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 Published: 22 Jul 2025 | Last Updated: 22 Jul 2025 16:34:46

PhD student Yuting Lin receives Ruth Bowden Award

Yuting Lin, a PhD student at the ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ·, has been awarded the Ruth Bowden Award by the British Federation of Women Graduates (BFWG). This award recognises Yuting’s outstanding work on unravelling the complex ‘rules of life’ that govern how birds use their muscles and nervous systems to stand up from sitting poses, and how those rules change in birds of different sizes.

The BFWG is a UK charity that advocates for women’s rights in education and supports female scholars, particularly those pursuing advanced academic degrees. Named after the distinguished human anatomist, Ruth Bowden, this scholarship is awarded to female doctoral students to support them in completing their theses. Applications are reviewed by a panel of judges and assessed on several criteria, including academic excellence and the quality and significance of their research.

Yuting joined the ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ· in 2022 through the LIDo Doctoral Training Programme. Originally trained as a veterinarian at Zhejiang University, she later studied Population Health Sciences at the University of Cambridge before focusing on evolutionary biomechanics.

Her research at the ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ· explores animal movement strategies under constraints, specifically looking at how animals stand up from rest - a fundamental yet overlooked behaviour for understanding vertebrate postural evolution. Combining experiments, computational modelling and comparative anatomy in birds, Yuting’s research reveals biomechanical constraints underlying avian sit-to-stand transitions with applications from large animal rehabilitation to improving evolutionary resilience.

Yuting Lin, PhD student at the ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ·, said:

“I'm deeply honoured to receive the Ruth Bowden Award and grateful to the BFWG for championing women in science. This recognition belongs equally to my mentors and colleagues. “Large birds like ostriches and emus face a fundamental biomechanical paradox — evolutionarily built for speed, yet in a constant battle with gravity just to stand up. By decoding this challenge, we're uncovering the 'rules of life' that connect us to birds, to dinosaurs and perhaps even to the first vertebrates that ever stood on land.”

John Hutchinson, Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics at the ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ·, said:

“Yuting has opened up a new research area that remarkably has been overlooked. Animals need to stand up, not just walk and run, and standing up involves some biomechanical challenges different from walking and running. Her studies of bipedal birds are revealing fundamental principles regarding how anatomy, body size and evolutionary history shape the ability to stand up from a sitting pose.”

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About the ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ·

• The ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ· (¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ·) is the UK's largest and longest established independent veterinary school and is a Member Institution of the University of London. 
• It is one of the few veterinary schools in the world that hold accreditations from the RCVS in the UK (with associated recognition from the AVBC for Australasia, the VCI for Ireland and the SAVC for South Africa), the EAEVE in the EU, and AVMA (probationary) in the USA and Canada. 
• The ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ· is ranked as the top veterinary school in the world in the QS World University Rankings by subject, 2025. 
• The ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ· offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in veterinary medicine, veterinary nursing and biological sciences, including aBSc Animal Biology, Behaviour, Welfare and Ethics. 
• The ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ· is a research-led institution, with 88% of its research rated as internationally excellent or world class in the Research Excellence Framework 2021. 
• The ¹ú²ú¸ßÇåavÍøÖ· provides animal owners and the veterinary profession with access to expert veterinary care and advice through its teaching hospitals and first opinion practices in London and Hertfordshire.