Led by Meaghan Beck, the SMRI was awarded a grant from the Herman Lee and Nell Stuart Donovan Memorial Trust. The purpose of the Trust is to create “an atmosphere and environment of culture, refinement, and gentility to encourage the growth of the students into gentlemen and women whose education may reflect the influence of such an atmosphere and environment.” With this award, SMRI will create the “Hero Tribute Wall”, a structure that will honor the world’s most elite tactical athletes, the U.S. military.

On September 6, 2017, students of the Interprofessional Healthcare Residential College (IHRC) Living Learning Program (LLP) visited the SMRI to gain hands-on experience of sports medicine research. Students participated in testing demonstrations for strength, balance, reaction time, body composition, aerobic and anaerobic capacity, and biomechanics. The IRHC LLP program is designed for highly-motivated students who have a passion for interprofessional healthcare.

The SMRI participated in the 3rd Annual National Biomechanics Day. National Biomechanics Day is an outreach event sponsored by the American Society of Biomechanics. The goal of National Biomechanics Day is to celebrate biomechanics with high school students and to excite them about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, all of which play a role in biomechanics. The SMRI participated in conjunction with three other biomechanics laboratories at the University of Kentucky, including the Biodynamics Lab, the Musculoskeletal Lab, and the Human Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Lab.

The UK Sports Medicine Research institute made an appearance at UK’s 2018 Staff Appreciation Day. The Institute brought a few devices to showcase neurocognitive assessments used to understand participants’ cognition and balance, as well as, discuss the ongoing research in the lab and opportunities to participate in Performance and Wellness Services.

SMRI will host two UK Area Health Education Center (AHEC) residential summer camps for current high school students in June 2018; the Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) Camp for rising high school juniors (current sophomores) only and the Health Researchers Youth Academy (HRYA) Camp for rising high school seniors (current juniors). During their time at SMRI, students will participate in various learning experiences that will expose them to the broad application of sports medicine, injury prevention, and rehabilitation research.  

SMRI attended and presented various research data at conferences representing our professional disciplines. Conferences included:

Alexa Johnson was recently awarded the American Society of Biomechanics Student Grant-in-Aid to conduct her dissertation titled, “How Low Back Pain Alters Lower Extremity Biomechanics and Shock Attenuation in Active Individuals”. The purpose of this project is to determine how LBP influences lower extremity biomechanics and shock attenuation in active individuals compared to healthy individuals and examine how altered biomechanical characteristics are related to clinical outcome measures. 

This year the SMRI, spearheaded by biomechanics guru’s Dr. Nick Heebner and graduate student researcher Alexa Johnson, participated in the 3rd Annual National Biomechanics Day. National Biomechanics Day is an outreach event sponsored by the American Society of Biomechanics. The goal of National Biomechanics Day is to celebrate biomechanics with high school students and to excite them about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, all of which play a role in biomechanics.

This year the SMRI, spearheaded by biomechanics guru’s Dr. Nick Heebner and graduate student researcher Alexa Johnson, participated in the 3rd Annual National Biomechanics Day. National Biomechanics Day is an outreach event sponsored by the American Society of Biomechanics. The goal of National Biomechanics Day is to celebrate biomechanics with high school students and to excite them about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, all of which play a role in biomechanics.

The Olympics celebrates all things sport, and medalists are widely considered the "ultimate athlete."  But the special operations forces of the U.S. military experience similar physical and mental challenges, with much more on the line.

The University of Kentucky's Sports Medicine Research Institute (SMRI) works with athletes of all skill levels and the tactical athletes of the U.S. military to improve performance and reduce injury.