News

Lab News

	October 2021 UWNMBL welcomes postdoctoral fellow Lauren Welte to the team! Lauren recently graduated with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Queen's University.
	May 2021 Congrats to Ruby Salbego for recieving the Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Award to continue her work with Stephanie Cone over the next year!
	May 2021 UWNMBL welcomes postdoctoral fellow Alex Reiter to the team! Alex recently graduated with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
	April 2021 Congrats to Ana Ebrahimi for recieving the UW Postdoc Excellence in Service Award!
	April 2021 Bryan Heiderscheit recently recieved the Career Excellence Award in Biomechanics Research from the American Physical Therapy Association! Congrats, Bryan!
	August 2020 Eli Dawson completed his MS thesis: Investigations of Achilles Tendon Morphology and Wave Propogation for Muscle Force Estimation. Congrats on the great work, Eli!
	August 2020 UNNMBL members presented their work at the vASB 2020 Conference: Dylan Schmitz, Anahid Ebrahimi, Stephanie Cone, Sara Harper, Jon Blank, and Eli Dawson. Congrats team!
	June 2017 Darryl Thelen was appointed the John Bollinger Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering!
	June 2020 New UWNMBL paper on age-related changes in triceps surae work across walking speeds. Congrats Anahid Ebrahimi, Jack Martin, Dylan Schmitz, and Darryl Thelen on the recent acceptance in Frontiers in Sport and Active Living!
	May 2020 New paper on finding lower tendon stress in older adults using shear wave tensiometry has been published in Experimental Gerontology. Check it out here! Congrats Anahid Ebrahimi, Isaac Loegering, Jack Martin, Robin Pomeroy, Josh Roth, and Darryl Thelen
	September 2019 Sara Harper was awarded the ICTR fellowship to test a field-based wearable device to monitor tendon stress among athletes after ACL reconstruction surgery and inform clinical decisions about return to sport. Congratulations, Sara!
	August 2019 UWNMBL welcomes postdoctoral fellow Stephanie Cone to the research team. Stephanie recently graduated with her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina. Her research interests are in understanding the natural changes in structure, function, and composition of musculoskeletal soft tissues during childhood and adolescent growth in order to improve outcomes for clinical interventions in pediatric patients.
	August 2019 The Lab attended and presented at the 2019 International Society of Biomechanics Congress in Calgary, Canada.
	August 2019 Isaac Loegering graduated with his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering and started a position at Brooks. Congratulations, Isaac!
	August 2019 Congratulations to Jack Martin, who successfully defended his PhD Thesis in Materials Science. His work was titled "Non-Invasive Measurement of Tendon Stress based on Shear Wave Propagation Speed."
	July 2019 Jared Muench started medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Congratulations, Jared!
	May 2019 Samuel Acuña graduated with his Doctorate of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering. His dissertation was titled 'Altered Neuromuscular Control of Gait Following Traumatic Brain Injury and Targeted Neuromodulation to Improve Motor Function.' Samuel has since moved to Dallas, TX and started a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Yasin Dhaher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Congratulations, Samuel!
	April 2019 Ana Ebrahimi and Christa Wille led efforts to bring The Perry Initiative's outreach program to Madison, WI. Medical students and high school students from across southern Wisconsin attended this event where they heard from practicing orthopedic surgeons and engineers and tried their hands at several surgical techniques, including spinal fusion, bone drilling, and suturing. Ebrahimi and Wille were featured in an article posted to the UW-Madison College of Engineering News and Events page for this event. Photos for the high school and the medical school outreach events can be found on The Perry Initiative's Facebook page.
	April 2019 As part of UW-Madison's Engineering EXPO and in celebration of National Biomechanics Day, members of the UW biomechanics community came together to share their love of biomechanics with people of all ages through their exhibit, The Human Machine, which included a variety of interactive demonstrations. Undergraduate Alex Teague was featured in an article posted to the UW-Madison news page for his Robo Claw demonstration.
	April 2019 Ana Ebrahimi won the Kevin Granata Young Investigator Award at the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society 2019 annual meeting in Frisco, TX for her work entitled "Older Adults Exhibit Diminished Achilles Tendon Shear Wave Speeds Across a Range of Walking Speeds."
	February 2019 Congrats to Darryl Thelen for recieving the UW Postdoc Mentoring Award!
	August 2018 Congratulations to Jack Martin for winning the Turnbull Outstanding Research Paper Award from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
	August 2018 Congratulations to Mike Vignos, who successfully defended his PhD Thesis in Mechanical Engineering. His work was titled "Longitudinal Investigation of In Vivo Tibiofemoral Kinematics, Cartilage Contact, and Cartilage Composition Prior to and following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction."
	August 2018 UWNMBL welcomes new lab members! New members include graduate students Jonathon Blank, Sara Harper, and Eli Dawson.
	August 2018 Samuel Acuña, Ana Ebrahimi, Isaac Loegering, Jack Martin, Robin Pomeroy, Josh Roth, Dylan Schmitz, Darryl Thelen, and Mike Vignos attended the 2018 American Society of Biomechanics Annual Meeting in Rochester, Minnesota. Dylan Schmitz and Isaac Loegering won the scavenger hunt and Isaac Loegering won the 5k Fun Run.
