Dear ESB Member,
Are you ready for the next ESB 2025 in Zurich?
Do not forget to visit our website and do not miss the latest news!
We look forward to seeing all of you in July. Enjoy the read!
Bernardo Innocenti,
Chair of the Publication Committee
From the President!
Dear ESB members,
It feels as though only a few months have passed since we departed Edinburgh, reflecting with great satisfaction on a highly successful Congress, the fruitful collaborations that were established, and the outstanding scientific contributions presented by both our early career and senior colleagues.
We now approach the forthcoming 30th Congress of the ESB with great anticipation. I trust you share my enthusiasm as we prepare to partake in yet another remarkable celebration of biomechanics. This milestone event will not only honour the rich history of our Society but also serve as a precursor to the forthcoming 50th Anniversary in 2026.
At ESB25, we will take the opportunity to recognise the recipients of our prestigious awards and engage with leading scientists who will share their inspiring scientific journeys. Additionally, the local organisers have planned an innovative debate session, which promises to foster further discussion and interaction among the participants. I sincerely hope you will actively participate in the scientific and social programme of ESB25!
In line with the strategic discussions undertaken over recent years and the recent restructuring of the ESB committees, I am pleased to announce the imminent launch the ESB Working Groups. Those selected in the first round will be announced at the General Assembly of the upcoming ESB25. More details below!
I look forward to meeting you all in Zurich.
With warm regards,
Enrico Dall’Ara,
ESB President
Updates from the Secretary General
Dear ESB members,
If you will attend the ESB25 congress in Zurich, don’t forget to join our General Assembly (GA), which will take place on 8 July in the Audi Max room, with simultaneous live streaming to rooms F3, F5 and F7.
Here is some information and key materials anticipated for the GA:
The minutes of the previous General Assembly held during ESB24 in Edinburgh are available here: [PDF – Minutes].
The list of new ESB members since the last GA at ESB24 in Edinburgh is attached: [New Member List]. This list includes 237 new members, comprising 99 active members, 137 student members, and 1 corporate member.
A block vote to ratify all these new members will take place during the GA at ESB25 in Zurich.
Call for ESB Working Groups
In early April, we launched a call for ESB Working Groups to enhance the involvement of ESB members in the activities of the society, give visibility to the society on specific challenges in biomechanics, and enable unique collaborations across different countries.
I am happy to announce that we received 6 proposals for ESB Working Groups. We are currently reviewing all the proposals, and we will announce the proposals that have been selected by the Council during the General Assembly at ESB25.
Best regards,
Sandra Loerakker,
Chair of the Webportal and Working Groups Committee
News from the national ESB Chapters
News from ESB-ITA, the Italian National Chapter of ESB.
The XIV Annual Meeting of the ESB Italian Chapter – ESB-ITA 2025 will be held in Palermo (Italy) on June 18–19, 2025, in conjunction with the IX National Congress of Bioengineering (GNB 2025), fostering collaboration between the two societies. The ESB-ITA congress will feature both a thematic symposium on “Cardiovascular Biomechanics: New Frontiers” and the general meeting, with two international keynote lecturers: Prof. Stéphane Avril (Saint-Etienne, France) and Prof. María Ángeles Pérez Ansón (Zaragoza, Spain). More info here.
On April 3rd, the webinar “ESB-ITA & Entrepreneurship” took place, with more than 45 attendees. The webinar provided a brief overview of the process to take an idea from its inception to patent registration as well as expert stories from biomechanics entrepreneurs Zimi Sawacha (BBSoF – Beyond Biomechanics Sports on Field), Daniele Bianchi (Medere), and Marco Ferroni (MgShell S.r.l.), highlighting the challenges they faced, the strategies they adopted, and the lessons learned along their entrepreneurial journeys.
News from the Spanish National Chapter of ESB.
The 13th edition of the Congress of the Spanish Chapter of the European Society of Biomechanics was held on 28th and 29th October 2024 at the Public University of Navarra, in Pamplona. This edition was chaired by Mauro Malve, with participation of 63 speakers, including researchers, professors and professionals from the biomechanics sector. There were 45 oral presentations, divided into a total of 9 sessions: 8 parallel dedicated to the following topics: hard tissue, computational biomechanics, soft tissue, musculoskeletal system, 3D bioprinting, mechanobiology, movement detection and in vivo measurements, sensors and experimental biomechanics. The ninth session was plenary, and the best oral communication of the congress was awarded. As on all previous occasions, this congress had two guest speakers: Professor F. Migliavacca (Politecnico di Milano, Italy), and Professor A. Barakat (École Polytechnique, France). The congress, which has come to Navarre for the first time, was once again an opportunity to present new research lines and recent advances of the different Spanish groups in the field of biomechanics, to encourage the creation of collaborations between the different groups working in this field in Spain and to present the new initiatives and future prospects for the next editions of the congress.
