Beth Winkelstein, Penn’s vice provost for education and professor in the department of bioengineering, is the recipient of the 2016 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Van C. Mow Medal. This honor “is bestowed upon an individual who has demonstrated meritorious contributions to the field of bioengineering through research, education, professional development, leadership in the development of the profession, mentorship to young bioengineers and with service to the bioengineering community.”

Dr. Winkelstein’s research focuses on the mechanisms of injury, pain and mechanotransduction—especially injuries from sports, automobile accidents, or degenerative diseases that produce persistent pain in the neck, spine and other joints. Her work is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense, among many others, including a CAREER Award from the NSF. The author of Orthopaedic Biomechanics (2012) and more than a hundred papers and book chapters, she serves as editor of the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering and is a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, which awarded her its Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award in 2006. She mentors graduate and undergraduate students in her lab and is the faculty adviser to Penn’s Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES).