Dr. Michael N. Sawka has joined the School of Applied Physiology as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Sawka retired from his position as Chief, Thermal and Mountain Medicine Division at the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Natick, MA.. His research interests are human environmental (heat, cold, high-altitude) adaptation and maladaptation, temperature regulation, fluid / electrolyte balance, blood volume control, and rehabilitation medicine. Dr. Sawka has published >300 full-length scientific papers as well as edited graduate textbooks on environmental physiology and on exercise physiology. Dr. Sawka previously held appointments at Boston University, Massachusetts General Hospital's Institute of Health Professions, Wright State University School of Medicine, and the John B. Pierce Foundation, Yale School of Medicine. He served on many journal editorial boards and scientific panels / committees such as those for the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences; US Anti-Doping Agency; Partnership for Clean Competition; Department of Defense; and North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He received the Military Medical Merit Medallion (2005) and the American College of Sports Medicine Citation Award (2010), and The US Army Surgeon General's Meritorious Civilian Service Award (2012).
Lewis Wheaton, PhD, and Minoru "Shino" Shinohara, PhD, are featured for "Biology of the Brain" on Georgia Tech Research Horizons. (August, 2012)
Young-Hui Chang, Ph.D. on 11 alive news "The Science of Running like an Olympian". (Aug 2012).
Young-Hui Chang, Ph.D. featured on GT press release "THE SCIENCE OF RUNNING: FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL". (Aug 2012).
Minoru Shinohara, Ph.D., Jun Ueda, Ph.D. and Yuichi Kurita, Ph.D. have developed a glove with a special fingertip designed to improve the wearer’s sense of touch.
Minoru Shinohara, PhD, published a book entitled "Advances in Neuromuscular Physiology of Motor Skills and Muscle Fatigue" for which he served as the editor and co-author.(February 2010)
One third of the chapters were authored by our faculty members or associated researchers including Edward Balog, PhD, Thomas Burkholder, PhD, Young-Hui Chang, PhD, and Boris Prilutsky, PhD.
Aging study at the Neuormuscular Physiology Lab (Director: Minoru Shinohara, PhD) is featured in Senior News newspaper (January, 2010)
As President of the American College of Sports Medicine, Dr. Mindy Millard-Stafford rang the closing bell on NASDAQ on Times Square in New York City on May 6, 2009
The School receives a 5-year NIH training grant that supports PhD students who study Prosthetics & Orthotics (August 2008).
The School welcomes Lewis Wheaton, PhD, Assistant Professor in Cognitive Motor Control (August 2008). Dr. Wheaton comes to Georgia Tech from Baltimore, Maryland, where he studied higher order motor control in the upper and lower extremities at Baltimore VA medical center. (August 2008)
The School congratulates adjunct faculty member, John Michael, MEd, CPO, LPO, FISPO, FAAOP, who served as editor for the recently released fourth edition of the AAOS Atlas of Orthoses and Assistive Devices. The textbook is considered an essential information resource for practitioners in the management of persons who require an orthosis as part of a treatment plan. (August 2008)
Kristin Carnahan (MSPO class of 2008) published the fourth and final article in a series that chronicled her experiences as a student in the MSPO program. Read the on line article in the July issue of the O&P Edge. (July 2008)
The faculty and staff of the School of Applied Physiology and the MSPO program are pleased to welcome Dr. Geza Kogler, PhD, CO as its newest full time faculty member. Dr. Kogler comes to Georgia Tech from Springfield, Illinois where he practiced as an orthotist and bioengineer research investigator at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and other clinical practice settings. (July 2008)
Richard Welling, MSPO, CO (MSPO 2005) served as a camp supervisor and was featured along with others in the Adventure Amputee Camp in North Carolina. Click here to see the video (when on the video page, click on the right link to “Ryan’s story”). (July 2008)
Mindy Millard-Stafford, PhD, President of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), hosted a press conference where legislation was introduced into the House and Senate, entitled Physical Activity for Americans Act which authorizes Congress to release Federal Guidelines for Physical Activity on a regular cycle (at least every 5 years).
Robert J. Gregor, PhD, retired after his 14 year tenure at Georgia Tech. Dr. Gregor will maintain his involvement with the School as Professor Emeritus (June 2008).
Mindy Millard-Stafford, PhD, becomes the President of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the largest academic society in this field (June 2008).
Grants and Awards
Congratulations on the following grants and awards:
Theresa Sorrentino, studying in Human Neuromuscular Physiology Lab, is awarded a President’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA). (April 2013)
Minoru Shinohara, PhD, is awarded a seed grant from the Center for Advanced Brain Imaging to study the effect of dehydration on brain anatomy and activity during motor task. (Mar 2013)
Mindy Millard-Stafford, Professor in Applied Physiology was awarded the 2012 Citation Award by the American College of Sports Medicine at the Annual Meeting in San Francisco, June 2012. This award is presented annually to individuals who have made significant and important contributions to sports medicine and/or the exercise sciences. These contributions may include, but are not limited to, research and scholarship; clinical care; and/or administrative or educational services in sports medicine or exercise science.” Dr. Millard-Stafford was Past-President of ACSM in 2010.
