Diversity-Inclusion and Membership Committee

Members:

Stefaan Verbruggen

Centre for Bioengineering, School of Engineering and Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Queen Mary University of London 

Dr Stefaan Verbruggen is a Lecturer in Medical Technology at Queen Mary University of London. His research focuses on the mechanobiology of bone cells, and developing predictive in vitro models of cancer metastasis. As a Visiting Academic at the INSIGNEO Institute of in silico Medicine, Dr Verbruggen also builds predictive computational models of the biomechanics of metastatic bone lesions.

Prior to this, Dr Verbruggen conducted his PhD research in bone cell mechanobiology the Biomechanics Research Centre at the University of Galway, followed by postdoctoral research in how fetal movements affect joint development in the Developmental Biomechanics Lab at Imperial College London.

Dr Verbruggen was then awarded a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellowship at Queen Mary University of London. As part of a collaboration with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University, New York, Dr Verbruggen’s investigated the mechanobiology of cancer cells, and how they metastasise to bone from other areas of the body. Most recently the Verbruggen Lab was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to develop organ-on-a-chip models to pursue this research question further.

Rahmatullah Safdar 

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Wichita State University 

Rahmatullah Safdar is a PhD candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Wichita State University, where his research focuses on musculoskeletal biomechanics and computational modeling of human movement. Before starting his doctoral studies, he served as Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at Bahria University, where he taught undergraduate engineering courses and mentored students while transitioning into biomedical research. Rahmat is involved with several student organizations on his campus and actively advocates for graduate students’ engagement on campus to create a stronger sense of community among graduate students. 

Rahmat is an active student member of the European Society of Biomechanics and currently serves on its Diversity–Inclusion and Membership Committee. He is also Co-Chair of the Student Committee for the 10th World Congress of Biomechanics 2026, representing ESB in international student programming and diversity-focused initiatives. In parallel, he serves on the Student Committee of the American Society of Biomechanics and is the founding president of the first local ASB student chapter at Wichita State University. Through his involvement across ESB and ASB, Rahmat aims to strengthen collaboration between biomechanics communities in Europe and North America, expand participation from underrepresented regions, and support international scientific exchange in biomechanics.

Marta Peña Fernández   

School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot Watt University

Marta Peña Fernández has been an Assistant Professor of (Bio)Mechanical Engineering at Heriot-Watt University (UK) since 2023 where she pursues her research on mineralised tissue biomechanics. She investigates architectured natural biomaterials such as bone and coral skeletons through a combination of multiscale mechanical testing, high-resolution functional imaging and computational modelling. Her research aims to characterize skeletal damage, fracture mechanisms, and de/regeneration across several length scales to assist the development of novel strategies that prevent skeletal fracture, aid regeneration, and preserve skeletal frameworks. Prior to joining Heriot-Watt, she worked at KTH (Sweden) as a Postdoctoral Researcher. She received her PhD in Biomechanics in 2018 from the University of Portsmouth (UK), a MEng in Industrial Engineering in 2014 from the University of Seville (Spain) and a MSc in Biomedical Engineering in 2015 from the Université Paris-Descartes and ParisTech (France).

Raphael Surbeck

Laboratory for Movement Biomechanics, ETH Zürich

Raphael Surbeck is a PhD candidate in the Laboratory for Movement Biomechanics at ETH Zürich, specializing in advanced imaging techniques for the analysis of human joint mechanics. His research focuses on the use of biplanar fluoroscopy to quantify in-vivo knee joint kinematics and kinetics with high precision. He has contributed to the late-stage development, refinement, and validation of the laboratory’s unique moving biplanar fluoroscopy system and its associated measurement procedures. He is currently conducting several experimental studies using this novel technology. His work aims to advance methodological approaches for investigating knee biomechanics and to deliver highly accurate biomechanical data for validation and musculoskeletal modelling applications, ultimately improving the understanding of joint function.

Zimi Sawacha

Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova

Zimi Sawacha (ORCID: 0000-0002-2624-5415) is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Padova where she received a Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering (2000) and a PhD in Bioengineering (2007). She worked as research fellow at Helen Hayes Hospital CRT (New York, USA) and at Istituti Ortopedici Rizzoli (Bologna, Italy). She has been with the School of Bioengineering, University of Padova (2007- up to now). Her research activity mainly concerns human movement biomechanics in general and more specifically: musculoskeletal modelling (i.e., Opensim), gait/movement analysis in both standard and on the field conditions (i.e., markerless, plantar pressure), finite element analysis (i.e, foot). Her research is primarily applied in clinical studies—including diabetic foot, Parkinson’s Disease, knee prosthesis implantation, and children with Fragile X Syndrome—as well as in sports injury prevention. Her scientific production includes 81 articles in peer-reviewed journals (H index=24) and more than 200 publications in proceedings. She has been a research investigator in national (2 as collaborator) and international projects (3 as PI/co-PI) founded projects. She is a Professor in the Bioengineering program (teaching Human Movement Bioengineering at Bachelor’s level and Human Neuromusculoskeletal Modelling at Master’s level) and in the Kinesiology Master’s program (teaching Biomechanics and Laboratory of Biomechanics). She has been supervisor of more than 100 Master and Bachelor Thesis, of 7 PhD and 7 postdoc students. She is affiliated (i.e., ISB, ESB, iFAB, ESMAC, SIAMOC, GNB) and actively involved in scientific societies: ongoing member of -ESB DIM Committee, FRAXI Core Working Group for developing the Fragile X Syndrome guidelines, ESMAC Gait Analysis Standard committee-; past member of -ESMAC board (2019-23), Siamoc board (2015-19), SIAMOC Consensus Conferences on Clinical Gait Analysis (2017-23). In 2017 she co-founded BBSoF, a spinoff of the University of Padova (PI of 1 patent and 1 pending). Through her active participation in the biomechanics community, her mission has consistently been to bridge musculoskeletal biomechanics with clinical practice and sports injury prevention.

Diana Massai

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino

Past DIM Committee Members:

Astrid Cantamessa

Laura  Muller 

Linda Ravazzano

Magdalena  Fuchs

Elena Pegolo

Anitha Praveen

Greet Kerckhofs