Dr.
Richard L. Stalnaker has over 40 years of experience in the
field of Biomechanics and has authored or co-authored many articles
on the subject. His work began with studies on electric field
in bone and its effects on bone mass losses, and has included
efforts to establish the mechanical properties of the brain,
skull bone and scalp. In 1970 he conducted studies to identify
impact tolerances on the head, chest and abdomen. These studies
resulted in a head injury criteria called, "Mean Strain
Criterion"(MSC), which is now used in helmet design. Additionally,
he developed a method for scaling abdominal injuries.
Dr. Stalnaker has also worked on the design of Child Auto Restraint
Systems, Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATD) design and test
equipment for standard testing.
In addition
to his research in this country, Dr. Stalnaker worked for
three years in Europe. His first European position was at
the Institut fuer Rechtsmedizin at the University of Heidelberg,
West Germany. Under contracts with the German Automotive
Manufacturers Association and Volvo of Sweden, his responsibilities
were to extend their cadaver impact sled testing capability
and to help run cadaver tests. While at the Institut fuer
Rechtsmedizin, he studied autopsy techniques and assisted
in over one hundred autopsies on trauma victims. This work
was followed by a short stay at the Instituut voor Wegtransportmiddelen,
(Research Institute for Road Vehicles) at TNO-Delft, The Netherlands.
His responsibilities included conducting classes in Biomechanics
and constructing data sets for crash victim simulation mathematical
models. He then went to work at the Laboratoire de Physiologie
et de Biomechanique of the Association Peugeot-Renault in
La Garenne-Colombes, France. While at Peugeot-Renault, he
redesigned the Part 572 dummy's thorax for use in lateral
impacts. In 1979 he returned to TNO-Delft, where he
developed an instrumented dummy abdomen, a child restraint
system design using computer simulation, and conducted many
tests at the sled laboratory using dummies and cars. While
in The Netherlands, representing the Dutch, he was very active
in the European Economic Community (EEC) and International
Standards Organization (ISO) committees that set standards
for automobiles in Europe. He left TNO at the end of his contract,
in the autumn of 1980, to take up a position at Southwest
Research Institute (SWRI) in San Antonio, Texas. While at
SWRI, he carried out experiments on neck injuries and the
"out of position child problem" associated with
airbags. He also worked extensively on Crash Victim Simulations,
using the MADYMO program.
Dr. Stalnaker
became an Associate Professor, at The Ohio State University,
in the autumn of 1982. While at The Ohio State University,
he taught courses in instrumentation and system dynamics,
as well as a course in which his students designed, built,
and raced a Formula Car. In 1984, he was tenured. He
continued his research in biomechanics, with emphasis on human
tolerance, dummy development, and mathematical modeling. In
1994, he was appointed to the faculty of the Department of
Biomedical Engineering at The Ohio State University. Along
with these research programs, Dr. Stalnaker managed masters
and Ph.D. students who worked on these projects and used this
research towards their degree. He has continued his national
and international biomechanics committee work.
In 1995
Dr. Stalnaker resigned from his position at The Ohio State
University, continued as an adjunct professor in 1996 in both
biomedical and biomechanical engineering. Dr. Stalnaker left
The Ohio State University to devote full time to his company,
Ristal Engineering, Inc., that was formed in 1983. Dr. Stalnaker
has since been consulting in the areas of product liability
as well as general research.
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