NEW YORK, June 2, 2006 -- Beth A. Winkelstein, Ph.D., a resident of Philadelphia, and assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, will be honored by ASME. She is being recognized for outstanding bioengineering research, particularly current efforts to identify biomechanical determinants for prolonged painful responses. She will receive the Society’s Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award.
The award, established in 1985, recognizes a young investigator who is committed to pursuing research in bioengineering and has demonstrated significant potential to make substantial contributions to the field of bioengineering. It will be presented to Winkelstein during the ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference to be held on Amelia Island, Fla., June 21 through 25.
Dr. Winkelstein joined the faculty at Penn in 2002 after completing a post-doctoral fellowship in the departments of anesthesiology and pharmacology/toxicology at Dartmouth Medical School (Hanover, N.H.). In addition to serving as assistant professor of bioengineering, she also holds an appointment in the department of neurosurgery.
Her research interests include spine biomechanics, understanding mechanisms of painful neck injuries, mechanical and cellular mechanisms of pain onset and persistence, central nervous system neuroimmune responses of pain, and defining the relationship between tissue injury mechanics and the physiology of pain. She has received research grants to support her work from the Whitaker Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Center for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health.
Winkelstein has published over 25 full-length scientific papers, 36 scientific abstracts and six book chapters. She has served as primary research mentor for 27 undergraduate and graduate students, and medical fellows.
A member of ASME since 1997, Winkelstein has been involved in organizing technical sessions for Bioengineering Division meetings, and served as chair of the Skeletal: Injury Biomechanics session at the 2003 summer meeting and co-organizer of the Ph.D. Paper Competition at the 2006 summer meeting. She is also a reviewer for the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.
Winkelstein is a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the Orthopaedic Research Society, the Society for Neuroscience and the American Society of Biomechanics; and has been serving as the faculty advisor for the student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers since 2003.
Her honors include awards from the Stapp Association for papers presented at Stapp Car Crash Conferences, the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine’s Medtronic Sofamor-Danek Award for Best Basic Science Paper (2001) and, most recently, Penn’s Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising (2006).
Winkelstein received her bachelor’s degree in bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. She earned her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at Duke University (Durham, N.C.), in 1999.
Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences. ASME develops codes and standards that enhance public safety, and provides lifelong learning and technical exchange opportunities benefiting the engineering and technology community.
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