Award Winners Spotlight

Darryl Thelen, University of Wisconsin

This is the most prestigious honor given by the ASB. The award recognizes outstanding career accomplishment and is awarded annually to an investigator who has conducted exemplary research in any area of biomechanics.

Darryl G. Thelen is the John Bollinger Chair and the Bernard A. and Frances M. Weideman Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he also serves as Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He earned his BS in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University and his MSE and PhD from the University of Michigan. Professor Thelen directs the UW Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab, where he leads the development of computational models, wearable sensors, and dynamic imaging technologies to investigate the functional loading of musculoskeletal tissues. His work focuses on understanding the biomechanics and neuromuscular coordination of human movement, with the goal of informing and improving clinical practices in orthopedics, rehabilitation, and sports medicine. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense. He is a Fellow of both the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Society of Biomechanics.

Jeff Crandall, Biocore LLC

The ASB Jim Hay Memorial Award recognizes originality, quality, and depth of biomechanics research that addresses fundamental research questions relevant to extraordinary demands imposed in sport and exercise.

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Jeff Crandall is co-founder and CEO of Biomechanics Consulting and Research (Biocore), LLC and Board Member of Infinite Athlete, Inc.  He is the Nancy and Neal Wade Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Emeritus) at the University of Virginia and was the director of the UVA Center for Applied Biomechanics from 1994 until he retired from the University in 2019.  Dr. Crandall’s research has focused on understanding human response and injury with application to the fields of sports and automobile safety.  He has served as an engineering consultant to the National Football League for the past 17 years and co-chairs the NFL-NFLPA Engineering Committee.   He has authored more than 700 technical papers, been awarded 7 patents, and received the Department of Transportation’s United States Government Award for Engineering Excellence.

Peter G. Adamczyk, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Founders’ Award was established in 2017 to recognize scientific accomplishment in biomechanics and excellence in mentoring and is open to investigators of all disciplines within ASB.

Dr. Peter Adamczyk earned degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University (B.S.) and the University of Michigan (M.S. and Ph.D) in the areas of Robotics and Biomechanics. He spent several years running a startup company dedicated to advancing the science and technology of lower-limb prosthetics and real-world motion assessment. He joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015, and is now the Mead Witter Foundation Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering, with affiliations in Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He directs the Biomechatronics, Assistive Devices, Gait Engineering and Rehabilitation Laboratory (UW BADGER Lab, http://uwbadgerlab.engr.wisc.edu) and teaches courses in Robotics and Mechatronics.

Dr. Adamczyk’s research aims to enhance physical and functional recovery from impairments affecting walking, running, and standing. Core foci include basic research on locomotion biomechanics; design of semi-active foot prostheses for gait restoration after amputation; wearable sensors for movement assessment during real-life activities; and rehabilitation robotics to explore motor learning and neural adaptation in the lower limb.

Brooke Odle, Hope College

Dr. Brooke Odle is a biomedical engineer by training and specializes in rehabilitation and biomechanics. She earned a bachelors of science in bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh, a masters of science in biomedical engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology, and a doctor of philosophy in biomedical engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University Biomedical and Health Sciences. She completed postdoctoral training at Case Western Reserve University. To explore her calling as an educator, mentor, and researcher, she joined Hope College in 2019 as a faculty fellow and became faculty in 2020. As a Christian with the heart of a servant-leader, she merges her God-given spiritual gifts of mercy and shepherding with her leadership strengths in restoration, connection, harmony, learning, and development to fulfill her roles as a professor. These roles include teaching, research, advising, and service- to the campus community, her professional community, and the community in which she lives. She strives to leave people and places better than she found them and views her work as a professor through a lens of service. As a researcher, she conducts interdisciplinary research across campus to gain a better understanding of human movement and injury prevention. Her primary work explores how nursing students perform manual patient-handling tasks. She works with student researchers to develop interventions to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal injuries associated with the performance of these tasks. As a teacher, she serves her students by seeking innovative ways to engage them with course material, providing them with individualized feedback to help them grow, and preparing them to enter the engineering workforce or continue their studies in graduate or professional school. As an individual who identifies as a Black woman with Puerto Rican roots, she wants all students, especially those who identify with historically marginalized backgrounds, to know that they are seen and supported. To pay forward the gifts of mentorship she has received and continues to receive, Dr. Odle mentors Hope College students, junior scholars in her field and actively supports mentoring and diversity, equity, justice, and inclusion efforts in the professional societies to which she belongs and within her local community.

