Richard W. Kent

About

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.

Education

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah

M.S. ​Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah

Ph.D. ​Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia