Award Winners Spotlight

B.J. Fregly, Rice University

B.J. Fregly received his Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University (1986) and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University (1987 and 1993) in Mechanical Engineering. Following a year of post-doctoral research at the University of Lyon in France (1993-1994), Dr. Fregly worked as a software developer in Silicon Valley for Rasna/Parametric Technology Corporation (1995-1999). From 1999 to 2017, he served on the faculty of the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida, where he was a Knox T. Millsaps Professor, a University of Florida Research Foundation Professor, and the recipient of department and college Teacher of the Year awards. In August of 2017, Dr. Fregly joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University as a Professor and CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research. His research focuses on personalized modeling, simulation, and optimization of the human neuromusculoskeletal system with the goal of designing highly effective personalized treatments for movement impairments. To date, the three primary clinical application areas have been stroke, osteoarthritis, and pelvic cancer. Dr. Fregly has been the PI on over $13 million in research funding primarily from the National Science Foundation (including a CAREER Award), the National Institutes of Health, and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Most recently, Dr. Fregly has directed the development of the Neuromusculoskeletal Modeling Pipeline (https://nmsm.rice.edu), which is Matlab-based software that adds model personalization and treatment optimization functionality to OpenSim. At Rice, Dr. Fregly has also served as a magister overseeing Brown College, a residential housing community of approximately 400 undergraduate students. Dr. Fregly is a fellow of the American Society of Biomechanics, the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Bryan Heiderscheit, University of Wisconsin

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.

Bryan Heiderscheit is the Frederick Gaenslen Professor in Orthopedics and Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Wisconsin. He is the founding Director of Badger Athletic Performance with UW Athletics and founding Director of the UW Health Runners’ Clinic. Dr. Heiderscheit’s clinical practice and research involve orthopedic conditions, with particular focus on lower extremity sports-related injuries. Support for his research includes the NIH, NFL, NBA and GE HealthCare. He is a fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association, and past member of the executive board of the American Academy of Sports Physical Therapy. He is a team physical therapist with UW Athletics, a member of the NFL Soft Tissue Injury Task Force, and an advisor to several collegiate and professional sports organizations.

Aaron Young, Georgia Tech

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.

Aaron Young is an Associate Professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow and James R. and Sarah R. Borders Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. He has directed the Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls (EPIC) lab since 2016. Dr. Young received his MS and PhD degrees in Biomedical Engineering with a focus on neural and rehabilitation engineering from Northwestern University in 2011 and 2014 respectively. He received a BS degree in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University in 2009. He also completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan in the Human Neuromechanics Lab working with lower limb exoskeletons and powered orthoses to augment human performance. His research area is in advanced control systems for robotic prosthetic and exoskeleton systems for humans with movement impairment. He combines machine learning, robotics, human biomechanics, and control systems to design wearable robots to improve the community mobility of individuals with walking disability. He has received an NIH New Innovator Award (DP2), NIH NCMRR New Investigator award and IEEE New Faces of Engineering award, and his EPIC lab group won the International VIP Consortium Innovation Competition. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Peter Fino, University of Utah

Dr. Peter Fino is an Associate Professor of Health & Kinesiology at the University, with adjunct appointments in Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Physical Therapy & Athletic Training, and Robotics. He received his BSE in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech, and his postdoctoral training in Neurorehabilitation and Human Balance Control at Oregon Health & Science University. At the University of Utah, he leads the Neuromechanics & Applied Locomotion Laboratory, where he strives to mentor people to be curious, creative, and collaborative scientists. With an interdisciplinary approach bridging kinesiology, engineering, neuroscience, psychology, and rehabilitation, his team focuses on understanding basic neural and biomechanical mechanisms of balance control and daily mobility and translating that knowledge, with the help of digital health technologies, to improve clinical decisions and rehabilitation approaches for people with traumatic brain injuries.

Michael Zabala, Auburn University

Dr. Michael Zabala is the Director of the Auburn University Biomechanical Engineering Lab (AUBE Lab) and the Auburn Alumni Engineering Council Endowed Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Auburn University. He holds a Bachelor’s of Mechanical Engineering from Auburn and an M.S. and Ph.D. also in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University where he studied under Borelli Award winner, Dr. Thomas Andriacchi. His research focuses on the biomechanics of human motion, performance, and injury prevention, primarily using motion capture and wearable sensors. His projects have involved ACL injury prevention in athletes, lower-limb prosthetics, exoskeleton control via movement intent prediction, and 3D-printed custom orthotics. Dr. Zabala is also the Founder, Chairman, and Chief Research Officer of XO Armor Technologies, Inc., a company spun out of his lab in 2019 that develops AI-driven, custom-fit, 3D-printed orthopedic devices used in sports, medicine, and military applications, including by organizations in the NFL, MLB, NBA and dozens of major collegiate athletics programs. In addition, he founded Engineering in the Arts, Auburn’s study abroad program in Florence, Italy, which explores the intersection of engineering, design, and art through the works of da Vinci, Galileo, and other Renaissance innovators.

Inseung Kang, Carnegie Mellon University

Inseung Kang is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, where he directs the MetaMobility Lab. His research integrates wearable robotics, artificial intelligence, and gait biomechanics to enhance human mobility, with a particular focus on restoring locomotor function in individuals with motor impairments. He is a recipient of the NIH Trailblazer Award and was named to the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific list. Before joining Carnegie Mellon, he was a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech.