Minoru Shinohara, PhD, receives a grant from US Army Research Office to study the effects of acute resistance exercise on brain activity. (June 2012)
Minoru Shinohara, PhD, is awarded tenure. (April 2012)
Dr. Minoru Shinohara and collaborator Dr. Audrey Duarte (Psychology) receive a 1-year grant from Emory Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Atlanta Clinical & Translational Science Institute to study the effects of exercise on memory function in elderly adults.(Mar 2012)
Two members of the Cognitive Motor Control Lab (PI: Dr. L.A. Wheaton) received awards at the 2012 Georgia Tech Research and Innovation Conference. Rachel Kelly received a $1500 travel award and Nikhilesh Natraj was awarded a $5000 research fellowship.
Megan Toney, 2nd year Ph.D. student in Applied Physiology, was awarded the Georgia Tech Auxiliary Services IMPACT Scholarship for her service contributions to the Georgia Tech community. (April 2011)
Dr. Boris Prilutsky and Dr. Edward Balog were each awarded tenure at the rank of Associate Professor in the School of Applied Physiology. (Mar 2011)
Nikhilesh Natraj (PhD program; Director, Lewis Wheaton, PhD) was awarded a travel award by the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience to present at the annual Keck Center for Behavioral Biology Conference in North Carolina. (Jan 2011)
Arick G. Auyang was awarded his Ph.D. in Applied Physiology from Georgia Tech. (Dec 2010)
Ashley N. Johnson (Neuormuscular Physiology Lab, Director: Minoru Shinohara, PhD) is awarded the Society for Neuroscience Graduate Student Travel Award to present "Beta band corticomuscular coherence with an additional motor or non-motor task in healthy elderly adults". (Oct 2010)
Christopher Hovorka, MS, CPO, LPO, FAAOP was awarded a grant from the Orthotic and Prosthetic Education and Research Foundation (OPERF), Chris will utilize the funds to support his research involving Lower Limb Orthotic Constraint of Movement as a Strategy for Neuromuscular Learning. Oct. 2010)
Dr. Young-Hui Chang and collaborator, Dr. Karen Liu (Interactive Computing), were awarded a 5-year, $1.6M grant from the NIH (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke) to study the neuromechanics of locomotion in able-bodied and lower limb amputees. This project will also involve Mr. Robert Kistenberg (MSPO program), Dr. Richard Nichols, Dr. Boris Prilutsky, and Dr. Teresa Snow from Applied Physiology, as well as Dr. Vijaya Krishnamoorthy from Emory Univ. Rehabilitation Medicine.(Sep 2010)
Lewis Wheaton, Ph.D. was awarded a Center for Advanced Brain Imaging Seed Grant entitled: "Pantomiming and Tool-Use; a neuroimaging study" for 2010-11.
Minoru Shinohara, Ph.D., and Andrew J. Butler, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Emory Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and Adjunct Associate Professor at GT School of Applied Physiology are awarded a 2-year grant from the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service to study “Effects of Sympathetic Nerve Activity on Cortical Excitability during a Hand Motor Task”. (May 2010)
Minoru Shinohara, PhD, is awarded the Short Term Innovative Research Grant from the Army Research Office to study "Noninvasive Assessment of Attention State from Correlated Oscillations in Brain and Muscle".
Young-Hui Chang, Ph.D., received the National Science Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. The CAREER Award is viewed as NSF's "most prestigious award for junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholar." Dr. Chang's award of $530,000 will support his basic research and educational outreach efforts over the next five years. This NSF funded project "Dynamic control of immediate locomotor compensations in the leg" will address fundamental questions about limb control and compensatory strategies during human locomotion and will help integrate basic science and clinical education within the rapidly growing field of prosthetics and orthotics.
Mary Beth Brown, Doctoral Student in Applied Physiology was awarded the Gisolfi Research Grant from the American College of Sports Medicine and was recognized in Seattle at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine May 2009. Her grant was entitled Mechanisms and Implications of Variability in Human Eccrine Sweat Sodium.
Minoru Shinohara is selected as an awardee of the 2009 ACSM Visiting Scholar Award to visit the laboratory of Mathias Fink (Paris, France) for studying mechanical activity of contracting human muscle with ultrafast ultrasound technology.
Arick Auyang, a 4th year Applied Physiology student from the Comparative Neuromechanics Lab, won the "Best Podium Presentation" award for his talk "Effects of increased task difficulty on performance variable stabilization during locomotion" at the 2009 Southeast American Society of Biomechanics Conference held at the Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, April 23-25, 2009.