	August 2018 Jack Martin won the American Society of Biomechanics Young Scientist Pre-Doctoral Award for his work on "In situ calibration of the tendon shear wave speed-stress relationship."
	July 2018 Samuel Acuña, Ana Ebrahimi, Jack Martin, Joshua Roth, Mike Vignos, and Darryl Thelen attended the 8th World Congress of Biomechanics in Dublin, Ireland.
	July 2018 Samuel Acuña presented his work on 'Walking with visual perturbations but not an attention-dividing task modulated muscle coactivation patterns in older adults' at the 2018 International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology Congress in Dublin, Ireland.
	June 2018 Congratulations to Emily Keuler, who successfully defended her MS Thesis in Mechanical Engineering. Her work was titled "The Assessment and Application of a Shear Wave Tensiometer on the Achilles Tendon."
	May 2018 Darryl Thelen gave a presentation on 'A noninvasive sensor of tendon loading during dynamic movement' at the 7th Motor Control Symposium held at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine in Minneapolis, MN.
	May 2018 Darryl Thelen gave a keynote lecture on 'Imaging of in vivo tissue mechanics during movement' at the 6th Brazilian Meeting of Biomechanical Engineering in Sau Paulo, Brazil.
	May 2018 Jared Muench begins work as a research intern at the UW NMBL.
	April 2018 The UW NMBL, led by Jack Martin and Darryl Thelen, published "Gauging Force by Tapping Tendons" in Nature Communications . The article describes an exciting new technology, shear wave tensiometry, that can track tendon loading during dynamic movement such as walking and running. In addition to the open access paper, please see this video describing the technology.
	April 2018 UWNMBL welcomes postdoctoral fellow Ana Ebrahimi to the research team. Ana recently graduated with her PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Delaware. Her research interests are in understanding the mechanics of how humans walk with a gait disorder, such as Cerebral Palsy.
	March 2018 UWNMBL welcomes research specialist Robin Pomeroy to the research team. Robin previously earned her MS in kinesiology at UW-Milwaukee and worked at Shriner's Hospital in Sacramento prior to moving to Madison.
	March 2018 Darryl Thelen, Josh Roth, and collaborator, Dr. Matt Squire, were awarded a research grant from NIH-NIBIB to investigate the 'Intraoperative Measurement of Ligament Tension to Guide Knee Arthoplasty.'
	December 2017 Colin Smith graduated with his Doctorate of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering. His dissertation was titled 'Simulation based insights to improve treatments to reduce osteoarthritis incidence following ACL injury.' Colin has since moved to Zurich and started a postdoctoral fellowship at ETH under the Whitaker International Scholar program. Congratulations, Colin!
	October 2017 Joshua Roth won the UW-Madison Institute on Aging New Investigator Award for his work on 'Improving Knee Function in Older Adults Undergoing Total Knee Replacement Using Biomechanical Knee Models.'
	September 2017 Darryl Thelen, along with Prof. Matt Allen and collaborators at Gillette Children's - Specialty Healthcare and the VA Puget Sound Health Care System, were awarded a five-year grant from NIH-NICHD to investigate the 'Noninvasive assessment of in vivo tissue loads to enhance the treatment of gait disorders' (abstract).
	September 2017 UWNMBL welcomes graduate student Dylan Schmitz!
	August 2017 Mike Vignos won the American Society of Biomechanics Clinical Biomechanics Award for his work on 'ACL-Reconstruction Graft Geometry is Associated with Asymmetric In Vivo Cartilage Contact Patterns.'
	August 2017 Colin Smith won the American Society of Biomechanics Young Scientist Pre-Doctoral Award for his work on "Simulated ACL and menisci deficiency predicts altered knee mechanics during walking."
	July 2017 Scott Brandon started a new position as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Good luck Scott!
	June 2017 Undergraduate Isaac Loegering was featured on the College of Engineering website.
	June 2017 Darryl Thelen was appointed the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Affairs in the UW College of Engineering.
	May 2017 Samuel Acuña won the Kevin Granata Young Investigator Award for the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society for his work on 'Muscle activation patterns during walking are correlated to clinical gait assessments after traumatic brain injury.'
	May 2017 Alex Ehlers graduated with his Master's of Science Degree in Biomedical Engineering, finishing a five year run in the lab after starting as an undergraduate researcher. Good Luck Alex!
	May 2017 Mike Vignos passed his PhD preliminary examination in mechanical engineering for his proposed research on "Longitudinal investigation of altered knee mechanics and cartilage health following ACL-injury and reconstruction."
	April 2017 The 'Human Machine' exhibit at the 2017 UW Engineering Expo was awarded 'Best Graduate Student Exhibit' by the Expo orgranizers and recognized for 'Greatest Impact' by the National Biomechanics Day Committee.
	April 2017 Jack Martin successfully passed his Research Readiness Exam (RRE) as a PhD candidate in the UW Materials Science Program.
	January 2017 Moria Bittman started as a Program Officer at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Good luck Moria!
	June 2016 Colin Smith passed his PhD preliminary examination in mechanical engineering for his proposed research on 'Simulation based insight to improve treatments to reduce osteoarthritis incidence following ACL injury.'
