Cavanagh Reappointed To USRA Science Council
November 20, 2001
University Park, Pa. —Dr. Peter R. Cavanagh, Distinguished Professor of Kinesiology, Medicine, Orthopedics and Rehabilitation and Biobehavioral Health and director of the Center for Locomotion Studies in Penn Stateís College of Health and Human Development, has been selected to serve a second two-year term on the Science Council of the Universities Space Research Associationís (USRA) Division of Space Life Sciences.
USRA provides a mechanism through which its 88 member universities can cooperate effectively with each other, the government and other organizations to further space science and technology and to promote education in these areas. Its Division of Space Life Sciences, based at the Center for Advanced Space Studies in Houston, Texas, supports the National Aeronautics and Space Associationís needs for understanding and counteracting the physiological changes that accompany space flight.
Each USRA institute or program is supervised by a Science Council that provides guidance and serves as the scientific board of directors in its discipline. The USRA Board of Trustees appoints council members on the basis of their scientific expertise and their standing within the academic community.
Dr. Cavanagh is recognized as one of the leading researchers on biomechanics of the foot and its function in locomotion; diabetic foot management; and reduced-gravity human locomotion. He is the author of more than 100 books, book chapters and articles and he has received more than $10 million from NASA, the American Diabetes Association, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies in support of his research. He is the principal investigator on an experiment that will be flown next year on board the International Space Station.
Dr. Cavanagh is past chair of the American Diabetes Association’s Foot Council, an honorary member of the American Orthopedic and Foot Council, past president of the American Society of Biomechanics and the International Society of Biomechanics and a former trustee of the American College of Sports Medicine. He has also received research awards from Penn State, the College of Health and Human Development, the American Society of Biomechanics, the International Society of Biomechanics and the American College of Sports Medicine.
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Editors: Dr. Cavanagh can be reached by phone at (814) 865-1972 or by e-mail at prc@psu.edu. For additional information, please contact S. William Hessert, Jr., coordinator of external relations, at (814) 863-4325 or swh4@psu.edu.