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Elections for 2007 are complete and the following new Officers for 2008-2010 are: President: Manfred Bijak Vice-President: Jane Burridge Secretary: Glen Davis Treasurer: Thierry Keller The newest members of the Board of Directors are: We wish to thank the following for running for these positons:
Julie Armstrong Biographies, position statements and photos of each of the candidates maybe be reviewed below by clicking on the hyperlink for each candidate above. You will be emailed a ballot notice by the end of November and ballots must be returned by December 15th. Only active IFESS members may vote in the election, so f you want to be included in this important process please make sure that your membership is active now! Thank you for participating in this vital activity of our Society! Sincerely, Paul Meadows, Past-President
Manfred Bijak (Ph.D.) is Assistant Professor at the Center for
Biomedical Engineering and Physics at the Vienna Medical University. He studied
at the Technical University in Vienna, received his "Diplom Ingenieur" in 1991
and started at the Medical University in 1992 with his work in the field of FES,
concentrating on lower extremity applications. He received his Ph.D. in 1996 and
continues his scientific work with mobilisation of paraplegics with surface
stimulation and the development of a multichannel stimulation system. In
addition other projects out of the field of Biomedical Engineering, mostly in
cooperation with clinical partners from the Vienna Medical School complete his
scientific background.
Dr Jane Burridge, MCSP, LGSM, PhD
Brief Biography of Glen M Davis Associate Professor Glen Davis is Director of the Rehabilitation Research Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. Originally trained as a clinical exercise physiologist, Dr Davis has published numerous peer-reviewed scientific and clinical papers on exercise therapy for rehabilitation following spinal cord injury and hemiplegic stroke, as well as the use of Functional Electrical Stimulation in neurological patients. His principle research interests are in the area of combining assistive technology, such as FES systems, with exercise therapy for medical and physiotherapy professional practice. He collaborates extensively with clinical institutions on multi-disciplinary research projects involving FES in paraplegia and tetraplegia, recovery following sub-acute stroke and exercise rehabilitation after spinal cord injury. Statement of CandidacyMy interest in becoming a member of the IFESS Board of Directors is to expand the membership of IFESS into several growth fields. In particular, my interest is to expand the Society’s membership from clinicians who practice within physiotherapy and occupational therapy, as well as to recruit new members from life sciences disciplines and fields of clinical exercise physiology. I have a strong interest to grow membership within the Asia-Pacific region. I am primarily a clinical researcher, and I believe that IFESS must have a strong voice to attract other researchers to our organization.
Thierry Keller was born in Bern, Switzerland in 1968. He received his Doctorate (Dr. sc. techn.) and his Dipl. Ing. degree in electrical engineering (M.Sc.E.E.) from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland in 2001 and 1995, respectively. He is currently leading the Electrical Stimulation Group (ESG) at ETHZ (http://control.ee.ethz.ch/~fes/) and the Paraplegic Center of University Hospital Balgrist, Zurich (http://www.balgrist.ch/cms.cfm/s_page/58740), where he held a position of a research engineer and research associate between 1995 and 2002. From 2002 to 2003 he was a visiting research scholar at the Department of Physical Therapy and Human Movement Science, Northwestern University, Chicago and the Sensory Motor Performance Program, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Dr. Keller developed various neuroprostheses that help improve walking and grasping functions in spinal cord injured and stroke subjects. His research interests are in the fields of rehabilitation engineering, neural prostheses, signal processing and human-machine interaction. His research focuses on the development of novel technologies for transcutaneous functional electrical stimulation (FES), its clinical application, and modeling and basic research in this area. As a member of the National Center of Competence in Research NCCR “Neural Plasticity and Repair” Dr. Keller follows his mission to bring new FES and FES+robotic treatments into clinical practice. Currently Dr. Keller is leading national multi-center clinical trials that are investing the efficacy of applying FES towards restoring and improving grasping and walking functions in spinal cord injury and stroke populations. As core member of the Upper Limb Assessment Group (ULAG) of IFESS he has a strong interest in providing recommendations and guidance for upper limb assessments in conjunction with FES technology. In 2006 Dr. Keller’s research on “Smart Electrodes: New transcutaneous stimulation technology” was awarded with a diploma by the Commission of Technology and Innovation (CTI) at the Swiss Medtech Event. In 2002 he was awarded a Swiss National Science Foundation fellowship for advanced researchers, and in 1997 he received together with Dr. M. R Popovic the Swiss National Science Foundation Biotechnology Technology Transfer Award - 1st place. Thierry Keller is committed to the IFESS society and intends to support it in promoting FES technologies, technology transfer to both industrial and clinical partners, education and training of young researches in the FES field, and most importantly to promote the efficacy of the FES technology among clinicians, health care providers, and policy makers both locally and internationally. As a member of the Board of Directors Thierry Keller will strive to further strengthen IFESS presence and outreach both in Switzerland and internationally.
