Student poster and paper presenters, along with the guest speakers, stopped for a group picture.

The Ohio State University (Ohio State), in conjunction with Transportation Research Center Inc. (TRC Inc.), hosted the Fifth Annual Injury Biomechanics Symposium from May 17, 2009 through May 19, 2009.  The symposium is intended to stimulate and rewards strong injury biomechanics research among students and recent graduates.

The symposium kicked off with a welcome reception held at The Varsity Club on Ohio State’s campus, then moved to an off-campus hotel for the research presentations, followed by a dinner banquet at the Buckeye Hall of Fame Café, and concluded with the Hines Awards for best research presentations and closing remarks at lunch on Tuesday.

An inspiring keynote address was delivered by Guy Nusholtz, Executive Consultant and Senior Manager in the Experimental and Computational Mechanics Department at Chrysler.  Several guest speakers attended including:  Mary Roach, New York Times Bestselling Author of Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers; Valerie K. Bergdall, Ohio State University Laboratory Animal Resources; Kathy Smiler, Veterinary Consultant, Laboratory Animal Medicine; and Karla Zadnik, Chair of the Biomedical Sciences IRB and IRB Policy Committee for Ohio State. 

The Symposium is an extension of Ohio State’s collaboration with TRC Inc. to create a nationally recognized center for trauma research. The new initiative is comprised of faculty of Ohio State’s Injury Biomechanics Research Laboratory and their Center for Automotive Research, along with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and TRC Inc.  Dr. John Bolte IV, assistant professor of anatomy, is leading this effort for Ohio State’s state-of-the-art laboratories that are complemented by TRC Inc. laboratories, which include calibration for measurement instrumentation and test dummies, along with full-scale crash testing, and the HYGE impact simulator facilities.

The Symposium Partnership includes:  The Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research; Transportation Research Center Inc.; Honda R&D Americas, Inc.; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Vehicle Research and Test Center; Nationwide Insurance; and the Center for Injury Research and Policy, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Ford Driving Skills for Life. Additional sponsorship was provided by: Denton ATD, Inc.; Nissan Technical Center North America; and Toyota. Additional information can be found at:  http://ibrl.osu.edu/.