Stephen J. Piazza

Thomas McMahon began his highly readable and informative textbook with these lines: "Everyone knows that meat is really muscle. Muscle is the only known piece of machinery which can be cooked in many ways." These lines (and this book) have special meaning for me because in my own research I analyze the human musculoskeletal system using techniques developed for the study of machines. Professor McMahon played a large role in shaping these interests when I took his courses as an undergraduate. His book details several simple and elegant mathematical models of movement that have influenced the thinking of a generation of biomechanists.