Last week, the Healthy Turtle shared the news that Dr. Jae Kun Shim, assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and the director of the neuromechanics laboratory, will be honored with the American Society of Biomechanics' 2009 Young Scientist Award.
After the announcement, the Healthy Turtle talked about what research led to this achievement and what it means to be named the ASB Young Scientist:
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Healthy Turtle: What research will you present at the ASB Meeting in August?
Dr. Jae Kun Shim: The purpose of this study was to investigate central nervous system strategies for controlling multi-finger forces in 3D space during a writing task. This study specifically investigates the synergistic actions of finger forces in three orthogonal dimensions (i.e., radial, tangential, and vertical) for circle drawing.
Four hypotheses were tested: 1) Kinetic synergies between the pen-hand contact forces exist in all three dimensions. 2) The radial and tangential components yield stronger synergies than the vertical component. 3) Synergies exist in both CW and CCW directions and the synergy strengths do not differ between them. 4) The self-pacing yields stronger synergies than the external pacing.
Twenty-four subjects drew 30 discrete concentric circles using Kinetic Pen for each experimental condition, which included two directions (clockwise, CW vs. counter-clockwise, CCW) and two pacing (self-paced vs. external-paced).
The results of this study suggest that the CNS controls pen-hand contact forces synergistically during handwriting so that the pen’s kinematic outputs can be consistent for circle drawing tasks. The kinetic synergy is stronger for the force components, radial and tangential, which are critical for shaping the desired kinematic handwriting outputs, although vertical force component also showed synergistic actions of pen-hand contact forces.
HT: What does it mean to you to be honored with the Young Scientist Award?
Dr. Shim: I consider this award as a societal recognition of my research achievements and more importantly as a serious recognition of a new field of science, Neuromechanics, which I have been developing for the last several years in order to study the mechanisms of the central nervous system controlling mechanical human body. Neuromechanics combines neuroscience and mechanics of human movements as they should be considered as an integrated system.
HT: For those who may not have heard of the Young Scientist Award, what does it mean for a biomechanicist to receive this honor?
Dr. Shim: American Society of Biomechanics (ASB) Young Scientist Award is one of the most prestigious awards for biomechanists who are in their early scientific careers. This award recognizes early achievements by a promising young scientist in biomechanics. The candidates are nominated by an ASB member. The Award Committee, composed of past ASB presidents and ASB executive committee, considers a description of the nominee's current research, a curriculum vitae, 5 selected publications, a letter of nomination, and the nominee's abstract for 2009 ASB conference. The Award consists of an engraved plaque, a monetary award, a waiver of conference fees for the annual ASB meeting, and an invited lecture at 2009 ASB conference.
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Thanks to Dr. Jae Kun Shim for sharing his thoughts on this award. For more information on his research, visit the Neuromechanics Laboratory Web site at http://www.sph.umd.edu/KNES/faculty/jkshim/neuromechanics/.
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