Study of caterpillars shows how creepy-crawlies could help shape robots

A young academic won a major award from the prestigious Zoological Society of London recently for his devotion to studying the lives of "creepy crawlies".

Simon Chen researches how caterpillars manage to hold on to their food plants without falling off, and his findings could even have implications for future robotic technology.

The ZSL scientific prize that Chen won is an award established in 1837 to recognize outstanding contributions to zoological research and conservation by recognizing some of the brightest minds in conservation science.

Chen, whose mother is originally from China, has been interested in nature generally and in insects specifically since his childhood in Germany where he was brought up.

"But I never imagined I would do lab-based caterpillar research," he said.

His interest grew after he won a young scientists competition in Germany through collecting and identifying different species of caterpillars.

That eventually led to his academic interest in caterpillars and moths, which in turn resulted in an invitation to participate in a BEF China project as a member of a team from Germany's University of Lunenburg. The BEF is a joint project involving universities in China, Germany and Switzerland, to study biodiversity and ecosystems.

Later Chen met his current supervisor Walter Federle from the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, where he studies how caterpillars use their legs.