ESB Newsletter – June 2026

As we approach one of the most significant moments in the ESB calendar, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the June edition of the ESB Newsletter.

This issue comes at a particularly important time for our Society. In just a few weeks, many of us will gather in Vancouver for the 10th World Congress of Biomechanics, where we will celebrate not only the scientific achievements of our community but also a remarkable milestone: the 50th anniversary of the European Society of Biomechanics. Over five decades, ESB has grown into a vibrant international network of researchers, clinicians, engineers, and students dedicated to advancing biomechanics and its impact on society.

The coming months also mark a period of renewal. As highlighted by our President, Enrico Dall’Ara, and our Secretary General, Michele Conti, members will soon elect a new ESB Council, helping to shape the future direction of the Society. We encourage all eligible members to participate actively in the election process and to attend the General Assembly in Vancouver, where important decisions and announcements will be made.

In this newsletter, you will find updates on the upcoming World Congress of Biomechanics, information about the ESB Awards, news from our Working Groups, opportunities through ESB-endorsed meetings, and updates from our sponsors. Together, these contributions showcase the breadth of activities that continue to strengthen our community and advance biomechanical research across Europe and beyond.

As this will also be my final newsletter as Chair of the Publication Committee and member of the ESB Council, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all ESB members, colleagues, and volunteers with whom I have had the pleasure of working over the past four years. Serving our Society has been both an honour and a rewarding experience. I am grateful for the trust, support, and enthusiasm that continue to make ESB such a dynamic, collaborative, and welcoming community. While my term on the Council is coming to an end, I look forward to remaining an active member of ESB and contributing to its future successes.

On behalf of the Publication Committee, I would like to thank all contributors who made this issue possible and all ESB members whose dedication continues to drive the success of our Society.

I wish you an enjoyable read and look forward to meeting many of you in Vancouver as we celebrate the past, present, and future of ESB.

Bernardo Innocenti,

Chair of the Publication Committee

 

Message from the president

Dear Members,

This will be my final message as ESB President. It has been an extraordinary journey, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the support I have received throughout the past eight years serving on the ESB Council. During this time, I have had the privilege of working alongside many dedicated councillors and committee members. Their commitment and professionalism have been instrumental in advancing the Society’s mission. I’d like to thank the highly dedicated leadership team (Council members, Committee members) that generously volunteers its time and expertise for the benefit of our community. I would like to extend special thanks to Dieter Pahr who has been a valued companion and leader throughout many years of service on the Council, Aurélie Carlier who has decided to step down after six years of service in a range of important leadership roles including Treasurer, and Bernardo Innocenti, who has overseen ESB communications for the past four years, and has chosen not to seek a second mandate. On behalf of the entire Society, I would like to thank them for their dedication, commitment, and invaluable contributions to ESB!

This year, we will welcome new perspectives and ideas as we renew the Council. We are pleased to have received an excellent pool of candidates for the six available Council positions. Peter Varga and Marlene Mengoni are standing for re-election after making important contributions during their first terms, and I encourage everyone to vote for them to give continuity to the new Council. Four additional positions are open to election and I encourage all eligible members to participate in the election and cast their votes. The newly elected Council members will be announced during the General Assembly (GA) at the upcoming World Congress of Biomechanics (WCB). Further information on the voting process can be found below.

The WCB is fast approaching, and we look forward to meeting many of you in Vancouver this July. To strengthen the ESB presence at the Congress, we have organised a special session on Monday, 13 July, during which we will showcase the 2026 ESB Award winners and continue the ESB Debate initiative introduced last year. In addition, ESB celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. We will mark this important milestone with a lecture by Professor Marco Viceconti, former ESB President, reflecting on the Society’s history and achievements, followed by a celebratory gathering. We encourage you to register and join us for this special occasion. Further details on the WCB programme and ESB activities are provided below. We also invite you to visit the ESB booth at WCB and leave your birthday wishes for the Society.

Finally, I would like to highlight the important work of the ESB Working Groups (WGs). We will provide updates through dedicated webinars and during the General Assembly (see below details). We have also received high-quality applications for the next round of WGs. These proposals are currently under evaluation, and the newly selected groups will be announced at the GA at WCB.  Working Groups play a vital role in fostering collaboration across our community and addressing key challenges in biomechanics. Their activities provide an important platform for coordinating expertise and advancing our field. I would therefore like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone involved: those who prepared proposals, the evaluators, and the members leading and contributing to the active WGs.

Thank you once again for the opportunity to serve the Society over these past years. I look forward to seeing many of you in Vancouver.

With best wishes,

Enrico Dall’Ara,

ESB President

 

Updates from the Secretary General

Towards the ESB General Assembly in Vancouver 

Dear ESB members,

If you will attend the WCB26 congress in Vancouver, don’t forget to join our General Assembly (GA), which will take place on Mon. 13 July in the West 211-214 room.