	June 2016 Jack Martin was awarded 3rd place in the Tissue Mechanics and Modeling PhD Paper Competition at the 2016 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering and Biotransport Conference (SB3C) held at National Harbor, Maryland.
	April 2016 Jared Muench was awarded a Wisconsin Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowship for his research on "Strain distribution patterns leading to tear propagation in damaged fascicles."
	September 2015 Carrie Francis presented a poster "Keeping our Balance: Aging, Attention, and the Importance of Visual Feedback" at the UW-Madison Institute on Aging's 27th Annual Colloquium .
	September 2015 Colin Smith, Mike Vignos and Jack Martin presented at the Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering 2015 conference in Montreal, Canada. Colin won first place in the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health Trainee competition for his presentation "The Effect of Ligament Properties on Tibiofemoral Kinematics and Contact Pressure during Gait!" Mike presented his work on an "Automated Method for Discretizing Ligaments in Musculoskeletal Simulation Models." Jack presented his study titled "Tendon Shear Wave Speed is Dependent on Tissue Elasticity and Axial Stress." Colin and Mike also presented "Enhanced Static Optimization: A Simulation Framework for Predicting Knee Mechanics during Movement" at the 3rd International Workshop on Biomechanical and Parametric Modeling of Human Anatomy (PMHA) premeeting to CMBBE.
	August 2015 The lab had a great showing at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics ! Jarred Kaiser won the Clinical Biomechanics Award for his study "MRI Assessments of Cartilage Mechanics, Morphology and Composition Following ACL-Reconstruction Surgery." Rachel Lenhart won the Young Scientist Pre-Doctoral Award for her work on "Simulating the Effects of Crouch Gait Surgeries on Knee Mechanics." Former Post-doc Jason Franz won the Young Scientist Post-Doctoral Award for his presentation on "Achilles Tendon Deformations and the Age-Related Reduction in Plantarflexor Performance during Walking." Carrie Francis, Mike Vignos, Colin Smith, and Kristen Rasske also presented their research at the conference. Great job everyone!
	July 2015 Congratulations to Colin Smith who attended the International Symposium on Computer Simulation in Biomechanics in Edinburgh, Scotland and won the Andrzej Komor New Investigator Award. Colin presented his work titled "A Variable Cartilage Property Formulation of the Elastic Foundation Model to Predict Contact Pressures during Walking."
	June 2015 Dr. Darryl Thelen and Colin Smith attended the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference in Snowbird, Utah. Colin presented his work on "The Influence of Cartilage Morphology and Elasticity on TibioFemoral Contact Pressures During Walking."
	June 2015 Dr. Darryl Thelen was recently named a Harvey D. Spangler Professor in the College of Engineering. Darryl was one of three professors in the College to be named to this chaired position. Congrats Dr. Thelen!
	May 2015 Congratulations to May 2015 UWNMBL Graduates: Christa Wille (Doctor of Physical Therapy), Michael Schmidt (MS Biomedical Engineering), Megan Courtney (BS Biomedical Engineering), Erik Crook (BS Mechanical Engineering), and Brett Parendo (BS Mechanical Engineering).
	May 2015 Congratulations to Rachel Lenhart, who successfully defended her PhD Thesis in Biomedical Engineering. Her work was titled "Influence of Surgery on Musculoskeletal Mechanics in Children with Crouch Gait."
	April 2015 UWNMBL participated in Engineering Expo 2015. Our exhibit, Engineering the Superhuman , won second place in the Mixed Group Category. Good work everyone!
	April 2015 Congratulations to Colin Smith who received a Summer Grant from the Whitaker International Program . He will be traveling to Leuven, Belgium to work with Dr. Ilse Jonkers on "Development of Rehabilitation Protocol after Cartilage Lesions using Multiscale Musculoskeletal Modeling."
	March 2015 Jack Martin and Mike Vignos were both awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Congrats Jack and Mike!
	March 2015 Dr. Thelen, Colin Smith, and Jarred Kaiser attended the Orthopedic Research Society conference in Las Vegas. Colin presented his work on the modeling of cartilage thickness, and Jarred presented his work on altered knee mechanics in ACL reconstructed patients.
	March 2015 Colin Smith, Rachel Lenhart, and Mike Vignos attended an OpenSim Advanced User Workshop at Stanford University. They began work on their project titled 'Simultaneous Prediction of Knee Ligament Loads, Muscle Forces, and Cartilage Contact Pressure during Movement.'
	March 2015 Congratulations to Rachel Lenhart for being awarded the Dr. Kevin Granata Young Investigator Award and the Best Podium Award at the recent meeting of the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society in Portland, Oregon. Her work was titled "Influence of patella alta and crouch on patellofemoral cartilage contact pressure."
	February 2015 Congratulations to Dr. Jason Franz, who will join the faculty of the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University. He will start this summer as an Assistant Professor in their Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering.
	January 2015 UWNMBL welcomes new lab members! New members include undergraduates Nicholas Mauer and James Hermus.
	December 2014 Congratulations to December 2014 UWNMBL Graduates: Holly Schoenberg (MS Biomedical Engineering), Stephen Young (MS Biomedical Engineering), Taylor Lamberty (BS Biomedical Engineering), and Kristen Rasske (BS Biomedical Engineering).
	December 2014 Congratulations to Christa Wille for receiving the 2015 Outstanding Student Award from the Sports Physical Therapy Section of the American Physical Therapy Association . This award recognizes achievements as a physical therapy student and future promise to sports physical therapy.
	November 2014 Jarred Kaiser successfully completed his preliminary exam in Mechanical Engineering. His proposal was titled "Using Dynamic MRI to Link Altered Knee Mechanics Following ACL Injury and Repair to Early Signs of Osteoarthritis." Congrats Jarred!
	November 2014 Samuel Acuña attended the Opportunities in Engineering Annual Conference at UW-Madison, sponsored by the Graduate Engineering Research Scholars. He presented his work entitled "Modeling Based Analysis of Trapezial-Metacarpal Joint to Reduce Osteoarthritis."
	November 2014 UWNMBL participated in Expanding Your Horizons, a program meant to help middle school girls explore careers in math and science. More information about Expanding Your Horizons can be found here.
	October 2014 Badger Athletic Performance presented at the Wisconsin Science Festival hosted by the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery on October 19th. The presentation focused on the kinetics of running and jumping.
	September 2014 Congratulations to Brett Parendo, who was awarded a Faustin Prinz Research Fellowship for the 2014-15 academic year. He will be working on the Redesign of a Motion Phantom used for Dynamic MR Imaging Accuracy Assessment .
	September 2014 UWNMBL welcomes new lab members! New members include graduate student Mike Vignos and undergraduates Brett Parendo and Erik Crook.
	August 2014 UWNMBL presented at Saturday Science at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery! Members of the community were able to learn about "The Biomechanics of Aging" through an interactive display and by talking with lab members. Special thanks to Jason Franz and Carrie Francis for their hard work. You can find more information on Saturday Science at Discovery here.
	July 2014 Rachel Lenhart was awarded an NIH F30 Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases! Her work will investigate the effects of surgery on knee mechanics in children with crouch gait.
	July 2014 UWNMBL traveled to the World Congress of Biomechanics in Boston! Darryl, Joe, Liz, Laura, Jason, Carrie, Jarred, Rachel, Colin, Jack, Alex, and Kristen all attended and presented their work. They even got to meet up with UWNMBL alumni Bel Orselli, Anne Schmitz, Amy Lenz, Amy Silder, and Antonio Hernandez.
	June 2014 Congratulations to Rachel Lenhart for being awarded the Dr. Kevin Granata Young Investigator Award and the Best Podium Award at the recent meeting of the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society in Newark, Delaware. Her work was titled "Simulation of knee cartilage contact pressure in crouch gait."
	June 2014 Jason Franz attended the U.S. National Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in East Lansing, MI. He presented his work entitled "Advanced age brings a reliance on visual feedback to control balance during walking."
	May 2014 Congratulations to May 2014 UWNMBL Graduates: Charles Donaldson (MS Biomedical Engineering), Albert Wang (MS Biomedical Engineering), Kyle Jamar (BS Biomedical Engineering), Arezu Monawer (BS Mechanical Engineering), and Michael Schmidt (BS Biomedical Engineering).
	May 2014 Kwang Won Choi successfully defended his PhD Thesis in Mechanical Engineering. His work was titled "Computational Approaches for Segmenting Cartilage Morphology and Simulating Knee Joint Contact Pressure during Human Walking." Congrats Kwang!
	April 2014 Congratulations to Carrie Francis who passed her Preliminary Exam in Biomedical Engineering. Carries's project proposal is titled "Cranial Nerve Noninvasive Neuromodulation to Enhance Gait and Balance in Older Adults."
	April 2014 Congratulations to Laura Slane who successfully defended her PhD Thesis in Biomedical Engineering. Her work was titled "Achilles tendon elasticity and deformation patterns in young and middle-aged adults evaluated using quantitative ultrasound approaches."
	April 2014 Congratulations to Stephanie O'Leary who was awarded a 2014-2015 Wisconsin Hilldale Undergraduate Fellowship. The title of her proposed reaserch is "Cadaver-based Modeling of Improved Tendon Transfer Procedure to Restore Grasp following Spinal Cord Injury."
	January 2014 UWNMBL welcomes new lab members! New members include graduate students Colin Smith and Steve Young.
	January 2014 Laura Slane was awarded the Young Scientist Pre-Doctoral Award from the American Society of Biomechanics . Laura will be presented with the award at the July World Congress of Biomechanics meeting in Boston.
	December 2013 Laura Slane was awarded an International Research Travel Grant from the Vilas Fund . Laura used this funding to support travel to Nantes, France where she performed research using advanced ultrasound methods.
	October 2013 Dr. Darryl Thelen was named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In awarding the honor, ASME cited Dr. Thelen's fundamental research in neuromuscular biomechanics and contributing to knowledge on the effects that age, injury, and disease have on musculoskeletal performance.
	October 2013 Rachel Lenhart attended the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine meeting in Milwaukee. Rachel presented her research titled "Optimal Patellar Position Varies for Different Walking Postures."
