Selected by NASA in May 1984, Thornton is a veteran of four space flights: STS-33 in 1989, STS-49 in 1992, STS-61 in 1993, and STS-73 in 1995. She has logged over 975 hours in space, including more than 21 hours of extravehicular activity (EVA). She was inducted into the Astronaut Hall of Fame in 2010.

Dr. Park is the associate director of the Foot and Ankle Fellowship at UVA and is the team foot and ankle surgeon for UVA Athletics. His research interests include injury biomechanics, sports-related injuries to the foot and ankle, tendon reconstruction, ankle replacement, bone grafting and biomechanical properties of orthopedic implants.

Dean West is a transformational researcher, award-winning teacher and mentor, inventor and entrepreneur. Her research focuses on the use of biomaterials, nanotechnology and tissue engineering, applying engineering approaches to studying biological problems and solving unmet medical needs, particularly in the fight against cancer. 

Jeff Crandall served as the Director of the University’s Center for Applied Biomechanics from 1994-2019. His research focuses on understanding human response and injury in automobile safety, sports, and military protection. He has experience with experimental biomechanics spanning the length scales of tissue samples to whole body cadavers.

Prof. Kerrigan's research in injury biomechanics uses data analysis, computational modeling, and mechanical experiments with human tissue to prevent and mitigate injuries to motor vehicle occupants and athletes. Right now he is working on occupant protection for future vehicles, shoe-turf interaction mechanics, and characterizing injury tolerance.

Jason Forman's research includes the development and biofidelity evaluation of anthropomorphic test devices, the execution of  impact biomechanics in simulated automobile environments, the development of injury risk functions with dummies and computational models, analysis for injury risk evaluation, and investigating the effects on injury risk.

He joined the University of Virginia in 1965 and to recognize his outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching efforts, Taylor Beard was named Lucien Carr Associate Professor for the year 1997-98. He served as an American Specialist for the U. S. State Department's International Communications Agency, lecturing in Pakistan on solar energy.

Dr. Houston G. Wood is Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. He has been a leader in the Northeast Chapter of the Institute of Nuclear Materials Management (INMM). He has held visiting positions at Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique, Saclay, France, among many others.