Chair, Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Professor, Biomedical Engineering (Courtesy) Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery (Courtesy)
Bio
B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of UtahM.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of UtahPh.D. Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia
Dr. Kent is Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Emergency Medicine at the University of Virginia. He has worked in the field of automobile safety for 25 years. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed books, chapters, and articles in the field and has formally mentored over 70 graduate student theses and dissertations. His most prominent contributions are focused on the biomechanical and injury characterization of the trunk and on the effects of aging on injury tolerance and dynamic loading response. His studies of aging have included biomechanical testing of ATDs, PMHS, and physiological models; computational modeling; and the analysis of real world data at both the case-study level and integrated within databases. He was Principal Investigator for the GHBMC Thorax and Upper Extremity Center of Expertise, which was responsible for the complete development of one of the world’s most anatomically detailed thorax finite element models. Recently, Dr. Kent has focused on the protection of elite athletes, with particular interest on injuries of the foot and ankle and the design of athletic shoes and surfaces for the mitigation of injury risk. Dr. Kent is a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers and the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine and serves on the Stapp Advisory Committee.
Awards
Fellow, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine
Fellow, Society of Automotive Engineers
Stapp Advisory Committee
Award of Merit, AAAM
SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award
John Paul Stapp Award
Withrow Distinguished Speaker Award
J. Merkin Service Award
Technology Review’s TR100
Research Interests
Biomechanics/Injury Biomechanics or Biomechanics and Mechanobiology
A team which includes members from UVA MAE's Center for Applied Biomechanics developed open-source finite element (FE) models of four modern football helmets as part of the...
"Super Sunday” is almost here, and while many people are planning Super Bowl parties and looking forward to an exciting game, engineers with the University of Virginia’s Center for Applied Biomechanics and a UVA spin-off company, Biocore, will be watching with a particular degree of insight,...
Richard Kent, a University of Virginia professor of biomedical, mechanical and aerospace engineering, and his colleagues at the UVA Center for Applied Biomechanics are working with the NFL to improve player safety through better equipment engineering.
Professors Richard Kent and Jeff Crandall, biomechanical engineers at the Center for Applied Biomechanics (CAB), have taken the principles involved in making cars safer and...
Development of an injury risk function for first metatarsophalangeal joint sprains. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2013; 45(11):2144-50. Richard W. Kent
Development and assessment of a device and method for studying the mechanical interactions between shoes and playing surfaces in-situ at loads and rates generated by elite athletes. Sports Biomechanics. 2012; 11(3):414-429. Richard W. Kent
Characterization of the centroidal geometry of human ribs. Journal of Biomechanical Engineering. 2013; 135(11) doi: 10.1115/1.4025329. Richard W. Kent
Effect of intercostal muscle and costovertebral joint material properties on human ribcage stiffness and kinematics. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering. 2015; 18(5): 556-570. DOI: 10.1080/10255842.2013.820718. Richard W. Kent
Occupant kinematics and shoulder belt retention in far-side lateral and oblique collisions: a parametric study. Stapp Car Crash Journal. 2013; 57:343-385. Richard W. Kent
