Rate My Professor Simon Sponberg

Simon Sponberg is the Glen Robinson Professor in Complex Systems jointly appointed in the Schools of Physics and Biological Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology since fall 2014. As director of the Agile Systems Lab, he explores how physics and physiology enable animals to achieve remarkable stability, agility, and maneuverability in locomotion, particularly insects like moths and cockroaches. His research specializations encompass neuromechanics, locomotor control, multiscale physics of muscle, maneuverability, computational neuroscience, motor programs, information processing in neuromechanical systems, and flight in unsteady flows. Prior to Georgia Tech, Sponberg conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Washington. He earned a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008 and dual B.A. degrees in Physics and Biology from Lewis & Clark College in 2002. A Hertz Fellow since 2002, his early contributions include investigations into gecko adhesion mechanisms.

Sponberg has received prestigious awards such as the NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award (2016-2022), Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship in the Neurosciences (2018-2022), Dunn Family Endowed Junior Professorship (2019-2023), Leddy Family Dean’s Faculty Excellence Award (2024), and Glen Robinson Endowed Professorship (2025). Additional honors include the Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Neuroethology (2014), Journal of Experimental Biology Paper of the Year (2012), and Apker Award Finalist (2002). Key publications include "Luminance-dependent visual processing enables moth flight in low light" (Science, 2015), "Precise timing is ubiquitous, consistent, and coordinated across a comprehensive, spike-resolved flight motor program" (PNAS, 2019), "Bridging two insect flight modes in evolution, physiology and robophysics" (Nature, 2023), and "Why animals can outrun robots" (Science Robotics, 2024). His interdisciplinary work advances neuromechanical principles and influences bio-inspired robotics and movement science.