19
March
2019
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00:00 AM
Europe/Amsterdam

Gelsy Torres-Oviedo Receives Early Career Award from the Society for the Neural Control of Movement

PITTSBURGH (March 19, 2019) … Gelsy Torres-Oviedo, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, was awarded the Society for the Neural Control of Movement’s 2019 Early Career Award. She will be presented the award at the NCM Annual Meeting on April 23-27, 2019 in Toyama, Japan.

NCM’s Early Career Award recognizes outstanding contributions by scientists who have significantly advanced the understanding of the neural control of movement within 10 years of receiving their doctoral degree. The recipient is chosen by NCM’s board and will have the opportunity to present a lecture at the annual meeting.

Prof. Torres-Oviedo is the second recipient of this competitive award for junior faculty members, which receives close to 100 nominations annually. She leads the Sensorimotor Learning Laboratory in the Swanson School of Engineering where her research group investigates the ability of the human motor system to adapt walking patterns and learn new movements upon sustained changes in the environment.

“My long-term research goals are to advance the current understanding of walking deficits post-stroke and develop treatments to improve their gait,” said Prof. Torres-Oviedo. “My approach has been to combine quantitative tools from engineering and experimental work based on post-stroke neurology.”

She will present a talk titled, “Sensorimotor adaptation studies to advance neurorehabilitation after stroke,” where she will discuss her work related to the generalization of movements from trained to untrained situations.

“My work is just an example of scientific efforts to address clinical problems through a combination of computational and laboratory-based studies,” said Prof. Torres-Oviedo. “I envision that my research will contribute to the progress of gait rehabilitation and ultimately improve the quality of life of patients and caregivers.”

Prof. Torres-Oviedo will receive travel support to the meeting, accommodation at the conference hotel, complimentary conference registration, an engraved plaque, and a $500 award.

“I am delighted that Prof. Torres-Oviedo’s work in the area of neural control of movement is being recognized by her colleagues,” said Sanjeev G. Shroff, Distinguished Professor and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair of Bioengineering. “Her work nicely complements the strengths we have at Pitt in systems neuroscience in general and neuro-prosthetics and rehabilitation neural engineering in particular.”

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Contact: Leah Russell