Stanhope's research focuses primarily on movement disorders related to gait and balance. He is the author of more than 100 research articles and abstracts and is a founding member of the editorial board of the journal Gait & Posture. He also is a founding member of the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society and the Italian Society of Clinical Movement Analysis.
At NIH, Stanhope led a multidisciplinary team of more than 40 scientists, clinicians, engineers and movement specialists working in the areas of biomechanics and biomedical engineering, human movement disorders and oral motor function.
“Dr. Stanhope brings high-caliber research with extensive international collaborations to the University,” Carolyn Thoroughgood, vice provost for research and graduate studies, said. “His experience as a researcher, educator and program manager will be extremely valuable to UD and to the education of our students.”
A distinguished scientist and administrator, Stanhope will significantly enhance the research mission of the College of Health Sciences, particularly in the area of rehabilitation medicine, according to Betty Paulanka, dean of the college.
“Dr. Stanhope is a highly respected researcher in biomechanics, and, in his role as director of rehabilitative medicine at NIH, he has worked with many of our UD researchers,” Paulanka said. “These experiences have been very positive, and thus we are very excited to have him lead our research teams to the next level of external funding and national recognition in rehabilitation medicine.”
In many ways, Stanhope said, his decision to leave NIH to join UD is like “coming home.”
“The University of Delaware has one of the top programs in the United States in biomechanics and movement science,” Stanhope said. “I'd like to think that in some small way I helped shape that program, and I'm very much looking forward to working with the faculty, who are synonymous with excellence. It's very exciting to be a part of the University of Delaware.”
In 1993, Stanhope was asked to serve as a member of an interdisciplinary team that helped create UD's graduate program in biomechanics and movement science. The interdisciplinary program combines faculty and laboratory resources from several UD departments including mechanical engineering; physical therapy; health, nutrition and exercise sciences; electrical and computer engineering; and the Center for Biomedical Engineering Research. Lynn Snyder-Mackler, Alumni Distinguished Professor of Physical Therapy, directs the program.
Stanhope also served on the dissertation committee for the program's first doctoral graduate, Kurt Manal, who today directs UD's Center for Biomedical Engineering Research.
“Steven's coming to UD is wonderful for the College of Health Sciences, the Biomechanics and Movement Science Program, and the Center for Biomedical Engineering Research,” Manal said. “Steven is an outstanding and highly regarded scientist with much vision. He oversaw research scientists and clinicians from multiple disciplines at NIH. The biomechanics research at UD is highly interdisciplinary, and his leadership will benefit all those involved. His addition to UD is much anticipated,” Manal noted.
In 2001, Stanhope became the founding director of the NIH Physical Disabilities Branch, a collaborative research endeavor between the NIH Clinical Center's Rehabilitation Medicine Department and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). He was appointed director of NICHD's Mechanics of Motion Program in 2006.
Prior to 2001, Stanhope developed and led the Biomechanics Laboratory in the clinical center's Rehabilitation Medicine Department for more than 16 years.
Stanhope also worked with colleagues in Rome to develop international cooperative agreements that led to the training of Italian scientists at NIH, and he continues to collaborate with leading Italian researchers. Currently, he and colleague Francesco Benvenuti, from the Dipartimento della Riabilitazione, Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale 11, Regione Toscana, Empoli, Italy, are examining chronic stroke conditions from the perspective of a biomechanist-geriatrician.
“Developing technology and therapies--doing research that people could use someday--has always been one of my dreams,” Stanhope said. “I want to pass along my knowledge, share my experiences with young, aspiring scientists here at the University of Delaware. It's all about improving people's lives.”
A native of southeastern Massachusetts, Stanhope received his bachelor's degree from Boston University and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Maryland. He maintains adjunct faculty appointments in biomedical engineering at the Catholic University of America and the University of Maryland Medical School.
Among his honors, in 2004, Stanhope received both the Clinical Center Director's Award for Science at NIH and the Instituto Scientifico Italiano Colonna Vertebrale Best Paper Award. He won the Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society's Presidential Award in 1998 and its Best Paper Award in 2001.
Article by Tracey Bryant
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson