Thomas P. Andriacchi, Ph.D.
Professor, Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Orthopedic Surgery

Professor Andriacchi's research focuses on the biomechanics of human locomotion and its biomedical applications to artificial joints, sports injury, osteoarthritis and neuromuscular disorders.

Melanie Cole (mcole)
Administrative Associate, Biomechanical Engineering Division

Jessica Asay, M.S. (asay)
Research Engineer, Mechanical Engineering

Jessica analyzes lower limb joint loading with respect to upper body motion. She is also working on finding biological and mechanical pathways to medial compartment knee osteoarthritis.

Katherine A. Boyer, Ph.D.(kboyer)
Research Associate, Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Boyer studies the influence of walking gait mechanics on bone mass density and the effect of medial compartment knee osteoarthritis pain on gait mechanics.

Jennifer (Erhart) Hledik, Ph.D. (jerhart)
Research Associate, Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Hledik studies the interaction of mechanics and biology in the progression of knee osteoarthritis.

Julien Favre, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Favre studies new methods to evaluate human movement and cartilage morphology.

Jonathan Rylander, M.S., Ph.D. Candidate (rylandjh)

Jonathan is studying Femoroacetabular Impingement (FAI) and its effects on gait kinematics and kinetics with the goal of better understanding the injury mechanism for this condition as well as improving the surgical methods to treat it. Additionally, he is participating in studies looking at activity monitoring methods, development of cartilage thickness maps at the hip, and using gait kinematics to detect early-onset hip osteoarthritis.

Katerina Blazek, M.S., Ph.D. Candidate (kblazek)

Katerina is studying changes in walking mechanics and systemic inflammation in obese individuals in order to understand the mechanisms behind the increased risk of knee osteoarthritis in the obese.

Michael Zabala, M.S., Ph.D. Candidate (mezabala)

Michael is studying the relationship between ACL reconstruction and gait mechanics and the initiation and progression of osteoarthritis.

Shannon Edd, M.S. Candidate (snedd)

Shannon is studying the longterm changes in gait mechanics and cartilage thickness after a meniscectomy.

Benedikt Fasel, M.S. Candidate (benedikt)

Benedikt is developing statistical methods to analyze cartilage morphology.