Janelle Kaneda, Stanford University

Janelle Kaneda is a Ph.D. Candidate in Bioengineering at Stanford University, advised by Professor Scott Delp in the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab. She is a Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Graduate Fellow and a Stanford Graduate Fellow in Science & Engineering. Her doctoral research has focused on developing DynamicsNet, a generalizable machine learning model that estimates human motion dynamics across different activities, enabling rapid, accurate, and comprehensive biomechanical analyses outside of traditional laboratory settings. She is passionate about utilizing this tool for various human health applications, including large-scale anterior cruciate ligament injury risk screening. Her previous research includes validation of musculoskeletal simulation for knee osteoarthritis rehabilitation, and she won 1st Place in the Master’s Students Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition at the ASB 2021 conference for this work. Prior to her Ph.D., Janelle received a B.S. with Honors and Tau Beta Pi and a M.S. in Bioengineering from Stanford University.

Chun-Hao Philip Huang, Georgia State University

Dr. Chun-Hao Philip Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health at Georgia State University. His research focuses on understanding how disease-related movement coordination influences mobility, balance, energy expenditure, and fall risk in aging and clinical populations. By integrating biomechanics, neuromuscular control, and rehabilitation science, his work aims to develop targeted interventions that improve movement efficiency and functional independence. 

Dr. Huang earned his PhD in Kinesiology (Biomechanics) from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed postdoctoral training in Physical Therapy, Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences at Northeastern University, where he investigated gait retraining and rehabilitation approaches for knee osteoarthritis. 

His current research examines whole-body movement coordination during walking and balance recovery, with a particular focus on knee osteoarthritis and fall prevention. His laboratory seeks to identify the biomechanical mechanisms underlying gait stability and reactive balance, and to translate these findings into precision rehabilitation strategies. Supported by the American Society of Biomechanics Junior Faculty Research Award, Dr. Huang is establishing a new line of research exploring the role of upper-extremity control in maintaining gait stability and reducing fall risk in older adults.

Anna Bailes, Stanford University

Anna Bailes is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University as part of the NIH T90/R90 HEAL PAIN Researcher Cohort Program. She completed her predoctoral training through the University of Pittsburgh’s DPT-PhD program, where she studied the impacts of pain-related psychological factors on gait in adults with chronic low back pain. Her current work in the Biobehavioral Pediatric Pain Collaborative at Stanford is focused on advancing the quality and delivery of movement-based interventions for children and adolescents living with chronic musculoskeletal pain. She also spends time as a physical therapist at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, treating young people with chronic pain disorders and functional neurological disorders. She aims to leverage the power of biomechanics to improve clinical care for youth with chronic pain through development of clinical endpoints to guide therapeutic dosing and as a component of biofeedback interventions to support motor learning. 

Sidney Baudendistel, Washington University in St. Louis

Dr. Sidney Baudendistel is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis, where she works under the mentorship of Dr. Gammon Earhart within the Physical Therapy program. Her research bridges the gap between clinical application and movement science, focusing on rehabilitation paradigms to improve mobility for older adults with neurodegenerative diseases. With a primary interest in the neural mechanisms underlying mobility, Sidney investigates how micro-level adaptations—such as changes in cadence, stride length, and variability—drive macro-level changes in balance and gait speed across clinical populations.

Beyond the lab, Sidney is a committed educator and mentor who aims to demonstrate that biomechanics research can be as fun as it is impactful. She holds a PhD in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology from the University of Florida and an MS in Biomechanics from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. With the goal to become a tenure-track faculty, she plans to cultivate a collaborative research environment that integrates clinicians and participants as essential team members. When she isn’t analyzing gait signatures, Sidney stays active in the community as an assistant high school Track & Field coach, specializing in high jump and middle distance.

Kayla Seymore, University of Southern California

Dr. Kayla Seymore is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the University of Southern California’s Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy. She earned her PhD in Biomechanics and Movement Science from the University of Delaware, Master’s degree in Exercise Sport Science from East Carolina University, and previously worked as a Research Associate and Lab Manager at Boise State University’s Center for Orthopaedic & Biomechanics Research. Her doctoral work investigated the relationship between Achilles tendon structure and age and the impact of heel pain on Achilles tendon health and lower limb biomechanics through comprehensive evaluation of patient-reported outcome measures, ultrasound imaging of tendon morphology and mechanical properties, and lower body functional performance testing. From this work she provided clinically meaningful information that will aid in identifying structural and functional adaptations that relate to the progression of Achilles tendon pathology in children and adults. Dr. Seymore’s current research focuses on the interaction of tendon structure, muscle function, patient personal factors during exercise rehabilitation in patients with rotator cuff tendinopathy. Her work is supported by the National Institutes of Health and she has published her research in several peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Seymore’s long-term career goal is to lead an independent, multidisciplinary research program in clinical biomechanics at a research-intensive institution. Her research agenda aims at identifying factors that govern tendon adaptability and developing patient-specific therapeutic approaches that improve tendon healing and function for individuals with tendon injuries.

Dr. Seymore is committed to broadening the reach of biomechanics to communities of color and underrepresented scholars. She currently serves as the President and Program Lead of the Black Biomechanists Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which she co-founded in 2020 with the mission to uplift and enrich Black biomechanists in their academic and professional careers. Through this leadership, she has seen how representation can deepen a sense of belonging in the biomechanics field; a lesson that continues to shape her efforts to mentor others. She has also coordinated several National Biomechanics Day events to promote high school student involvement in biomechanics through interactive, hands-on learning. Dr. Seymore’s leadership and outreach to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in biomechanics are integral parts of her professional research commitment.