Key Individuals
Dr. Beth A. Winkelstein
Interim Provost & Professor of Neurosurgery
University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Beth A. Winkelstein
Beth Winkelstein is Interim Provost and the Eduardo D. Glandt President's Distinguished Professor a Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her BSE in Bioengineering from Penn and earned a PhD in BME from Duke focused on neck injury biomechanics. She joined Penn's faculty in 2002 after completing a post-doctoral fellowship in the neuroimmunology of pain in Anesthesiology & Pharmacology at Dartmouth. Her pioneering interdisciplinary research focuses on the mechanisms of bodily injury and pain – especially injuries from sports, automobile accidents, and/or degenerative diseases – and has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense, among many others, including a Presidential Early Career Award from the NSF. She is a global leader in research into orthopaedic and musculoskeletal disorders, including developing innovative new pharmacological treatments and biomedical devices to treat pain. Dr. Winkelstein is the author of Orthopaedic Biomechanics (2012) and has published more than 175 papers and book chapters. She served as editor of the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering from 2012 to 2020 and currently serves as Chair of the Board of Editors of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and an Executive Committee Member of the World Council on Biomechanics. She is a Fellow and former member of the Board of Directors of the Biomedical Engineering Society and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which has recognized her groundbreaking research with its Van C. Mow Medal and Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award. Dr. Winkelstein has served as primary research mentor for 45 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and over 70 undergraduates. She has served as the Bioengineering Graduate Group Chair, the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education at Penn Engineering, and Deputy Provost at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been the faculty adviser for Penn's BMES chapter since 2008. She has also served as the faculty adviser for Penn's student SWE chapter. She was on the Board of Directors of the BMES, is a councilor of the World Congress of Biomechanics, and is actively involved in the ASME-SBC and several clinical meetings.
Dr. Brian Stemper
Professor
Medical College of Wisconsin
Brian Stemper
Brian D. Stemper, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), and Neurosurgery at MCW. His educational background includes a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Marquette University. His areas of research include biomechanics of the head, neck, and spine with emphasis on the investigation of traumatic brain injury and spinal biomechanics using experimental, imaging, and computer modeling techniques. Dr. Stemper has given over 108 invited lectures, published over 114 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has served/serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, the journal Traffic Injury Prevention, and Biomedical Sciences Instrumentation. He has been a member of the RMBS Board of Directors since 2000 and has hosted the annual Symposium as Program Chair in 2009 and 2019.
Dr. Carolyn Hampton
Biomedical Engineer
Army Research Laboratory
Carolyn Hampton
Dr. Carolyn Hampton is a biomedical engineer for the Army Research Laboratory. She has a doctorate from the joint Virginia Tech-Wake Forest biomedical engineering program and over 10 years of experience in computational biomechanics, specializing in computational tools including finite element analysis to study automotive crashworthiness and human injury biomechanics.
Dr. Sean Fischer
Associate Dean for External Affairs
Rowan University
Sean Fischer
Fischer oversees the College's public relations and advancement operations, and serves as the liaison with private, public, academic and philanthropic organizations in support of the College's academic and research program goals. In addition, he organizes special events for the college, intra-university collaborations and is the primary support for the College's Industry Advisory Council, and the College's Alumni Advisory Council. Prior to his time at Rowan he served as an administrator and member of the senior staff at Atlantic Cape Community College, where among other responsibilities he served as Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Policy Officer, and Chief Advancement Officer.
Fischer has taught college courses in United States History and United States Government, and has published in the areas of higher education, public policy, government and politics.
Fischer received his bachelor's degree in History from Rowan University, a Master's degree in Political Science from Villanova University, and his Doctorate in Leadership Studies from Creighton University.
Dr. Elena Oggero
VESTIBULAR TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Elena Oggero, Ph.D.
An Italian engineer who, after graduating from the Politecnico di Torino (Italy), got her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University. She is now manager of Vestibular Technologies, LLC (Cheyenne WY), a leading manufacturer of CAPS® computerized dynamic posturography systems. Previously, she worked for fourteen years as vice-president for research and development as well as quality control manager for the same company.
She is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY), and Professor of Biomechanical Engineering at the Carrick Institute for Graduate Studies (Cape Canaveral, FL), Member of the Board of Examiners of the American Board of Vestibular Rehabilitation – American College of Functional Neurology (Cocoa, FL), and co-chair of the Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium (RMBS - the oldest continuously rum biomedical engineering meeting in the world) Contest.
Winner of several awards, including the University of Wyoming Women of Distinction Award (2012), the President's Award for significant contributions to the RMBS (2009) and three RMBS - K.C. Rock Student Contest awards (1998, 1999, and 2000), her main interests are Functional Neurology (with special emphasis on the consequences of injuries/neurological deficits on brain function), Biomechanics (human locomotion and postural control), Mechanical Engineering (sensors and transducers design, car safety and crashworthiness, quality system control), and Computer Science (software documentation, medical user oriented software interface design, mathematical modeling of biological systems).
She has written several book chapters and published more than 50 papers on these topics. She is a reviewer for “Gait and Posture”, an associated editor for“Biomedical Sciences Instrumentation”, and holds the title to 4 US patents.
Dr. Guido Pagnacco
VESTIBULAR TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Guido Pagnacco, Ph.D.
An Italian engineer who graduated summa cum laude from the Politecnico di Torino (Italy) with a combined BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering and obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from The Ohio State University while being the Technical director of the Human Performance Laboratory, division of Physical Therapy, School of Allied Medical Professions - The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
He is now a partner in Vestibular Technologies (Cheyenne, WY), a leading manufacturer of CAPS® computerized dynamic posturography systems. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY), Professor of Biomechanical Engineering at the Carrick Institute for Graduate Studies (Cape Canaveral, FL), Member of the Board of Examiners of the American Board of Vestibular Rehabilitation – American College of Functional Neurology (Cocoa, FL), and co-chair of the Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium (the oldest continuously rum biomedical engineering meeting in the world) Contest.
Winner of several awards, including the President's Award for significant contributions to the RMBS (2009) and three RMBS - K.C. Rock Student Contest awards (1998, 1999, and 2000), has been been Visiting Scholar at the Università degli Studi di Udine, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Architettura (Udine, Italy) as part of their “Visiting Scholars” program. His main interests include Biomechanics (human locomotion and postural control), Neuro-Physiology (neuromuscular control and brain function), Computer Science (software design and engineering, data acquisition, signal analysis, numerical methods, mathematical modeling of biological systems), and Mechanical Engineering (sensors and transducers design, car safety and crashworthiness).
He is a reviewer for major scientific journals including “Journal of Vestibular Research”, “ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control”, “Neuroscience Letters”, “Gait and Posture” (2015 outstanding reviewer), “Journal of Biomechanics” (2017 outstanding reviewer; 2014 recognized reviewer), “IEEE Sensors Journal”, "Biomedical Signal Processing and Control" (2016 and 2017 outstanding reviewer), “Medical Engineering & Physics” (2018 outstanding reviewer; 2017 recognized reviewer), an associated editor for “Biomedical Sciences Instrumentation”, and has authored several book chapters and more than 50 papers on these topics. He also holds the title to 4 US patents.