News from ANC-ESB, the Austrian National Chapter of ESB
The Austrian Chapter of the European Society of Biomechanics held its biannual meeting on May 8, 2025, at TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology). The event featured a dynamic scientific program, including five presentations from senior researchers, eight from junior researchers, and eight engaging poster presentations. In addition to the scientific exchange, the chapter’s general assembly took place. Outgoing president Dieter Pahr reviewed the chapter’s key developments and activities over the past two years. During the assembly, new leadership was elected: Stefan Scheiner (TU Wien) was appointed as the new chapter president, and Hans Kainz (University of Vienna) joined the executive board. The meeting fostered valuable discussions and highlighted the vibrant and collaborative biomechanical research community in Austria.
Marlène Mengoni,
Sponsorship Committee and Deputy Treasurer
News from Corporate Members
New Corporate Member
The ESB welcomes a new corporate member: SHL-Medical – pioneering leader in designing, developing, and manufacturing self-injection devices such as autoinjectors.
See their activity at https://www.shl-medical.com/
Free biomechanics teaching software
BoB Biomechanics, the developers of the BoB musculoskeletal modelling products, has made their teaching and learning software free to all.
BoB/Teaching was designed for teaching and learning biomechanics. It is an interactive tool which brings biomechanics to life while illustrating many fundamental biomechanical principles and applications. BoB/Teaching contains 20 activities including text book examples, sporting movements and real-life tasks. BoB/Teaching also contains a student worksheet which can be edited to suit individual teaching requirements. All of the activities can be observed, interrogated and analysed using the full power of the core BoB software.
For more information on BoB/Teaching and other BoB products see: BoB-Biomechanics.com
BoB showing muscle activations during a football penalty
Marlène Mengoni,
Sponsorship Committee and Deputy Treasurer
Updates from Diversity, Inclusion and Membership Committee
Actions
This year has been full of exciting diversity and inclusion initiatives, thanks to the great work of our Diversity Committee and the support of the Society. A thank you to Marta, Zimi, Linda, Magdalena, Rahmat, Raphael, Stephan, Astrid for their engagement and contributions.
We welcome new members on a rolling basis so please contact membership.chair@esbiomech.org if you want to contribute!
As a commitment to facilitate mentoring relationships and promote academic and personal development of our early research community, the Society has developed this year a new mentoring tool. A guide is available in our website for more specific guidance to use the tool. Thank you so much to all our members who are already registered in the mentoring program for their support!!
This year, as part of our ongoing efforts to promote greater diversity within our Society, we launched a new initiative: the Diversity Award. This award aims to recognize the abstract that best addresses diversity in the field of biomechanics. Although the announcement was made late and we did not receive eligible applications on this occasion, we are confident that this initiative will offer valuable support to our members in the future. You can find more information about this award on our website: ESB Diversity Award | ESB.
In addition, we have continued to offer the Congress Participation Inclusion Fund this year, providing flexible support to help cover additional costs associated with congress attendance for members with specific needs. I’m pleased to share that this year, we were able to support one of our members through this fund, helping to make their participation possible.
This year, the proposed topic for the Diversity Session at ESB2025 is “Bias in Artificial Intelligence Tools: The Need for Inclusive Training Datasets”. Please join us and our speakers on Monday July 7 at 17:30. Our goal is to provide a safe and friendly environment, where anyone can share experience, express feelings or ask for advice.
See you all at that session!
Finally, a reminder that new applications are reviewed only at specific times of the year – no exception applied https://esbiomech.org/membership-application-review-timeline/
Membership Data (data from 03/06/2025, not including 44 latest applicants)
In June 2025, the ESB had a total of 1658 regular members, of which 686 were students (41%; same proportion as June 2024). The total membership is relatively diverse with 610 women (37%; same proportion as June 2024) and 15 members preferring not to disclose (+2 since June 2024). The student body drives the diversity (45% women).
Figure – gender distribution of all ESB members (June 2025)
Figure – total of regular members, with gender data when available (June 2025)
Since the last ESB2024 conference, the Society has seen 193 new members (12% of the total number of members), of which 80 are women (41%). The number of students has grown by 113 members (59% of new members), of which 53 are women (47%).
The ESB membership currently demonstrates a relatively healthy geographic spread, with members from all continents and located in 61 different countries (1403/1658 members work in Europe). The largest representation is from Italy, followed by the UK, Switzerland, and Germany (respectively 275, 256, 127, and 111 members). Together, these four countries represent 46% of our members. The ESB is honoured to have one member in each of the following countries, together representing 1% of our members: Algeria, Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Lebanon, Malaysia, Malta, Nigeria, Pakistan, Reunion, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Ukraine and Uruguay.
Esther Reina Romo
Chair of the ESB Diversity, Inclusion, and Membership Committee