	September 2013 UWNMBL welcomed new lab members! New members include Samuel Acuña, Kevin Biese, Erin Jamar, Krista Marshall, Jack Martin, Eric Simpraphone, Karina Vargas, and Albert Wang. We also welcomed Maria Isabel V. Orselli who is visiting for the semester from Sao Paulo, Brazil. See our members page for their profiles.
	September 2013 Congratulations to Carrie Francis who was awarded an NIH F31 Pre-Doctoral Fellowship! The title of her proposal is "Cranial Nerve Noninvasive Neuromodulation to Enhance Gait and Balance- Old Adults."
	September 2013 UWNMBL attended ASB 2013! Dr. Thelen, Carrie Francis and Jason Franz attended the meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
	August 2013 Congratulations to Dr. Darryl Thelen for being named the President-Elect of the American Society of Biomechanics. Dr. Thelen previously served as ASB Program Chair in 2010.
	August 2013 Congratulations to Jason Franz who was just awarded the 2013 UW-Madison Institute on Aging New Investigator Award. Jason's project is titled "Preserving Walking Ability with Age: From Biomechanical Insight to Evidence-Based Intervention."
	August 2013 Rachel Lenhart and Laura Slane attended the International Society of Biomechanics conference in Natal, Brazil. Rachel and Laura presented their work on the optimal patellar position in crouch gait and the ultrasound evaluation of tendon mechanics respectively.
	July 2013 Congratulations to Dr. Bryan Heiderscheit, who was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the Sports Physical Therapy Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. The three year term will run through 2016.
	July 2013 Congratulations to Dr. Joseph Towles who was recently awarded a Pilot Grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health .
	July 2013 The UWNMBL Runners' Clinic, led by Dr. Bryan Heiderscheit, was featured in the New York Times! Read the article here, and learn more about the UW Runners' Clinic here.
	June 2013 Congratulations to UWNMBL for taking First Place in the Grand Challenge Competition to Predict In Vivo Knee Loads! UWNMBL was awarded their prize at the ASME SBC. Check out more information on the Grand Challenge here.
	June 2013 UWNMBL attended ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference in Sunriver, Oregon. Jarred, Kwang and Dr. Thelen presented research.
	June 2013 Congratulations to Christa Wille for being awarded first place in the Student Poster Presentations at the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association annual spring meeting in Oconomowoc, WI. Christa's poster described the use of a web-based therapeutic resource center as a treatment for knee osteoarthritis.
	May 2013 UWNMBL attended ACSM 2013! Laura Chernak, Rachel Lenhart, Jen Sanfilippo and Christa Wille presented their research at the conference, and Dr. Darryl Thelen gave a keynote lecture on musculoskeletal modeling.
	May 2013 Congratulations to May 2013 UWNMBL Graduates: Rachel Lenhart (MS Mechanical Engineering), Tanner Marshall (MS Biomedical Engineering), Taylor Powers (MS Biomedical Engineering), and Dan Volk (BS Mechanical Engineering).
	May 2013 Rachel Lenhart attended GCMAS 2013 in Cincinnati, where she met up with UWNMBL Alumna Amy Lenz. Rachel presented her project, "Patellar Position Effects on the Knee Extensor Mechanism." The conference also marked the start of her new role as student representative to the GCMAS executive board.
	May 2013 Congratulations to Jason Franz for being awarded an F32 Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the NIH. The title of his proposal is "Mechanics of the Aging Achilles Tendon with Implications for Walking Performance."
	May 2013 Arezu Monawer was awarded the Best Oral Presentation at the Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Research and Design Symposium. The title of her talk was "Redesign and Fabrication of a MR compatible Loading Device to Assess Injury and Surgically Induced Changes in Knee Mechanics." Congrats Arezu!
	May 2013 Congratulations to Rachel Lenhart and Laura Chernak who were both recognized with awards from the American College of Sports Medicine Biomechanics Interest Group. Rachel was awarded a Student Research Award and Laura was awarded a Student Travel Award . Both Rachel and Laura will be presenting their work at the upcoming ACSM Conference in Indianapolis later in May.
	April 2013 UWNMBL participated in Engineering Expo 2013, and was awarded third place overall for the exhibit titled The Body Machine . Special thanks to Jarred Kaiser and Rachel Lenhart for their hard work organizing our exhibit. Check out some pictures from the exhibit here.
	April 2013 Congratulations to Rachel Lenhart who passed her Preliminary Exam in biomedical engineering. Rachel's project proposal is titled "Influence of Surgery on Musculoskeletal Mechanics in Children with Crouch Gait." Rachel also recently earned her Certificate in Global Health as a part of her degree.
	February 2013 Rachel Lenhart was awarded a Matching Dissertation Grant from the International Society of Biomechanics! The title of her grant proposal is "Distal Femoral Extension Osteotomy and Patellar Tendon Advancement for the Treatment of Crouch Gait."
	January 2013 UWNMBL attended the American Physical Therapy Association Combined Sections Meeting in San Diego, California. Dr. Heiderscheit, Liz Chumanov, Evan Nelson, and Christa Wille presented their work. Liz was recognized for her poster titled "Pelvic Motion During Running is Increased During and Post Pregnancy." Congrats Liz! See her award here.
