معرفی
Matthew J Major, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Northwestern University, holding dual appointments in the McCormick School of Engineering and the Feinberg School of Medicine. He specializes in prosthetics and orthotics, biomechanics, and rehabilitation engineering. His research focuses on integrating engineering principles and statistical models to improve musculoskeletal health outcomes and postural control in individuals with neurological or musculoskeletal impairments. He directs the Prosthetics and Orthotics Rehabilitation Technology Assessment Laboratory (PORTAL) and leads the Masters in Prosthetics and Orthotics Research (MPO-R) program.
Education: BS (2002), MS (2004) from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; PhD (2010) from University of Salford Manchester. Certifications include Executive Business (2012), Leadership (2015), and Biostatistics (2019) from Northwestern University. Postdoctoral training includes Rehabilitation Engineering at Northwestern and a VA Career Development Award.
Research interests include sensorimotor mechanisms of postural control, prosthetic device optimization, and user-centered assistive technology. Recent work explores prosthetic ankle stiffness effects on balance, vacuum-assisted suspension systems, and biomechanical factors influencing bone health in amputees.
Publications emphasize biomechanical analysis, prosthetic design, and clinical outcomes. Notable awards include the 2024 John X. Thomas, Jr. Best Teachers Award and ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering's 2024 Associate Editor of the Year. Major serves on editorial boards for journals like Journal of Biomechanical Engineering and Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics.
His lab collaborates with the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and Northwestern's Prosthetics-Orthotics Center. He advises numerous graduate students and has supervised projects on prosthetic knee designs, FEA optimization, and biomechanical modeling of gait dynamics.
