This summer marks the end of my first year as ASB Awards Chair, and I’m thrilled to announce our outstanding award winners. It has been a privilege to help steward the ASB Awards and to celebrate the remarkable work happening across our community – work that represents the cutting edge of our field and that everyone should now know about, especially congressional aides in DC, but more on that in a minute.

Below you’ll find the full list of our awardees and the schedule for their presentations. A big THANK YOU to our incredible Awards Committee volunteers—David Lipps, Frankie Wade, Josh Baxter, Katheleen Madara, Matty Major, Brian Davis, Michael Harris, Virginia Liang, and Sophia Chirumbole—and to the dozens of reviewers who served on subcommittees (you rock!). The enthusiasm and generosity of our ASB community in recognizing one another is truly heart‑warming.

This year, some award winners will give talks at the World Congress of Biomechanics (WCB) in Vancouver, while others will be featured in new Award Webinars this fall (stay tuned for dates & times!). Updated winner biographies are posted to the ASB website, so be sure to check those out and help celebrate these incredible members of our community.

Award Winners with Invited Lectures at WCB:

• Borelli Award, BJ Fregly, Rice University
• Jim Hay Memorial Award, Bryan Heiderscheit, University of Wisconsin
• Early Career Achievement Award, Inseung Kang, Carnegie Mellon University
• Pre‑Doctoral Achievement Award, Janelle Kaneda, Stanford University

Award Winners with Upcoming (Fall 2026 – TBD) Webinar Lectures:

• Jean Landa Pytel Award for Diversity Mentorship in Biomechanics, Peter Fino, University of Utah
• Goel Award for Translational Research in Biomechanics, Michael Zabala, Auburn University
• Founders’ Award, Aaron Young, Georgia Tech

Other Award & Grant Winners:

• Junior Faculty Research Grant, Chun‑Hao Huang, Carnegie Mellon University
• Up and Comer Awards
  • Sidney Baudendistel, Washington University in St. Louis
  • Kayla Seymore, University of Southern California
  • Anna Bailes, Stanford University

ASB Plenary Session at WCB:

Scheduled for Monday, July 13 at 2:00-4:30 PM. Here is the tentative plan for the session:

• 2:00-2:45 Early Career Achievement and Pre-Doctoral Award Talks; Announcements of Pytel, Goel, Founders, Junior Faculty Research Grants, and Up & Comer Awards.
• 2:45-3:30 Borelli Award Talk
• 3:30-4:00 Coffee Break
• 4:00-5:00 Hay Award Symposium

I hope you’ll join us in celebrating these remarkable scientists and mentors, in Vancouver this summer and/or during our fall webinar series. It has been an honor to serve as Awards Chair this year, and I’m continually inspired by the creativity, rigor, and generosity within our ASB community. Thank you for supporting one another, uplifting our awardees, and helping make ASB such a vibrant and welcoming home for biomechanics.

ASB Goes to DC!

And now back to those congressional aides – I traveled to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus just outside of Washington DC in May of this year to represent ASB at the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE)/NIAMS meeting, and the experience was equal parts energizing and humbling. AIMBE brings together member scientific societies, academic leaders, and government partners to advocate for the future of biomedical research (for more on AIMBE, see the President’s Column if you haven’t already). As a member organization, ASB had a seat at the table, and I was happy to be there on our behalf. The NIH campus itself is massive; it’s a sprawling biome of buildings (simply numbered, not named) where I’m fairly certain I walked a half-marathon just getting from one building to the next. But once I stopped being geographically disoriented, I was struck by how genuinely good the NIH folks are, and how tough the current climate is for them: tight budgets, staffing challenges, and a lot of pressure to do more with less (sounds familiar, am I right?).

One of the biggest takeaways for me and for our research community was how much more important Highlighted Topics have become in shaping competitive grant applications. I had previously treated them as “nice context,” but they’re clearly evolving into strategic signals, the kind you ignore at your own peril. The meeting also included congressional tours, which offered a fascinating look at how NIH communicates its impact to policymakers. And ASB was exceptionally well represented: Robin Queen was one of the featured demonstrators, showcasing biomechanics research with clarity and enthusiasm to a sea of young congressional aides – a particularly captive audience. I left with tired feet, a sharper grant‑writing compass, and a renewed appreciation for the people working hard to keep NIH’s mission moving forward.