News

Zack Awarded NSF Fellowship

Zack Davis, former TORL undergrad and current graduate student, was awarded a very prestigious NIH Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP). We’re so proud of him! Due to social distancing, we had to celebrate remotely.

First photo: Waiting for him to join the Zoom Meeting

Second photo: Springing into action to congratulate him!  (Zack is bottom right in this one)

Partnership with Exploris

Last year we worked with Annah and Robert’s fourth grade students at Exploris Elementary in downtown Raleigh (read about that here). We had a great time and learned a ton from the students, so when Annah reached out again we jumped at the chance! We once again focused on 3D printing and design, with the students doing an engineering design project designed to address one of five “grand challenges”. We visited their classroom and told them about 3D printing, what it can do, and how we use it in the lab. We also helped them brainstorm some ideas for their challenge and gave them feedback on their prototypes. Today, we got to see the results of their efforts during final pitch presentations. What an amazing group of students and truly inspirational teachers!

See Steph’s tweet about our initial visit here.

And Annah’s tweet about the pitch presentations here.

The students welcomed us with artwork:

The winners with their 3D printed trophies:

Final Two Papers from Stephanie’s PhD Work Published

She wrote a great twitter thread explaining the research and its significance:

Stephanie Cone Wins Stryker/ORS Women’s Research Fellowship

Stephanie Cone, TORL alumnus and the first TORL graduate, was recently awarded the Stryker/ORS Women’s Research Fellowship.  Per the website: The Stryker/ORS Women’s Research Fellowship promotes women in science by providing an opportunity for a female ORS member who is a recent PhD in science or engineering to conduct research in the field of orthopaedic technology. The Fellowship provides one year of supportfor eligible applicants who are within five years of obtaining PhD degrees and are full-time post-doctoral fellows conducting orthopaedic research with an experienced research advisor.

Congratulations!

TORL Goes to Star Wars

Our (more or less) annual lab holiday tradition is to go see whatever Star Wars movie is being released in December. This year it was the final installment in the Skywalker Saga, Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. We all enjoyed the movie, we think (some of us are still processing).

Matt to Receive Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has awarded Matt the prestigious YC Fung Young Investigator Award “for leadership in musculoskeletal bioengineering and translations mechanobiology to improve human health”. The award will formally be presented at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering and Biotransport conference in Colorado in June.

 

You can see the BME announcement here (https://www.bme.unc.edu/bme-assistant-professor-matt-fisher-receives-the-2020-asme-y-c-fung-early-career-award/)

 

More info about the award is here (https://www.asme.org/about-asme/honors-awards/achievement-awards/y-c-fung-young-investigator-award)

SciMatch Visit with Exploris Middle

Our lab loves doing SciMatch (formerly Invite a Scientist) as part of the North Carolina Science Festival. We have participated since 2016, and loved all the teachers and students that we’ve met. This year, we headed out to Exploris Middle School in Raleigh on Wednesday to spend time with the 6th graders and show them some our awesome science. A great time was had by all, including us and we can’t wait until next year!  Check out our tweet about it, or see photos below.