	January 2013 Jarred Kaiser presented an abstract at the annual meeting for the Orthopaedic Research Society in San Antonio, TX. The title of his abstract was "Is the Contralateral Knee a Valid Reference When Quantitatively Assessing Secondary Knee Kinematics?"
	January 2013 UWNMBL welcomes new members into the lab! New members include research associate Jason Franz and undergraduate researchers Megan Courtney and Michael Scherer. See our members page for the new member profiles!
	January 2013 Congratulations to Jarred Kaiser for successfully passing his PhD Qualifying Exams in Mechanical Engineering!
	December 2012 Congratulations to December 2012 UWNMBL Graduate Carrie Francis who earned her Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering.
	November 2012 Congratulations to Anne Schmitz who successfully defended her PhD Thesis in Biomedical Engineering Engineering! Her thesis was titled "The importance of including knee joint laxity in dynamic musculoskeletal simulations of movement."
	November 2012 UWNMBL was awarded pilot funding from the UW Sports Medicine Classic Fund for a study investigating the use of Shear Wave Elastography in characterizing myofascial trigger points. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Patrick Grabowski from the department of Sports Rehabilitation.
	September 2012 Dr. Thelen, along with collaborators in Medical Physics, Radiology and Orthopedics, were awarded a two-year grant from NIH-NIAMS to develop new imaging techniques to investigate cartilage contact and early signs of osteoarthritis following knee surgery (see our research page for more information).
	September 2012 UWNMBL welcomes new members into the lab! New members include: Lindy Couwenhoven, Alex Ehlers, Tanner Marshall, Arezu Monawer, Taylor Powers and Michael Schmidt. See our members page for their profiles!
	September 2012 Congratulations to Laura Chernak who was awarded an NIH F31 Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. The focus of her fellowship will be on the use of ultrasound in the evaluation of Achilles tendon mechanics in aging adults.
	August 2012 UWNMBL attended ASB 2012! Attendees included Dr. Thelen, Laura Chernak, Jarred Kaiser, Rachel Lenhart, and Anne Schmitz.
	July 2012 Congratulations to Liz Chumanov for passing her Physical Therapy Boards! Liz completed her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in May.
	June 2012 Dave Bunger successfully defended his Master's Thesis in Mechanical Engineering. His thesis was titled "Dynamic loading device for imaging of plantarflexor and Achilles tendon tissue deformation." Congrats Dave!
	June 2012 Congratulations to Jarred Kaiser who successfully defended his Master's Thesis in Mechanical Engineering. The title of his thesis was "3D Dynamic Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Knee Mechanics."
	May 2012 Congratulations to May 2012 UWNMBL Graduates: Chuck Donaldson (BS Biomedical Engineering), Emily Headley (BS Biology), Rachel Lenhart (MS Biomedical Engineering), Paul Milbaier (MS Mechanical Engineering), and Christa Wille (BS Biomedical Engineering).
	May 2012 Rachel Lenhart presented her research on the "Influence of Musculoskeletal Geometry on Model-Based Predictions of Plantarflexor Function during Gait" at the Gait and Clinical Movement Society annual conference in Grand Rapids, MI. She received a travel grant to cover her expenses. While there, she met up with Dr. Thelen and UWNMBL alumna Amy Lenz!
	May 2012 Congratulations to Arezu Monawer who was awarded the Faustin Prinz Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the Mechanical Engineering Department! Arezu will be using Dynamic MRI to investigate knee kinematics in UW athletes.
	May 2012 Daniel Volk received an award for Best Idea at the UW Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Research Symposium for his research developing a novel ultrasound phantom of tendon.
	April 2012 Congratulations to Jarred Kaiser and Rachel Lenhart who were both awarded the Alexander Cowie Fellowship from the Department of Mechanical Engineering to support their Graduate Research!
	April 2012 Carrie Francis presented her research at the Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting for the American Society of Biomechanics in Boise, Idaho. Her talk was titled "The Effects of Cranial Nerve Non-Invasive Neuromodulation Training on Step Width Variability in Healthy Adults."
	April 2012 Congratulations to Rachel Lenhart for successfully passing her PhD Qualifying Exams in Biomedical Engineering!
	April 2012 Laura Chernak presented her research on nonuniform motion in the Achilles tendon at the Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering conference in Berlin. Laura was awarded student grants to support her travel.
	February 2012 Rachel Lenhart was awarded the Collaborative Research Travel Grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Rachel proposed using the funds to evaluate the biomechanical implications of the surgical correction of crouch gait, and is planning on collaborating with the Gillette Children's Hospital in St. Paul, MN .
	February 2012 Laura Chernak was awarded a Matching Dissertation Grant from the International Society of Biomechanics for a proposal on the use of ultrasound elastography to evaluate strain patterns in tendon.
	January 2012 Laura Chernak passed her PhD Preliminary Exam in Biomedical Engineering. Her proposed thesis is titled "Ultrasonic Evaluation of the effects of Aging on the Mechanical Properties of Tendon."
	December 2011 Jon Mantes successfully defended his Master's Thesis in Mechanical Engineering. The title of his thesis is "The Development of a Knee Motion Phantom to Validate a 3D Dynamic MRI Processing Sequence."
