Manuel Enrique Hernandez

Dr. Manuel Enrique Hernandez is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He holds affiliate faculty positions in Bioengineering, the Beckman Institute, Health & Kinesiology, and Neuroscience Program. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2012. His research focuses on understanding the behavioral and neural mechanisms underlying postural dysfunction in older adults and neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, with an emphasis on developing biomarkers for early detection and intervention.

Dr. Hernandez has extensive teaching roles, including Course Co-Director for BSE 635: Musculoskeletal and Integumentary (2019-2022) and instructor for courses like KIN 494 on Neuromechanics. His work spans experimental and theoretical models analyzing injury risk during goal-directed movements in aging populations. He leads the Mobility and Fall Prevention Research Laboratory and collaborates across disciplines on projects involving wearable sensors, machine learning, and virtual reality for health monitoring.

His recent research explores applications of augmented reality in gait analysis, cupping therapy hemodynamic effects, and anxiety detection via multimodal wearables. He has contributed to over 50 peer-reviewed articles on motor control, neurorehabilitation, and aging neuroscience. His lab actively investigates biomarker development for neurological disorders and technology-driven solutions for mobility challenges in older adults.