Biography:
Resumé
Name: Thordur Helgason Thordur Helgason studied electrical engineering at University of Iceland (BS 1982), biomedical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe (Dipl.-Ing. 1985) and made his PhD on movement control of electrically stimulated muscle at the same university (Dr.-Ing. 1990). He was the head of the Department for Biomedical Engineering and Physics at Landspitalinn – University Hospital (1990 – 2000) and is the head of R&D department at the same hospital up to date (2000 - ). He is a lector at the Department of Biomedical engineering at the University of Reykjavik. Research interests are in electrical stimulation of denervated degenerated muscles, implantable stimulators and electrodes, modelling of muscle and bone and in movement analysis. Extracurricular activities include the Board of Electrical Engineering Society of Iceland, several committees of The Association of Chartered Engineers in Iceland, board of The Electro technical Committee of Icelandic Standards National Body, President of The Icelandic Society of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics (member of IFMBE). Thordur Helgason was a founding member of IFESS.
JOAQUÍN ANDRÉS HOFFER
Vivian K. Mushahwar is an Assistant Professor and Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Senior Scholar with the Department of Cell Biology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. She received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, in 1991 and the Ph.D. degree in Bioengineering from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in 1996. She received postdoctoral training at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, and the University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada. Her research interests focus on the development of rehabilitation engineering interventions for restoring function and alleviating some of the side effects after spinal cord injury, head trauma or stroke. Her work includes the identification of spinal cord systems involved in locomotion and development of spinal-cord-based neuroprostheses for restoring standing and walking, induction of targeted plasticity for improving ambulation after incomplete spinal cord injury and stroke using FES training paradigms, prevention of pressure ulcers using FES, and reduction of spasticity using operant conditioning training paradigms. Dr. Mushahwar is a Member of IFESS, IEEE (EMBS), the New York Academy of Sciences, the Society for Neuroscience, and the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. She is Vice-Chair of the University of Alberta IEEE-EMBS Chapter and an Honorary Member of the Spinal Cord Injury Treatment Center Society Board of Directors. She was named “Researcher of the Month” in April 2004 by the Canadians for Health Research society and delivered the “Distinguished Women in Neural Engineering” seminar in November 2006 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As Member of IFESS Board of Directors, Dr. Mushahwar will strive
to increase membership in the society by attracting graduate students, faculty
members and clinical professionals. She will also increase awareness of FES
applications in rehabilitation by engaging health professionals, people with
neural injuries, and local charities through Open Houses and other activities
Milos R. Popovic Dr. Popovic is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto, and Senior Scientist and the Activity Team Leader at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, both institutions located in Toronto, Canada. He has recently been promoted to Toronto Rehab Chair in Spinal Cord Injury Research. Dr. Popovic joined the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and the Toronto Rehab in 2001. From 1997 until 2001 he was leading the Rehabilitation Engineering Team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) and the Paraplegic Center of the University Hospital Balgrist, both in Zurich, Switzerland. From 1996 until 1997, he worked for AlliedSignal Aerospace Canada Inc. in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Popovic’s fields of expertise are functional electrical stimulation, neuro-rehabilitation, modeling and control of linear and non-linear dynamic systems, robotics, power systems, signal processing, and safety analysis. His interests are in the areas of neuro-rehabilitation, physiological control systems, assistive technology, and brain machine interfaces. In 1997, together with Dr. Thierry Keller he received the Swiss
National Science Foundation Technology Transfer Award - 1st place. He is also
one of the co-founders of the Canadian National Spinal Cord Injury Conference
established in 2004.
