Dava Newman
Keynote Title: Design for Extreme Exploration: Self, Sea and Space

Dr. Dava Newman is a Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at MIT and affiliate faculty in the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program. She is also a MacVicar Faculty Fellow (a chair for making significant contributions to undergraduate education); Director of the Technology and Policy Program at MIT; and Director of the MIT–Portugal Program. As the Director of MIT’s Technology and Policy Program (TPP), she leads the Institute’s largest multidisciplinary graduate research program with over 1,000 alums.
Dr. Newman specializes in investigating human performance across the spectrum of gravity. She was Principal Investigator (PI) for the Space Shuttle Dynamic Load Sensors (DLS) experiment that measured astronaut-induced disturbances of the microgravity environment on mission STS-62. An advanced system, the Enhanced Dynamic Load Sensors experiment, flew on board the Russian Mir space station from 1996–1998. Dr. Newman was a Co-Investigator on the Mental Workload and Performance Experiment (MWPE) that flew to space on STS-42 to measure astronaut mental workload and fine motor control in microgravity. She also developed the MICR0-G space flight experiment to provide a novel sensor suite and study human adaptation in extreme environments. She is an expert in the areas of extravehicular activity (EVA), biomechanics, energetics, and engineering design. Her finite element modeling work provided NASA the first three-dimensional representation of bone loss and loading applicable for long-duration missions. She has an active research program in advanced EVA including planetary space suit design, and biomedical devices, especially to enhance locomotion implementing wearable sensors. Her advanced spacesuit exoskeleton innovations are now being applied to “soft suits” to study and enhance locomotion on Earth for children with Cerebral Palsy.
Dr. Newman has over 200 research publications, including an Engineering Design text and CDROM (2002). She has supervised 80 graduate student theses and supervised and mentored over 130 undergraduate researchers. She was named one of the Best Inventors of 2007 for her BioSuit™ system by Time Magazine. Her BioSuit™ exploration system has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (May-Sept. 2008); the Boston Museum of Science (Fall 2008, Summer 2009); the London Museum of Science and Industry (2009), the MIT Museum (2009-2010) the Paris City Museum of Science and Industry (2010), the Albert and Victoria Museum, London (2011), and the American Museum of Natural History (2011-12).

Marian Hannan

Dr. Marian T. Hannan received her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, the Master of Public Health degree at Yale University School of Medicine and her doctorate in Epidemiology at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Hannan is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Senior Scientist at the Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston, MA, USA.  She is the co-Director of the large Musculoskeletal Research Center at the Institute.  Dr. Hannan is the Editor-in-Chief for the highly regarded journal, Arthritis Care & Research.
Dr. Hannan is currently conducting research on risk factors for arthritis, foot disorders and biomechanics, hip fracture and osteoporosis.  She is particularly interested in the effect of biomechanics upon physical function and the influence of body composition.  She is widely published with her work represented in over 50 scientific journals in the medical field.  Dr. Hannan is the principal investigator on a number of National Institutes of Health grants, and has had continuous NIH grant funding since 1996.

Georg Duda
Keynote Title: Mechano-Biology: Employ physical cues to initiate tissue regeneration

Professor Georg Duda is the Director of the Julius Wolff Institut at Charité – Universitätsmedizin in Berlin. In addition he is also the Deputy Director and a Founding Member of the Center for Sport Science and Spots Medicine (CSSB) in Berlin, the President of the German Society of Osteology, and a member of the “Senatskommission Klinische Forschung” of the German Research Foundation.  He has a PhD degree from the Technische Universität Berlin in Biomedical Engineering and spent time studying at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, USA.  
For the majority of the population, injury and disease of the musculoskeletal system is a central problem. By using examples of bone and cartilage healing, he is able to demonstrate the importance of biomechanical characteristics for cells and tissues of the human musculoskeletal system. His group aims to reproduce natural regeneration of the musculoskeletal system by identifying and targeting the most effective approaches over a number of different scales (cell, tissue, organ, extremity). In particular, the processes of inflammation, angiogenesis and woven and lamellar bone formation can all be guided through mechanical stimulation. Such knowledge can be used to optimize implants and surgical technique or to biologically stimulate the natural cascades of healing. He demonstrates the success of such concepts by introducing new strategies into the field of orthopedic and trauma surgery. He aims to directly influence the mechanical and biological consequences in surgical treatment at different scales, from single proteins up to the level of the entire patient. His work is based on a tight interplay between surgeons and basic researchers and thus highly ingenious and interdisciplinary. Many biotechnological aspects are unified with medical expertise in a highly coherent manner and bought into clinical practice.
In addition, Dr. Duda has developed with his partners a translational research center funded by the Federal Ministry of Science and Education (BMBF), the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies, in which they aim for a faster translation of advanced therapies in clinical usage by employing business development and clinical affairs tools early on a basic science projects. Principles of early translation are combined with a basic research focus and a clear understanding of the clinical needs under one roof, directly linked to the operation theatres and clinical wards.

Paolo Bonato

Paolo Bonato, Ph.D., serves as Director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston MA. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, a member of the Affiliated Faculty of the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge MA, an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston MA, and an Associate Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. His research work is focused on the development of rehabilitation technologies with special emphasis on wearable systems and robotics. Dr. Bonato is Founding and Current Editor-in-Chief of Journal on NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine and of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Bonato served as an Elected Member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) AdCom (2007-2010), and as President of the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology (2008-2010). He served as Chair of the 33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2011). Dr. Bonato served as Chair of the IEEE EMBS Technical Committee on Wearable Biomedical Sensors and Systems in 2008 and has been a member of this committee since its inception in 2006. He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy in 1989 and the Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering from Universita` di Roma “La Sapienza” in 1995.