Minoru Shinohara, 2008-2009, GT Health Systems Institute Research Seed Grant, "Extracting Impaired Modulation of Muscle Activation Pattern in Neurological Patients Using Pinpointed Muscle Control Robot".
Mary Beth Brown, a Ph.D. Student from the Exercise Physiology Lab, and Andy Allison, MSPO class of 2007, were awarded the Thranhardt lecture award for their presentation "Physiological Responses of Amputees during Treadmill Exercise in Running-Specific Prostheses Compared to Traditional Prostheses and to Matched Non-Amputee Runners" at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthotists and Prosthetists, Atlanta, GA, March 2009.
Robert Gregor, 2008-2013, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, “Training Movement Scientists: Focus on Prosthesis and Orthotics”.
Edward M. Balog, 2008-2011, American Heart Association, Scientist Development Award, “S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine Regulation of Cardiac Ryanodine Receptor Calcium Release Channels”.
Ashley Johnson (Shinohara Lab), 2008-2011, FACES Fellowship, Georgia Tech, “Correlation between Brain and Muscle Activity”.
Robert Kistenberg, 2008-2010, Office of Naval Research, “Medical Imaging Generated Dynamic Prosthetics Sockets”.
Minoru Shinohara, 2008-2009, GT/Emory BME-Neurology Seed Grant, "Predicting Individual's Optimal Noise for Posture Improvement in Balance-Impaired Individuals".
Young-Hui Chang, 2007-2008, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, “Interjoint Coordination and Compensation in Rat Locomotion Using X-ray Kinematics”.
Minoru Shinohara, 2006-2009, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, "Sympathetic Nerve Activity and Fine Motor Skills".
Edward Balog, 2005-2006, National Institute on Aging “Sr Calcium Release Channel Regulation in Aging Muscle”.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Below are the recent peer-reviewed publications in which members of our School were involved.
Shinohara M. Muscle activation strategies in multiple muscle systems. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 41:181-183, 2009.
Shinohara M, Yoshitake Y, Kouzaki M. Alterations in synergistic muscle activation impact fluctuations in net force. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 41:191-197, 2009.
Forrester LW, Wheaton LA, Luft AR. Exercise-mediated locomotor recovery and lower-limb neuroplasticity after stroke. J Rehabil Res Dev. 45:205-2020, 2008.
Bunderson NE, Burkholder TJ, Ting LH. Reduction of neuromuscular redundancy for postural force generation using an intrinsic stability criterion. Journal of Biomechanics 41:1537-1544, 2008.
Wheaton LA, Bohlhalter S, Nolte G., Shibasaki H, Hattori N, Fridman E, Vorbach, S, Grafman J, Hallett M. Cortico-cortical networks in patients with ideomotor apraxia as revealed by EEG coherence analysis. Neurosci Lett; 433: 87-92, 2008.
Hass CJ, Waddell DE, Wolf SL, Juncos JL, Gregor RJ. Gait initiation in older adults with postural instability. Clin Biomech 23:743-753, 2008.
Millard-Stafford M, Childers WL, Conger SA, Kampfer AJ, Rahnert JA. Recovery nutrition: timing and composition after endurance exercise. Curr Sports Med Rep. 7:193-201, 2008.
Wheaton LA, Carpenter M., Mizelle JC, Forrester L. Preparatory band specific premotor cortical activity differentiates upper and lower extremity movement. Exp Brain Res 184: 121-126, 2008.
Kampfer AJ, Balog EM. S-Adenosyl-L-Methionine Activates the Cardiac Ryanodine Receptor. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 371:606-609, 2008.
Chang Y-H, Roiz RA, Auyang A. Intralimb compensation strategy depends on the nature of joint perturbation in human hopping. J. Biomechanics 41: 1832-1839, 2008.
Harris F, Sprigle S. Outcome measurement of a wheelchair intervention; Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, 3:1-10, 2008.
Yoshitake Y, Masani K, Shinohara M. Laser-detected lateral muscle displacement is correlated with force fluctuations during voluntary contractions in humans. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 173:271-278, 2008.
Sonenblum SE, Sprigle S, Harris FH, Maurer CL. Characterization of power wheelchair use in the home and community. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 89: 486-491, 2008.
Heise G, Shinohara M, Binks L. Biarticular leg muscles and links to running economy. International Journal of Sports Medicine 29: 688-691, 2008.
Buxbaum LJ, Haaland KY, Hallett M, Wheaton L, Heilman KM, Rodriguez A, Gonzales-Rothi L. Treatment of limb apraxia: moving forward to improved action. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 87: 149-161, 2008.
Shinohara M, Keenan KG, Enoka RM. Fluctuations in motor output of a hand muscle can be altered by the mechanical properties of the position sensor. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 168: 164-173, 2008.