Here is some information and key materials anticipated for the GA:

The minutes of the previous General Assembly held during ESB25 in Zurich are available here: [PDF – Minutes].

The list of new ESB members since the last GA at ESB25 in Zurich is attached: [New Member List]. This list includes 129 new members, comprising 57 active members and 72 student members. A block vote to ratify all these new members will take place during the GA at WCB26 in Vancouver.

Voting for the ESB Council seats

We have received an impressive 18 applications for the six ESB Council positions that will become vacant in July 2026, reflecting our members’ strong engagement and commitment to shaping the Society’s future.

Voting will take place online, and the voting system will be open between Monday, 22 June 2026 until Sunday, 12 July 2026 at 17:15 Vancouver time (PDT).

In order to vote, you have to be in good standing, and you can vote following this procedure:

• Go to the ESBiomech website: https://esbiomech.org/ 
• Login as a member clicking on “Member Login” link in the bottom left of the page
• Click “My ESB” at the top of the page (in red) and select ‘Voting’ to cast your vote, or ‘Council Elections 2026’ to find out more about the candidates
• Review the candidates’ applications and profiles (for each candidate there are links to their professional institutional or personal page, applications forms and CV)
• Please select at least ONE and up to SIX candidates from the 18 applicants.  In order to give continuity to the ESB council we encourage the members to vote those standing for a second mandate. 
• The ESB President will present the results at the General Assembly at WSB26 in Vancouver.

NOTE: The electronic vote is secret. Once you have voted, the system does not allow us to identify you. For security reasons, once you have voted, you will not be able to access the electronic voting procedure again. As long as you do not cast a vote while navigating the website, you can access the electronic voting system as many times as needed.

Reminder emails will be sent throughout the voting period.

Michele Conti

Secretary General

 

Update on Congress & Meetings

See you soon at WCB 2026!

We hope to see you at the 10th World Congress of Biomechanics in Vancouver between July 11-15, 2026! In case you haven’t registered yet, please don’t forget to do so and indicate ESB as your primary Society.

Besides the excellent line of Plenary and Invited Speakers and exciting sessions on various topics, there are numerous other offerings in the program you don’t want to miss.

The afternoon of Monday July 13^th will be dedicated to Society sessions. The ESB Session will include several highlights:

• A unique presentation by Marco Viceconti on the 50 years history of ESB
• ESB Award presentations by the winners announced below in the “Awards” section
• An exciting ESB Debate with the Motion: “Alternative, in vitro, and in silico methods will replace animal models in biomechanics”

Moderator: Ralph Müller

For the Motion: Lies Geris and Keita Ito (WCB Council Team)

Against the Motion: Hanna Isaksson and Peter Varga (ESB Council Team)

The session will be followed by the

• General Assembly: besides the general topics concerning our Society, there will be important announcements, so make sure to be there to hear about the outcomes of the ESB Council election and the location of the ESB 2029 congress.
• ESB Anniversary Celebrations, as described by Enrico above. Please join us to celebrate the first 50 years of our Society. I hope you could sign up for this event using the link that was sent to you by the WCB 2026 organizers to secure the drink vouchers. If you were unable to register on time, you are still welcome to join the celebrations, and a cash bar will be available.

Dear students, please check the numerous offerings throughout WCB 2026, including the Student Networking Welcome Lunch on Saturday, the Student Night Out on Sunday evening (sold out, hope you managed to register), and the Student Activities during the lunch breaks Sunday to Wednesday. Some of these require you to sign up, so don’t miss that.

Early birds who want to put biomechanics into practice can join the Fun Run available from Monday to Wednesday starting at 7:00.

Peter Varga,

Chair of the Meetings and External Affairs Committee

WCB sponsorship opportunities

Opportunities for WCB 2026 sponsorship: Do you want to advertise services that your lab/university offer? Are you keen on expanding your reach for recruiting postgraduates or other researchers? Join the Northern American Universities that already sponsor the World Congress of Biomechanics with a package designed specifically for universities and research groups. For more information, get in touch with the organisation at https://icsevents.eventsair.com/wcb2026/spexbrochurere/Site/Register

Marlène Mengoni,

Sponsorship Committee and Deputy Treasurer

 

ESB Award

The Award Committee is pleased to announce this year’s ESB Award winners and runners-up:

ESB Early Career Research Award:

Winner: Dr. Alberto Sensini (Maastricht University)

Best Doctoral Thesis in Biomechanics

Winner: Anna Ramella (Politecnico di Milano)

Runner-up: Matteo Frigelli (University of Bern)

Runner-up: Francisco Manuel Correia Marques (ETH Zürich)

ESB Student Awards

Winner: Francesco Digeronimo (Trinity College Dublin)

Runner-up: Alessandro Mastrofini (University of Rome Tor Vergata)

Runner-up: Andreu Pascuet-Fontanet (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

Runner-up: Luca Bontempi (Erasmus MC)

This year we again received numerous excellent submissions. We thank the reviewers for their thorough work and the Award Committee’s for selecting the winners and runners‑up.