	August 2011 Congrats to Kwang Won Choi for successfully passing his PhD Qualifying Exam in Mechanical Engineering!
	August 2011 Jen Sanfilippo successfully defended her Master's Thesis in Biomedical Engineering. Jen has accepted a job with the UW Athletics Department.
	August 2011 Rachel Lenhart and Laura Chernak presented at the American Society of Biomechanics 2011 Conference in Long Beach, CA. While at the conference they met up with Dr. Thelen and UWNMBL alumni Amy Lenz and Amy Silder.
	June 2011 Kayt Frisch successfully defended her PhD Thesis in Biomedical Engineering. The title of her thesis was "Measuring Regional Changes in Damaged Tendon."
	June 2011 Laura Chernak presented her research, "The use of ultrasound elastography to assess regional variations in tendon strain," at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Summer Bioengineering Conference in Farmington, PA.
	June 2011 Jen Sanfilippo presented "Strength deficits exist at time of return to sport following hamstring strain injury" at the American College of Sports Medicine annual conference in Denver, CO. She was among a few selected to present at a special evening Clinical Reception.
	June 2011 Rob Bradford successfully defended his Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. The title of his thesis was "Functional Bilateral Kinematic Symmetry of the Healthy Human Knee Measured by Dynamic MRI."
	June 2011 Daniel Volk was awarded the Faustin Prinz Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the Mechanical Engineering department based on his academic achievement and research proposal to design an ultrasound phantom.
	May 2011 Congratulations to NMBL May 2011 Graduate: Laura Chernak (MS Biomedical Engineering).
	May 2011 Carrie Francis presented on the "Modulation of Forward Propulsion, Support and Center of Pressure via Gastrocnemius Stimulation During Gait" at the Gait & Clinical Movement Analysis Society annual conference in Washington, DC. She was also awarded a student scholarship to cover travel to the conference.
	May 2011 Laura Chernak was awarded an ASB Grant-in-Aid for her proposal entitled "Dynamic Imaging of in vivo Tendon Mechanics using Ultrasound Elastography."
	May 2011 Rob Bradford presented at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine meeting in Montreal, Canada. The title of his presentation was "Dynamic Imaging of 3D Knee Kinematics using PC-VIPR and SPGR-VIPR."
	April 2011 Joe Collins won the student poster competition at the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association Spring Conference. The title of his poster was "The Influence of Sport and Prior Injury on Performance of the Star Excursion Balance Test and Vertical Jump."
	April 2011 UWNMBL was awarded second place for their exhibit at the Engineering Expo titled "The Body Machine" designed by Jarred Kaiser and Rachel Lenhart
	April 2011 Laura Chernak and Carrie Francis passed their BME Ph.D. Qualifying Exams!
	April 2011 Dan Volk was awarded a summer grant from Queen's University in Vancouver, Canada for the NSERC-CREATE Training Program in Bone and Joint Health Technologies.
	February 2011 Christa Wille presented her research at the American Physical Therapy Combined Sections Meeting in New Orleans, LA. The title of her presentation was "Kinematic measures predict braking impulse and knee joint loading during running."
	August 2010 Bryan Heiderscheit and collaborators Alison Brooks and John Beaulieu received a National Institutes of Health grant. The title of the grant is "Increasing Physician Use of Exercise for Treating Osteoarthritis of the Knee."
	August 2010 Josh Slane received the Art in Science Award at the 2010 Emed Scientic Meeting held in Providence, RI for his research entitled "Hypothenar Pressure Mapping Provides Insight for Reducing Ulnar Nerve Compression in Cyclists."
	May 2010 Congratulations to May 2010 NMBL Graduates: Chelsey Erickson (MS Mechanical Engineering), Nathan Kleinhans (MS Biomedical Engineering), and Amy Lenz (BS Biomedical Engineering).
	May 2010 Darryl Thelen and collaborators Yasin Dhaher and Dan Negrut received National Science Foundation grant. The title of the grant is "Multi-Domain Computational Framework for Simulating Musculoskeletal Systems."
	May 2010 Amy Lenz successfully defended her Honors Thesis in Biomedical Engineering. The title of her thesis was "Dynamic Hamstring Function during Gait."
	May 2010 Anne Schmitz successfully passed her PhD Preliminary Exam in Biomedical Engineering. The title of her thesis proposal is "Integrating Multibody Dynamics and Computational Modeling."
	April 2010 Christa Wille received a 2010-2011 Wisconsin Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowship. The title of her research proposal is "Can Step Rate Manipulation Reduce Knee Joint Loading in Runners with Anterior Knee Pain."
	December 2009 Christopher Westphal successfully defended his MS Thesis entitled "Load Dependent Variations in Knee Kinematics Measured with Dynamic MRI."
	September 2009 Amy Silder received the Outstanding Young Investigator Award at the 2009 Multi-Scale Muscle Mechanics Workshop held in Woods Hole, MA.
	August 2009 Kyle Gleason, Amy Silder, and Darryl Thelen won the first American Society of Biomechanics 5K Lab Challenge held in conjunction with the 2009 ASB Meeting at Penn State University.
