The ASB Council of Fellows (COF) officers (Mary Rodgers – chair, Joan Bechtold – vice chair, Don Anderson – secretary) meet by Zoom every month to develop and conduct COF business. At the 2020 ASB Annual Meeting, the COF leadership acted on behalf of all Fellows to organize a formal recognition of Bob Gregor sanctioned by the ASB Executive Board. This was to acknowledge specifically Bob’s extensive service during the early years in organizing the COF. One of the 2020 Travel Awardees (Kristen Jakubowski, Northwestern University, identified by Bob because her work aligned closely with his research interests) was designated as being awarded in Bob’s honor. The two of them met (virtually) during the Annual Meeting and discussed her career aspirations. Bob appreciated the honor and recognition.

Building on this success, we worked this past year with the ASB Awards Committee to develop and launch the new Fellows-sponsored “Up and Comer Award” (special thanks to ASB Fellows Kristin Zhao, Stacie Ringleb, Liz Hsiao-Wecksler, Joan Bechtold, and our Awards Chair, Missy Morrow for their work on defining the award structure). ASB Fellow Savio Woo and his organization, the Asian-American Institute for Research and Education, have made a generous donation to provide partial financial support of Up and Comer Awards for 2022 through 2027. This award is intended to foster mentoring and networking of post-doctoral trainees and early career faculty with ASB Fellows of similar research interests. To encourage diversity and inclusion in biomechanics, applicants must identify as being from an underrepresented group with preference given to applicants from historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) and/or minority serving institutions. Each awardee received $1,000 to support travel to visit with their Fellow mentor and free registration to the Virtual 45th Annual ASB Meeting (August 10-13, 2021). Each awardee will provide a report on award-supported activities by summer 2022. Thank you to the ASB Awards committee and to the Fellow mentors for your willingness to take on this new Fellow initiative and congratulations to the 2021 Up and Comer Awardees:

Diba Mani (University of Florida) — Fellow mentor, Paul DeVita (East Carolina University
Brooke Odle (Hope College) — Fellow mentor, Darryl Thelen (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Hugo Giambini (University of Texas at San Antonio) — Fellow mentor, James Ashton-Miller (University of Michigan)

ASB is currently fielding nominees for the 2022 Up and Comer Award – if you or someone you know is eligible, please consider applying.

The COF has been working with a variety of groups on additional mentoring and networking activities. The COF has been actively engaged with the ASB Early Career Faculty Affinity Group, with productive developments on multiple fronts. Fellows joined four of the group’s monthly virtual socials (October 2020, February/May/November 2021) and facilitated mentorship discussions in small groups. We have been working with the ASB Student Representative on multiple initiatives. Mid-career mentoring project ideas are also being explored.

We are soliciting nominations for COF Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary from any ASB Fellow. Elections are slated for Spring 2022. Our next meeting will be during NACOB at a date and time to be announced.

We look forward to an equally productive year to come and hope to see you at NACOB in August!