Dieter Pahr,

Chair of the Award Committee

 

News from the Working Groups (WGs)

In March/April, we launched a call for new ESB WGs. We received 5 proposals that are currently being evaluated by the Council. During the ESB General Assembly in Vancouver, we will announce the selected proposals.

Below you can also find an update the Musculoskeletal Spine Modeling WG. Feel free to reach out to the lead coordinator if you are interested in contributing!

 

Update from the Musculoskeletal Spine Modeling Working Group

• An official ESB Webinar dedicated to the MSM-WG is planned on July 2^nd 2026 at 10am to present the ongoing/upcoming activities of the WG and advertise them to the ESB community.
• We are about to launch a Public Survey aimed at capturing the current practices, methodologies, challenges, and emerging trends on MSM construction, validation, and application in biomechanical and clinical settings. This initiative will be officially launched during the ESB Webinar before the WCB in Vancouver, shared on the official website of the MSM-WG and through social media. Recipients of the Survey will include the ESB community, but also the MSM community worldwide. The Survey will remain open across the Summer season in 2026. Anyone interested is more than welcome to complete the Survey! All collected data will be processed anonymously, and preliminary results will be disseminated with a dedicated ESB Webinar expected in Fall 2026.
• We are organising a Special Issue on Musculoskeletal Spine Modelling to be launched in Fall 2026 to collect scientific contributions on the topic. We are interacting with various Journal Editors to identify the most convenient venue for the special issue. More details will follow soon!
• We plan to have a dedicated in person event in 2027 either as a dedicated Special Session during the ESB Congress in Berlin and/or as an independent Workshop.

For any news, please, refer to the official website of the MSM-WG.

Lead coordinator: Luigi La Barbera (contact: luigi.labarbera@polimi.it).

Sandra Loerakker,

Chair of the Webportal and Working Groups Committee

 

ESB-endorsed conferences

For those of you who won’t attend WCB 2026, please consider the ESB-endorsed In-silico Mechanomedicine satellite session on 14th July 2026 in Glasgow, in frame of the Synergy for Science 2026 meeting. This satellite session will explore the convergence of computational modelling, quantitative biomechanics, and mechanobiology, fostering a community capable of translating mechanical insights into robust, clinically relevant, and personalised predictive tools. There is still time to register until 3^rd July. ESB members benefit from reduced registration fees for this satellite session. Additionally, travel support will be available for ESB members upon dedicated application – please contact the organizers if you are interested.

Call for ESB affiliated endorsed conferences

Do you organize a meeting with topics related to biomechanics? Please consider applying for ESB endorsement. Interested? Please consult the rules and benefits here and send your proposal to Peter Varga, Chair of the External Affairs and Meetings Committee (meeting.chair@esbiomech.org).

Peter Varga,

Chair of the Meetings and External Affairs Committee

 

 

Sponsorship Committee news

Kickstart your medical engineering career with Materialise Mimics Student Edition

Building a career in biomechanics or biomedical engineering increasingly means graduating with practical experience, not just theoretical knowledge. That’s exactly what Mimics Student Edition is designed to support.

Launching on July 9, 2026, Mimics Student Edition is a free educational version of Materialise’s industry‑standard medical image processing software, created for students and educators who want to build real, job‑ready skills during their studies. Students can work with the same educational version of the core technology used in hospitals, research labs, and medical device companies worldwide, and cited in more than 40,000 scientific publications. Guided tutorials and curated training datasets help bridge the gap between classroom learning and real research and engineering practice, while educators can strengthen their curriculum with tools aligned to industry expectations.

Want to get started? Visit Materialise at Booth 57 during WCB (July 11–15) to download Mimics Student Edition.

 

News from the Italian chapter

The XV Annual Meeting of the ESB-ITA will be held in Milan (Italy) on 31/08 and 01/09. The Meeting will comprise both a thematic symposium (“AI-enhanced Biomechanical Modeling: Applications from Research to Bedside”) and the general meeting. Keynote speakers will be: Dr. Fabio Galbusera (Shulthess Klinik, Switzerland), Prof. Charles Taylor (The University of Texas at Austin, USA), and Prof. Paola Occhetta (Politecnico di Milano, Italy).

 

Marlène Mengoni,

Sponsorship Committee and Deputy Treasurer