Doctoral

Masters

Undergraduate

Martin Vergara. Martin is getting ready to defend his M.Sc.; he has been busy examining differences in quiet standing postural control and gait initiation between healthy controls and patients with anklyosing spondylitis, and the effects of TNF-alpha inhibitors and symptom control on posture and balance. Martin He graduated with a B.Sc. Hons (Kine) degree from York in 2007. Martin plans to proceed into the PhD program at York University in January 2010.

Amy Underhill. Originally from Eastern Canada, Amy attended Acadia University for her undergrad in Kinesiology and Dalhousie University for her physiotherapy degree. Amy has developed an interest in gait and balance and how these factors relate to the musculoskeletal system through her practice as a physiotherapist. This ties into her thesis research focused on lateral balance control during gait in post-operative total knee replacement patients and the effectiveness of dynamic gait training to address those factors.

Brian Street: Brian is in the first year of his Ph.D. program in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science at York University.  He completed his B.Sc. in Biomedical Science at Charles Darwin University in Australia and his M.Sc. in Sports and Exercise Medicine at the University of Exeter in the UK.  Brian’s research interests focus on joint diseases of the lower extremities, in particular, the influence of knee and hip replacement on varied mobility characteristics.  He will be investigating how joint replacement impacts differences in balance recovery and gait behavior pre- to post-surgery.

Nicole Dinn: Currently a 3rd year PhD student in the School of Kinesiology and Health

Sciences at York University, Nicole previously completed both her BKin and MSc at Memorial University in Newfoundland. Her current research focuses largely on biomechanics and neural control of posture and gait, with particular emphasis on balance control in people with whiplash-associated disorder (or WAD). In addition to her research, Nicole works as a Strength and Conditioning coach, and in her spare time she trains in Brazilian Jiujitsu and Mixed Martial Arts (which makes Dr. Gage afraid of her).

Jeevaka Kiriella: Jeevaka received a BSc in Kinesiology and Health Science in 2009, from York University. Currently he is in the first year of his MSc program. His research interests focus around the knee joint, specifically the kinetics and kinematics surrounding post-knee replacement patients along with the basic sensory and motor neural mechanisms. The focus of Jeevaka’s MSc thesis project entails understanding the role of joint mechanoreceptors in the control of movement.

Dmitry (Dima) Verniba. Dmitry is currently in the 2nd year of his M.Sc. (Kine) degree at York University. He graduated with a B.Sc. Spec Hons (Kine) degree from York in 2008. In addition to the B.Sc. degree he also completed certificate program in Advanced Fitness Assessment and Exercise Counseling.  His research interests are in Biomechanics and Motor Control; more specifically in postural control, balance recovery and sensory integration.

Tea Lulic: Tea is in the 4th year of her undergraduate program. Her independent study project is focused on 3D modeling of the hand and fingers, and differences with osteoarthritis of the hand.

Alex Smilansky: Alex is in the 4th year of his undergraduate program. His independent study project is focused on 3D kinematic and kinetic modeling of the golf swing; he will apply this approach to understanding differences in the golf swing that occur with knee osteoarthritis.

Mahyar Afrooz: Mahyar is in the 4th year of his undergraduate program. His independent study project is focused on measurement of gait parameters during treadmill walking, using a wireless wearable accelerometer system. He is interested in differences between treadmill and over-ground walking in measures of non-linear gait dynamics.