Josh Caputo, Humotech

Josh Caputo, PhD, is the President & CEO of Humotech, a company he spun out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2015 to provide the world’s first hardware/software platform that supports researchers and developers pursuing innovations in prosthetics & orthotics, exoskeleton technology, and other wearable machines. Trained as a multi-disciplinary engineer/scientist concentrated on robotics, his work focuses on addressing gaps in how wearable products are invented, designed, and fit to human users. Josh’s driving passion is to help realize a world where everyone can access the devices they need to lead happier, healthier, and more productive lives.

Scott Uhlrich, University of Utah

Dr. Uhlrich directs the Movement Bioengineering Lab at the University of Utah, where he is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Orthopaedic Surgery. His research aims to improve human mobility using scalable digital health technology. His work leverages computational biomechanics, machine learning, mobile sensing, and imaging with applications in osteoarthritis, neuromuscular diseases, and aging. His group develops open-source software for movement analysis using smartphone video (OpenCap), which is used by thousands of researchers to conduct out-of-lab biomechanics studies. Dr. Uhlrich also develops biomechanical interventions for osteoarthritis and has tested them in clinical trials. Prior to joining the University of Utah, Dr. Uhlrich received his MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. After a postdoctoral fellowship in Bioengineering at Stanford, he became the Director of Research at the Stanford Human Performance Laboratory. Dr. Uhlrich received the Clinical Biomechanics Award from ASB and the Young Investigator Award from the Osteoarthritis Research Society International. He also co-founded a company to make his video-based biomechanics software available to clinicians.

Soyong Shin, Carnegie Mellon University

Awards Session Presentation: TBC

Soyong Shin is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where he works with Dr. Eni Halilaj. His research focuses on developing new open-source markerless motion tracking methods that use AI to harness information from emerging technologies, such as smartphone cameras and/or inertial sensors. Among others, these include WHAM, which leverages a single moving camera, and DeepGaitLab, a multi-view motion capture system that will be introduced at ASB 2025. Soyong is the recipient of the Korean Government Scholarship for Studying Overseas, the CMU Center for Machine Learning and Health Fellowship, CMU’s Presidential Fellowship, and the Meta AI Mentorship Program Fellowship. During his PhD, Soyong was a visiting researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Meta Reality Labs Research, and Meta AI Research (FAIR), advancing intelligent systems for human movement analysis. Previously, Soyong received his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University.

Ying Fang, Rosalind Franklin University 

Dr. Fang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Rosalind Franklin University. She earned her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, focusing on improving bone health in people with Spinal Cord Injury. Prior to joining RFU, Dr. Fang completed postdoctoral training in the Biomechatronic Lab at Northern Arizona University, where she implemented assistive technologies in neurorehabilitation and received an NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Fang’s current research focuses on developing and implementing novel rehabilitation interventions, such as biofeedback, to improve gait and function of people with neurological disorders. With the support from the ASB Junior Faculty Research Award, she will develop a new line of research that combines biomechanics and psychology to understand the physical and mental aspects of fall prevention.

Maria Ramos Gonzalez, Postdoc, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dr. Maria Ramos Gonzalez is a Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Fellow whose multidisciplinary research covers human-in-the-loop for robotic manipulation tasks and neuroprosthetic feedback control paradigms for upper limb amputees. Her doctoral research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) included the design and fabrication of a novel biocompatible polycarbonate urethane knee implant. She also designed and fabricated a multi-knee joint implant test apparatus for long-term wear testing and validation of the novel implant. As a postdoctoral fellow, Maria’s innovative work holds great promise for advancing our understanding of human sensation, improving prosthetic design and control, and delivering technologies that improve lives at all levels of integrated human robotics applications. In addition, she aims to make these kinds of life-enhancing engineering solutions accessible to underserved populations.

Hannah Houde, Postdoc, University of Texas Medical Branch

Hannah Houde is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where she works with Dr. Melissa Morrow to investigate shoulder health and movement patterns in manual wheelchair users, focusing on how daily life demands contribute to shoulder tendon injury.

