wageningen University. He functions as a member of the editorial board of Animal Biology, providing advice to the editor-in-chief.

His research integrates physics, engineering, molecular techniques, and modelling to address fundamental problems in biology, focusing on the relationship between form and function in evolution and development. Research interests encompass biophysics, biology, animal health and welfare, growth, animal anatomy and morphology, zoology, biomechanics, muscles, fish, and computational fluid dynamics. Specific studies include bio-fluid dynamics of swimming and flight, biomechanics of muscular hydrostats such as squid tentacles, chameleon tongues, and salamander tongues, architectural optimization in muscles, developmental biomechanics of muscles and bones, escape and swimming performance in flatfish, mechanisms of manoeuvrability through undulating fins, and muscle structure in larval zebrafish. Recent bio-inspired projects explore wet bio-adhesion and steerable needles based on tree frogs, sea urchins, and parasitic wasps. He has published more than 110 scientific journal papers with a Web of Science h-index of 31. Key publications are "Evidence for an elastic projection mechanism in the chameleon tongue" (2004), "Biomechanics of swimming in developing larval fish" (2018), "Axial muscle-fibre orientations in larval zebrafish" (2025), and "Axial muscle-fibre orientation in developing larval zebrafish" (2026). A conference titled "Biomechanics in Nature" marked his retirement as professor of Experimental Zoology in 2023.