Profile for Christine Singleton
Brian T. Smith received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering and the M.S. degree in biomedical engineering from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA in 1986 and 1989, respectively. A Calhoun Fellowship supported his graduate studies. Since 1989, he has been involved with FES research at Shriners Hospitals for Children (SHC), Philadelphia, PA. His research over the last 16 years has focused on the development and evaluation of upper and lower extremity neuroprostheses for children with spinal cord injury (SCI) or cerebral palsy. He has co-authored over 40 peer-reviewed articles in this area. He holds one patent and has another pending in control of FES-induced movement. He is now the Director of Research Administration for SHC, Philadelphia Research Center of Excellence and continues research on the development and evaluation of effective FES rehabilitation paradigms for children with SCI or cerebral palsy. As a member of IFESS since its inception, I have seen the society grow and strengthen over the years. As an IFESS board member I would renew efforts within the society in several areas: · Promote multi-center collaborative studies, both clinical and basic science, that would provide stronger evidence for the use of electrical stimulation. · Enhance our educational efforts for both consumers and young investigators. · Advocate for greater awareness of pediatric FES applications within the society. · Facilitate the development of practice guidelines by the society for implementation of FES devices in rehabilitation medicine. · Promote FES for health and fitness. · Promote deployment of clinically available FES devices.
Thomas Stieglitz was born in Goslar, Germany, in 1965. He received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in electrical engineering with the special subject biomedical engineering from the University of Technology Karlsruhe (Germany) in 1993. He was with the Fraunhofer-Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT) from 1993 to 2004. There, he established the research work on biomedical microsystems for neural prostheses which finally led to the IBMT Neural Prostheses Group. In 1998 he received the Dr.-Ing. degree (summa cum laude) in electrical engineering from the University of Saarland (Germany). In 2000 he received the science award of the Saarland state for his work on flexible, neural prostheses. Thomas Stieglitz qualified as a university lecturer in 2002 at the Saarland University in biomedical microsystem technology. Since October 2004 Thomas Stieglitz holds the position of a full professor for Biomedical Microtechnology in the Institute for Microsystem Technology (IMTEK) at the University of Freiburg (Germany). At the IMTEK, one of the largest Microsystem Institutes in Germany, he will focus on the development of biocompatible assembling and packaging techniques and the application of microsystems for neural prostheses and neuromodulation. His research interests further include biomedical microdevices, functional electrical stimulation, and biohybrid systems for screening and therapeutical applications. Thomas Stieglitz is member of the IEEE-EMBS, the German Engineering Society (VDI) and the German Society for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT) within the German Electrotechnical Society (VDE) where he is chair of the Functional Stimulation Section and founding member of the International Society for Functional Electrical Stimulation (IFESS). Statement: My vision is the dissemination of neural prostheses to all patient groups that might benefit from neural stimulation and neuromodulation. As a fist step, the understanding and awareness of neural prostheses should be increased by a broad communication with the public. I would like to promote a closer collaboration and a deeper exchange between different disciplines within the IFESS community and researchers in the field of neural rehabilitation in general. Especially, I will try to bridge the gap between new technologies and clinical applications that is still present. Engineers should learn more about the patients’ needs in daily clinical practice and clinicians should learn more about the feasibilities and limitations of latest technologies and devices, e.g. the opportunities of microimplants for vision prostheses and interfaces to the central nervous system. |
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