Simon Sponberg

3.9k total citations · 1 hit paper
48 papers, 2.8k citations indexed

About

Simon Sponberg is a scholar working on Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Aerospace Engineering and Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics. According to data from OpenAlex, Simon Sponberg has authored 48 papers receiving a total of 2.8k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 19 papers in Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, 19 papers in Aerospace Engineering and 15 papers in Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics. Recurrent topics in Simon Sponberg's work include Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research (19 papers), Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanisms (19 papers) and Animal Behavior and Reproduction (11 papers). Simon Sponberg is often cited by papers focused on Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research (19 papers), Biomimetic flight and propulsion mechanisms (19 papers) and Animal Behavior and Reproduction (11 papers). Simon Sponberg collaborates with scholars based in United States, Sweden and Pakistan. Simon Sponberg's co-authors include Robert J. Full, Kellar Autumn, Metin Sitti, Jacob N. Israelachvili, Ronald S. Fearing, Thomas W. Kenny, Anne M. Peattie, Yiching A. Liang, Nicholas D. Pyenson and Eatai Roth and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In The Last Decade

Simon Sponberg

43 papers receiving 2.7k citations

Hit Papers

Evidence for van der Waals adhesion in gecko setae 2002 2026 2010 2018 2002 400 800 1.2k
What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

  1. Evidence for van der Waals adhesion in gecko setae
    2002 1.5k citations Kellar Autumn, Metin Sitti et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
Simon Sponberg United States 21 1.2k 783 625 579 405 48 2.8k
Nick Gravish United States 27 813 0.7× 937 1.2× 421 0.7× 288 0.5× 277 0.7× 80 2.7k
Zhendong Dai China 34 1.7k 1.4× 2.3k 2.9× 571 0.9× 504 0.9× 268 0.7× 268 5.1k
Alexander Kovalev Germany 30 873 0.8× 670 0.9× 291 0.5× 484 0.8× 392 1.0× 128 2.8k
Jiyu Sun China 24 430 0.4× 612 0.8× 299 0.5× 284 0.5× 187 0.5× 103 2.6k
Andrew R. Parker United Kingdom 29 542 0.5× 1.2k 1.5× 1.2k 1.9× 2.1k 3.7× 904 2.2× 70 5.2k
S. Tonia Hsieh United States 15 1.7k 1.5× 895 1.1× 839 1.3× 1.0k 1.7× 230 0.6× 44 3.1k
David L. Hu United States 31 487 0.4× 1.3k 1.6× 133 0.2× 869 1.5× 351 0.9× 100 4.1k
W. Jon. P. Barnes United Kingdom 25 1.4k 1.2× 516 0.7× 588 0.9× 902 1.6× 241 0.6× 59 2.3k
Emilios K. Dimitriadis United States 27 642 0.6× 1.1k 1.3× 819 1.3× 235 0.4× 77 0.2× 67 3.7k
John M. Gosline Canada 46 368 0.3× 1.6k 2.0× 310 0.5× 447 0.8× 589 1.5× 98 7.6k

Countries citing papers authored by Simon Sponberg

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Simon Sponberg's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Simon Sponberg with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Simon Sponberg more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Simon Sponberg

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Simon Sponberg. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Simon Sponberg. The network helps show where Simon Sponberg may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Simon Sponberg

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Simon Sponberg. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Simon Sponberg based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Simon Sponberg. Simon Sponberg is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

20 of 20 papers shown
1.
Angjelichinoski, Marko, et al.. (2026). Cross-subject mapping of neural activity with restricted Boltzmann machines. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience. 20. 1710914–1710914.
2.
Sharma, V., et al.. (2025). Neural bottlenecks: axon count, distribution, and conduction in the Manduca sexta neck connective. Journal of Comparative Physiology A.
3.
Burden, Samuel A., Thomas Libby, Kaushik Jayaram, Simon Sponberg, & J. Maxwell Donelan. (2024). Why animals can outrun robots. Science Robotics. 9(89). eadi9754–eadi9754. 20 indexed citations
4.
Sponberg, Simon, et al.. (2024). Flight power muscles have a coordinated, causal role in controlling hawkmoth pitch turns. Journal of Experimental Biology. 227(24).
5.
Sponberg, Simon, et al.. (2024). Stability and agility trade-offs in spring-wing systems. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics. 20(1). 16024–16024.
6.
Aiello, Brett R., M. Saad Bhamla, John G. Morris, et al.. (2023). The origin of blinking in both mudskippers and tetrapods is linked to life on land. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120(18). e2220404120–e2220404120. 6 indexed citations
7.
Aiello, Brett R., et al.. (2023). Bridging two insect flight modes in evolution, physiology and robophysics. Nature. 622(7984). 767–774. 14 indexed citations
8.
9.
Sponberg, Simon, et al.. (2023). An information theoretic method to resolve millisecond-scale spike timing precision in a comprehensive motor program. PLoS Computational Biology. 19(6). e1011170–e1011170. 2 indexed citations
10.
Sponberg, Simon, et al.. (2023). Perturbing the muscle work loop paradigm to unravel the neuromechanics of unsteady locomotion. Journal of Experimental Biology. 226(7). 9 indexed citations
11.
Zhu, Pingping, et al.. (2022). A Relative Spike-Timing Approach to Kernel-Based Decoding Demonstrated for Insect Flight Experiments. 2022 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN). 1–7. 2 indexed citations
12.
Aiello, Brett R., et al.. (2021). Wing damage affects flight kinematics but not flower tracking performance in hummingbird hawkmoths. Journal of Experimental Biology. 224(4). 9 indexed citations
13.
Aiello, Brett R., et al.. (2021). The evolution of two distinct strategies of moth flight. Journal of The Royal Society Interface. 18(185). 20210632–20210632. 13 indexed citations
14.
Aiello, Brett R., et al.. (2021). Spatial distribution of campaniform sensilla mechanosensors on wings: form, function, and phylogeny. Current Opinion in Insect Science. 48. 8–17. 28 indexed citations
15.
Dickerson, Bradley H., Jessica L. Fox, & Simon Sponberg. (2020). Functional diversity from generic encoding in insect campaniform sensilla. Current Opinion in Physiology. 19. 194–203. 26 indexed citations
16.
Sponberg, Simon, et al.. (2019). Precise timing is ubiquitous, consistent, and coordinated across a comprehensive, spike-resolved flight motor program. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116(52). 26951–26960. 13 indexed citations
17.
Gravish, Nick, et al.. (2019). Indirect actuation reduces flight power requirements in Manduca sexta via elastic energy exchange. Journal of The Royal Society Interface. 16(161). 20190543–20190543. 38 indexed citations
18.
Neveln, Izaak D., et al.. (2019). Information-based centralization of locomotion in animals and robots. Nature Communications. 10(1). 3655–3655. 12 indexed citations
19.
Cowan, Noah J., Mustafa Mert Ankaralı, Jonathan P. Dyhr, et al.. (2014). Feedback Control as a Framework for Understanding Tradeoffs in Biology. Integrative and Comparative Biology. 54(2). 223–237. 76 indexed citations
20.
Autumn, Kellar, Metin Sitti, Yiching A. Liang, et al.. (2002). Evidence for van der Waals adhesion in gecko setae. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99(19). 12252–12256. 1495 indexed citations breakdown →

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

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