Keynote Speakers
Monica Maly
Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences, University of Waterloo
Monica Maly is a Physiotherapist, Professor and University Research Chair in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo, Canada. Monica’s research program integrates biomechanics, advanced imaging and clinical measurement to advance strategies to promote physical activity among older adults with osteoarthritis. This work is supported by The Arthritis Society, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation among others.
Keynote Presentation: Biomechanics and obesity are synergists in worsening knee osteoarthritis
Wednesday August 21, 2024
8:00 - 8:45 am
By 2041, more than 10 million Canadians will live with osteoarthritis (OA). This prevalence estimate vastly outstrips our current capacity to treat this disease. OA damages all joint tissues, resulting in chronic pain, immobility, unemployment and disability. OA affects the knee most often and targets those with obesity. In fact, being obese is associated with a 4.7-fold elevated risk of developing knee OA. Abnormal biomechanics also predict future tissue damage. This presentation will highlight the critical interactions between biomechanics and obesity that degrade knee tissues. Treatment must address both biomechanics and obesity to effectively manage knee OA.
James Wakeling
Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University
Associate Member, Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University
James Wakeling has over 30 years of expertise in experimental and theoretical studies of muscle biomechanics. An overarching focus of this research has been the force and power output from whole muscles during realistic movements, and understanding how whole muscle forces differ from the forces of the constituent fibres within the muscle. This work has included studies on the effect of fibre-type recruitment, muscle mass, stiffness of the muscle tissue, intramuscular fat and has encompassed comparative and human studies.
Keynote Presentation: Muscle design for optimal movement
Wednesday August 21, 2024
1:00 - 1:45 pm
Muscle models are essential for our understanding of muscle function. While traditional models may work well for single fibres during steady contractions, their performance is much worse for whole muscles during natural behaviours. This presentation will consider different aspect of physiology and mechanics that influence the forces that muscles develop, how these features can be incorporated into muscle models, and the insights that we gain about how muscle design and use is related to whole muscle energetics and mechanical performance.
Vivian Mushahwar
Division of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry
University of Alberta
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta
Dr. Vivian K Mushahwar is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Functional Restoration. She is also the Director of the Institute for Augmentative and Restorative Technologies and Health Innovations (iSMART) and its business arm, Smart Technology (ST) Innovations. She is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Trained in engineering, rehabilitation and neuroscience, she combines these disciplines to develop intelligent wearable and implantable neuromodulation devices that restore mobility and prevent secondary complications after neural injuries or diseases. She also focuses on developing activity-based therapy rehabilitation interventions that are both efficacious and cost-saving. She pioneered the development of micro-implants for stimulating the spinal cord to restore standing and walking after complete spinal cord injury, and demonstrated the benefits of simultaneous arm and leg cycling for improving walking capacity after incomplete spinal cord injury. She and her group invented the wearable garments, Smart-e-Pants and the SOCC, for preventing pressure injuries and deep vein thrombosis, respectively. She co-founded 3 companies and has been appointed to advisory boards at both academic institutions and industry. She holds funding from numerous agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, PrairiesCan, Alberta Innovates, Craig Neilson Foundation, the University Hospital Foundation and the US Department of Defense. She also holds 6 patents and has published >100 peer-reviewed journal articles.
Keynote Presentation: Innovative activation of the spinal cord to restore mobility after spinal cord injury
Thursday August 22, 2024
8:00 - 8:45 am
Walter Herzog: Honorary Conference Chair
Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary
Dr. Walter Herzog did his undergraduate training in Physical Education at the Federal Technical Institute in Zurich, Switzerland (1979), completed his doctoral research in Biomechanics at the University of Iowa (USA) in 1985, and completed postdoctoral training in Neuroscience and Biomechanics in Calgary, Canada in 1987. Currently, Dr. Herzog is a Professor of Biomechanics with appointments in Kinesiology, Medicine, Engineering, and Veterinary Medicine. He held the Canada Research Chair for Cellular and Molecular Biomechanics (2001-2022) and was awarded the Killam Memorial Chair for Inter-Disciplinary Research at the University of Calgary (2011-2022). His research interests are in musculoskeletal biomechanics with emphasis on mechanisms of muscle contraction focusing on the role of the structural protein titin, and the biomechanics of joints focusing on mechanisms of onset and progression of osteoarthritis. Dr. Herzog is the recipient of the Borelli Award from the American Society of Biomechanics, the Career Award from the Canadian Society for Biomechanics, the Dyson Award from the International Society of Biomechanics in Sports, and the Muybridge Award from the International Society of Biomechanics. He is the past president of the International, American and Canadian Societies for Biomechanics. He was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 2013 and was awarded the Killam Prize in Engineering (2018) from the Canada Council for the Arts for his contributions to Biomedical research.
Opening Keynote Lecture: Reflections on muscles: Intuition, chance, and a bit of faith
Tuesday August 20, 2024
8:00 - 8:45 am
In my opening lecture, I will tell three stories about my research in muscle mechanics. The first story will be about intuition. Specifically, how early in my career, I doubted, purely on intuitive grounds, what had been written on muscle “instability” by some of the leaders of 20th century muscle physiology. The second story is about chance discoveries and how a serendipitous observation in the early 2000s changed my thinking and that of an entire field studying the molecular mechanisms of muscle contraction. Finally, a story about having faith in an idea, and taking big risks for potentially big rewards.