John Bolte, PhD
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Associate Professor
B.S. The Ohio State University
Background: I decided in 8th grade woodshop class that I wanted to attend The Ohio State University, with a goal of receiving a BS in Mechanical Engineer and a MS in Biomedical Engineering, so I could live out my dream of designing artificial joints. Fortunately for me, graduate school funding focusing on joint design was unavailable and I stumbled upon Dr. Margaret Hines and a study focusing on the response of the shoulder due to lateral impacts. My first graduate level class was an independent study with Dr. Hines learning through dissection the composition of the glenohumeral joint. Within a week's time, I realized how lucky I was to have stumbled upon the research field of injury biomechanics and the discipline gross anatomy.
It quickly became my desire to go beyond my initial dream of a MS degree to receive my PhD and share with others my love of anatomy and injury biomechanics. Upon attending a few research conferences in my field I quickly added a new goal to my list. I wanted to see and hear The Ohio State University's name in this field as often as I did the other leading Universities at the meetings. In 2004 several of my dreams became reality as I graduated with my PhD and was hired through the College of Medicine to teach medical students gross anatomy and to build an injury biomechanics laboratory at Ohio State.
The daunting task to build the lab started with only two students and funding from one external sponsor, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). In a little over four years the lab has quickly grown and it now serves 17 students studying to receive various degrees (BS, MS, PhD, MD) from various departments (Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Anthropology). The Injury Biomechanics Research Laboratory (IBRL) has continued to increase its funding from NHTSA will adding new sponsors including Nissan, Air Force, Army and NASA.
The IBRL will also be hosting the 5th annual Injury Biomechanics Symposium in May 2009. The symposium started in 2005 as a venue for students from around the world to present on-going research in a non-threatening, academic atmosphere. The symposium raises between $40,000-$50,000 every year from industry sponsors to allow travel stipends for all student participants and to keep the registration costs around $100 for experts from industry, academia and government to attend and discuss the research with the students. Attendance has increased every year since 2005 and included 125 attendees last year from 17 different Universities, including 5 different Countries.
The newest venture for the IBRL is to become a NSF funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center focusing on pediatric injury research. The goal for the lab is to partner with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia to create a 2nd Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies here at Ohio State. This goal is quickly becoming a reality as Honda, Nationwide Insurance and the Transportation Research Center are each looking to join the consortium to raise the $150,000 needed annually for the NSF center to exist.
With many of my original goals achieved in this short period of time, it is time to focus on the one remaining goal, to have the IBRL become a NIH designated injury research center. Many of the accomplishments listed have all been steps up the ladder to reach the goal of being designated the top injury research center in the United States. The IBRL is getting closer to the goal and the journey thus far has been very rewarding to everyone involved in the laboratory, as many students have shared in learning how to protect individuals from injury.
Research Interest: Injury Biomechanics Research