Hannah earned her bachelor’s degree in Therapeutic Recreation & Strength and Conditioning from Lock Haven University, followed by a master’s in Adult Education and certificate in Movement Skills Analysis from Auburn University, where she also completed her doctorate in Biomechanics in Kinesiology. Her educational background and practical training have equipped her with a well-rounded foundation for analyzing human movement.

Her research centers on biomechanics in para-athletes, with a big-picture goal of bridging the gap between clinical and applied research in Paralympic sports. Drawing from hands-on experience gained from working with Auburn Wheelchair Basketball and Wheelchair Tennis, she is passionate about advancing parasport performance and minimizing injury through movement analysis.

Through the Up and Comer Award, Hannah is especially looking forward to benefiting from Dr. McNitt-Gray’s expertise as it will help further develop a deeper understanding of mechanics used across various sports. Dr. McNitt-Gray’s mentorship will allow Hannah to be engaged in preparation for the LA 2028 Paralympic Games. Additionally, she will have the opportunity to work with the Rancho Research Institute Coach WELL program at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center—a Spinal Cord Injury Model System. This program provides opportunities to translate research findings into practice by training coaches who develop athletes in parasports.

Hannah is excited for future opportunities with her mentor, Dr. McNitt-Gray, and continued mentorship from Dr. Morrow as she works to establish her research in this specialized field and address the biomechanical needs of diverse populations.

Gauri Desai, Postdoc, University of Maryland, College Park

Dr. Gauri Desai is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Maryland, College Park, in the Department of Kinesiology’s Neuromechanics Core. She received her MSc in Sport and Health Sciences from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, and her PhD in Biomechanics from Indiana University-Bloomington. Dr. Desai’s current research focuses on two main areas: (1) uncovering running-related injury risk factors, with a focus on women-specific biomechanical and endocrinological factors, and (2) complementing experimental methodology with optimal control simulations to examine the energetic and biomechanical consequences of clinical conditions like lower limb amputations. Dr. Desai seeks to drive research and innovation that accounts for the unique characteristics of her studied populations. She hopes that such an approach will foster the design of well-informed musculoskeletal injury risk mitigation interventions that can be effectively adopted by the communities they are designed to serve.

In her pursuit of translational research, Dr. Desai is part of the Female Athlete Science and Translational Research Team (FASTR) at Stanford University, where her upcoming research will focus on identifying the tissue-level biomechanical and endocrinological risk factors of bone stress injuries among both adolescent girls and post-partum women engaged in sport. In an effort to take science to communities, Dr. Desai serves as a Topical Expert in Biomechanics at VOICEINSPORT, a digital community designed to empower and connect girls and young women in sports, ages 13 to 23. Through its platform, young girls and women athletes gain access to original science-backed content, mentoring, and one-on-one or group sessions centered around their unique biomechanical, physiological, nutritional, and mental health needs. Additionally, Dr. Desai is an active member of the Women in Sports Tech (WiST) community, which seeks to address the gender gap in sports and technology by improving women’s access to early career opportunities. Dr. Desai hopes to continually engage in translational research to address crucial gaps like the gender-health gap, which has historically challenged the effective adoption of scientific findings for better health and performance among women.

Lucinda Williamson, Postdoc, University of Illinois Chicago

Dr. Lucinda Williamson is a Bridge-to-Faculty Postdoctoral Scholar in the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago and a Visiting Scholar at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab’s Center for Bionic Medicine. Their research in translational biomechanics integrates experimental and computational approaches to understand human movement, with a focus on injury prevention, training load management, and return-to-play in sport.

Dr. Williamson earned their PhD from the University of Iowa, where they developed a novel multi-scale modeling framework combining musculoskeletal and contact mechanics to evaluate how ankle-foot orthoses influence muscle forces and joint contact stress during walking. This work aimed to reduce the risk of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) following injury. Motivated by the long-term impact of PTOA, they are now expanding into sports biomechanics to focus on early intervention and prevention. Their current work uses markerless motion capture, wearable sensors, and machine learning to create proactive tools for estimating injury risk, guiding return-to-sport decisions, and monitoring athlete performance over time.

In addition to their technical contributions, Dr. Williamson brings a lived understanding of the systemic barriers in STEMM and actively works to advance equity, inclusion, and belonging through leadership in DEI-focused research, mentorship, and education.