Dr. Irene Davis is the founding Director of the Spaulding National Running Center, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Davis received her Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science from the University of Massachusetts, and in Physical Therapy from the University of Florida. She earned her Masters degree in Biomechanics from the University of Virginia, and her PhD in Biomechanics from Pennsylvania State University. She is a Professor Emeritus in Physical Therapy at the University of Delaware where she served on the faculty for over 20 years. Her research is focused on the relationship between lower extremity structure, mechanics and injury. Her research also extends to the development of interventions to alter faulty mechanics through gait retraining. She has been studying the use of wearable sensors in both the evaluation and treatment of injured runners. Her interests also include the effect of minimal footwear on mechanics and injury. Dr. Davis has received funding from the Department of Defense, and National Institutes of Health to support her research. She has given over 350 lectures both nationally and internationally and authored 140 publications on the topic of lower extremity mechanics during walking and running gait. She was recently named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Running. She is a Fellow and Past President of the American Society of Biomechanics. She is also a Fellow, Vice President and current Presidential nominee of the American College of Sports Medicine and a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association.

In 2019, the Hay Committee has elected to award The Jim Hay Memorial Award for Research in Sports and Exercise Biomechanics posthumously, to honor Paavo Komi. The award was established in 2004 through the support of the Hay family and additional donors to recognize research in the area of sports and exercise science biomechanics. Jim Hay (1936-2002) was a longtime faculty member at the University of Iowa, one of the original Founders of ASB, and the third and fourth President of the Society. The Jim Hay Memorial Award recognizes originality, quality, and depth of biomechanics research that address fundamental research questions relevant to extraordinary demands imposed in sport and exercise. Since 2017, a standing committee has both evaluated member-submitted nominations for the Jim Hay Award and identified candidates with exceptional contributions to the field of sports biomechanics. In 2019, two talks, provided by Bob Gregor and Taija Finni, will cover Professor Komi's professional and scientific contributions to the field of biomechanics. There will also be time for the audience to share stories in the 1 hour session that is planned by the ISB/ASB 2019 joint program committee.

Scott L. Delp, Ph.D., is the James H. Clark Professor of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He is the Founding Chairman of the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford, Director of the National Center for Simulation in Rehabilitation Research, and Director of the Mobilize Center, a NIH National Center of Excellence focused on Big Data and Mobile Health. Scott is focused on developing technologies to advance movement science and rehabilitation. Software tools developed in his lab (OpenSim and Simtk.org) have become the basis of an international collaboration involving thousands of investigators who exchange biomechanical models, simulations, and data. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, Delp was on the faculty at Northwestern University and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. He has co-founded six biomedical technology companies.

Silvia Salinas Blemker is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering, with joint appointments in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Orthopaedic Surgery, and Ophthalmology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA, USA. She obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Before joining the faculty at UVa in 2006, Silvia worked as a post-doctoral Research Associate at Stanford University's National Center for Biomedical Computation. At UVA, she leads the Multi-scale Muscle Mechanophysiology Lab ("M3 Lab"). The M3 lab group develops advanced multi-scale computational and experimental techniques to study skeletal muscle biomechanics and physiology, and they are currently applying these techniques to variety of areas, including muscle injury & regeneration, speech disorders, movement disorders, vision impairments, muscle atrophy, aging, and muscular dystrophies. While the work is grounded in biomechanics, it strongly draws from many other fields, including biology, muscle physiology, biomedical computation, continuum mechanics, imaging, and a variety of clinical fields. M3 lab aims to have an impact on research and society. The lab strives for excellence in scholarship through contributing high impact papers and being awarded competitive awards and grants. Second, teaching and mentorship of post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students is a high priority, both in the lab and in the classroom. Lastly, the M3 lab is enthusiastic to take part in outreach activities, including having active participation of K-12 teachers in the lab. The M3 lab's research has been funded by several institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIAMS, NIBIB, NIA, and NIDCD), NASA, the NSF, The Hartwell Foundation, the UVA-Coulter Translational Research Partnership, in addition to industry partnerships. Dr. Blemker has multiple patents pending and co-founded Springbok, Inc, a company focused on image-based muscle analytics for a variety of applications from sports medicine to neuromuscular disorders.

Wouter Hoogkamer, Ph.D. is a post-doctoral research associate in the Locomotion Laboratory at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He uses a comprehensive approach to study human locomotion, integrating neurophysiology, biomechanics and energetics. Dr. Hoogkamer's work covers the full health spectrum, from the neuromechanics of split-belt walking in individuals with cerebellar damage to the biomechanics and energetics of elite marathon runners. After obtaining master's degrees in Civil Engineering and Human Movement Sciences in the Netherlands, he moved to Leuven, Belgium where he earned his Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Sciences, before moving to Colorado in 2015. Dr. Hoogkamer is passionate about mentoring students and is an avid runner. He recently accepted a tenure-track position as assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he will be starting in the fall of 2019.

Erika Pliner is a PhD Candidate in Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research is focused on determining individual, environmental and biomechanical factors that contribute to ladder fall risk. This knowledge is critical to guide safety interventions that reduce ladder fall injuries. She has also been active in outreach programs to improve diversity in biomechanics. Her dissertation work was funded by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program and Whitaker International Program. She received her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.