Ann Zumwalt, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Phone: (617) 638-4321
Fax: (617) 638-4216
Email: azumwalt@bu.edu
Location: L-1006

Dr. Zumwalt earned her doctorate in 2005 from the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her research there demonstrated that endurance exercise does not affect the surface morphology of skeletal muscle attachments. These findings challenge the rarely questioned assumption that analysis of these features can be used to provide insight into the activity patterns of extinct human and animal populations. Dr. Zumwalt subsequently joined the Animal Locomotion Laboratory in the Department of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy at Duke University. There she investigated the effects of hypermuscularity on locomotor patterns and bone morphology in rodents. She also collaborated on various research and educational projects with clinicians in radiation oncology, obstetrics and gynecology and neurology.

Dr. Zumwalt joined the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology in 2007. Her research interests include various topics in the neurobiology of education, including the neurobiological underpinnings of adult learning, and changes in perception as individuals grow from naïve learners to experts. She is also interested in clinical anatomy projects that advance clinicians’ understanding of anatomy in a way that improves medical procedures such as surgical approaches or radiation treatments.

Dr. Zumwalt teaches in the Gross Anatomy course and is the section leader for the Thorax-Abdomen-Pelvis section of the course. She also directs advanced anatomy refresher sessions for the Obstetrics & Gynecology clerkship and teaches in Advanced Clinical Anatomy. She participates in the department’s Teaching in the Biomedical Sciences course and Anatomy Journal Club, and is the faculty advisor for the Anatomical Sciences Interest Group.

Some of Dr. Zumwalt’s service efforts include acting as a School of Medicine representative to the University Faculty Council and as co-chairman of the John McCahan Medical Education Day committee. On a national level, she is actively involved in the American Association of Anatomists, having served on the AAA’s Advisory Committee of Young Anatomists and Board of Directors.

BU Today article about the Boston University Anatomical Gifts Program that describes some of Dr. Zumwalt’s work: “Gifts from the Dead”

Selected Publications

Zumwalt AC, Marks, L and Halperin, EC. Integration of gross anatomy into a clinical oncology curriculum. 2007; Academic Medicine 85(5): 469-474.

Zumwalt AC. The effect of endurance exercise on the morphology of muscle attachment sites. 2006;  Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 444-454.

Zumwalt AC. A new method for quantifying the complexity of muscle attachment sites. 2005; The Anatomical Record, Part B: The New Anatomist 286B: 21-28.