8/14/2021 Julia Park 2 min read
Written by Julia Park
Professor Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler took the helm last week as the 2021-2022 President of the American Society of Biomechanics (ASB) at the annual meeting.
Her three-year term, for which she was nominated and elected, began last year in her role as President-Elect. In 2022-2023 she will serve as Past-President for the society.
Hsiao-Wecksler, a Willett Faculty Scholar, has a long history of active involvement in ASB, beginning as a student member. She has been involved in multiple ASB committees and activities, including abstract reviewer and session co-chair almost annually since 2003. In 2010, she was elected to serve on the ASB Executive Board for two years as Program Chair-Elect (2010-2011) and Program Chair (2011-2012). In 2018, Hsiao-Wecksler was named a Fellow of ASB.
“As ASB President, I will continue to give back to the society. As an advocate for diversity, inclusion, and mentoring, I am especially interested in promoting additional Strategic Plan activities, practices, and policies that increase and support the currently low racial, ethnic, and ability-status diversity of meeting attendees/presenters, ASB members, and test participants in biomechanics research studies to better represent the diversity of the American population,” Hsiao-Wecksler said when she began her term last year.
Hsiao-Wecksler’s Human Dynamics and Controls Lab uses methods from musculoskeletal biomechanics, mechatronics, soft robotics, and wearable technologies to investigate and improve movement control and function related to locomotion biomechanics and assistive device design. They have developed improved signal processing methods to quantify movement patterns during gait and wheelchair propulsion, and pioneered designs for pneumatically powered ankle-foot orthoses, pneumatic ergonomic crutches, multi-geared wheels for manual wheelchairs, and medical training simulators that mimic movement disorder related abnormal neuromuscular behaviors.