	August 2009 Amy Silder received the Young Scientist Pre-Doctoral Award at the 2009 American Society of Biomechanics meeting held at Penn State University for her research entitled "The Influence of Prior Hamstring Injury on Musculotendon Morphology and Muscle Contraction Mechanics."
	August 2009 Amy Silder successfully defended her PhD Dissertation entitled "Effects of Prior Hamstring Injury on Morphology, Mechanics and Function."
	July 2009 Antonio Hernandez successfully defended his PhD Dissertation entitled "In vivo Dynamic Function of Lower Extremity Human Biarticular Muscles as Measured by Novel Electrical Stimulation Protocols Juxtaposed to Computational Perturbation Studies."
	May 2009 Elizabeth Chumanov was selected as the recipient of the 2009 ACSM BIG-AMTI Student Research Award, which is to be presented to her by the Biomechanics Interest Group at the 2009 American College of Sports Medicine Meeting in Seattle, WA.
	April 2009 Amy Lenz received the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Poster Award at the 2009 UW Department of Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Research Symposium. Her poster was entitled "Improving the Understanding and Treatment of Walking Deficits Following Stroke."
	April 2009 Elizabeth Chumanov successfully defended her PhD Dissertation entitled "Dynamic Simulation of Musculotendon Mechanics during High Speed Running."
	December 2008 Martin Schultze successfully defended his Master's Thesis entitled "Central Pattern Generators as a Biologically Inspired Neural Control Mechanism for Bicycle Pedaling."
	November 2008 Bryan Heiderscheit was named an Associate Editor of the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy .
	September 2008 Judy Dewane was awarded the UW Institute on Aging's 2008 Outstanding Young Investigator.
	August 2008 Andrew Sterling successfully defended his Master's Thesis in Mechanical Engineering entitled "Cervical Spine Motion and the Biomechanical Influence of Vertebral Fusion ."
	August 2008 Amy Silder, Darryl Thelen, Michael Tuite, and Bryan Heiderscheit were awarded the National Collegiate Athletic Association Best Poster Award for Student-Athlete Wellbeing for their research entitled "Long-Term Morphological And Functional Changes Following An Acute Hamstring Strain Injury."
	August 2008 Antonio Hernandez received the President's Award for best poster at the North American Congress of Biomechanics Meeting for his research entitled "Measurement Of Dynamic Muscle Function Via Electrical Stimulation Synchronized To The Gait Cycle."
	August 2008 Darryl Thelen was elected Program Chair for the 2010 American Society of Biomechanics Meeting.
	July 2008 Amy Silder successfully passed her PhD Preliminary Exam in Biomedical Engineering. The title of her thesis proposal is "Injury-Related Changes in Musculotendon Morphology and Mechanics."
	July 2008 Anne Schmitz was awarded a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship by the UW Institute on Aging.
	June 2008 Elizabeth Chumanov was awarded a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship by the AAUW Educational Foundation.
	April 2008 Sally Bobula, Judy Dewane, and Bryan Heiderscheit were awarded Best Research Poster at the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association spring meeting for their research entitled "Variability of stride duration increases in older adults under dual-task conditions."
	December 2007 UW NMBL was awarded a 2 year medical research grant by the National Football League Charities for their proposal entitled "Rehabilitation of Acute Hamstring Strain Injuries: Effects of Treatment on Muscle Morphology, Running Mechanics and Reinjury Potential."
	September 2007 Amy Silder was awarded the UW Institute on Aging's 2007 Outstanding Young Investigator.
	September 2007 UW NMBL was awarded a 4 year grant by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) for their R01 proposal entitled " Biocomputation of the Links Between Muscle Morphology, Coordination and Injury ." This research is being performed in collaboration with the Multiscale Muscle Mechanics Laboratory at the University of Virginia and Simbios, a National Center for Biocomputation at Stanford University.
	September 2007 UW NMBL was awarded a 2 year grant by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) for their phase II SBIR proposal entitled "Internet Delivery of Animated Rehabilitation Exercises (IDARE)." This research is being performed in collaboration with Visual Health Information, Inc.
	June 2007 Jackson Potter successfully defended his Master's Thesis in Biomedical Engineering entitled " Bicycle Seat Pressure Distribution During Seated Cycling, and the Effects of Gender, Power and Hand Position ."
	May 2007 Christopher Westphal and Eric Bader were awarded a Tong Follow-up Development Award by the UW Department of Biomedical Engineering for their design project entitled "A Device for Inducing Active Lengthening Muscle Contractions for Dynamic MR Imaging."
	May 2007 Joe Farron successfully defended his Master's Thesis in Mechanical Engineering entitled "Measurement of Tendon Strain During Muscle Twitch Contractions Using Ultrasound Elastography."
	May 2007 Ben Whittington successfully defended his Master's Thesis in Mechanical Engineering entitled "Utilization of Lower Extremity Stiffness During Human Walking."
	May 2007 Bryan Heiderscheit was awarded the American Physical Therapy Association's 2007 Margaret L. Moore Award for Outstanding New Academic Faculty Member.
	December 2006 David Remy successfully defended his Master's Thesis in Mechanical Engineering entitled "Integration of an Adaptive Ground Contact Model Into the Dynamic Simulation of Gait."