The Concord Field Station at Harvard University: foundational contributions to organismal physiology and biomechanics

Progress in understanding animal function has been tremendously facilitated by research conducted at field stations that provide access to locations, organisms and equipment not otherwise available in more traditional urban universities or research institutions. In this Perspective, we focus on the history and contributions of one such facility, the Concord Field Station (CFS), established under the auspices of the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard University. Originally constructed as a US Army Nike missile defense site in the late 1950s, the site was acquired by Harvard University in 1963. Professor C. Richard Taylor was appointed as the first Faculty Director in 1969 and subsequently Andrew Biewener was recruited as the CFS Faculty Director in 1998. Research generated by CFS faculty, students and collaborators over the years has proven fundamental in a number of key areas of organismal biology, including the study of allometric scaling, locomotor mechanics and the design of vertebrate respiratory, cardiovascular and muscular systems. Research at the CFS has used a diversity of animals to investigate key physiological and mechanical questions. Field stations can have an outsized impact on research in broad areas of biological inquiry, and the CFS at Harvard has played a foundational role in studies of the functional biology of animals and is uniquely placed to make substantial future contributions to the field.