Introduction to the European Society of Biomechanics

Abstract

The European Society of Biomechanics (ESB; esbiomech. org) was founded at a meeting of 20 scientists from 11 countries in Brussels on May 21, 1976. Biomechanics was defined as “the study of forces acting on and generated within a body and of the effects of these forces on the tissues, fluids or materials used for diagnosis, treatment or research purposes.” The primary goal of the ESB was formulated as “to encourage, foster, promote and develop research, progress and information concerning the science of Biomechanics.” Those present at this first meeting were selected to be the founding members, and a first council was formed under the presidency of Dr. John Scales (University of London, UK). Statutes and bylaws were drafted under the directorship of the first secretary-general, Dr. Franz Burny (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium). The statutes were approved under French law and registered in Strasbourg. A first scientific meeting and general assembly of the membership was held in Brussels in 1978. From 20 members in 1976, the society grew to about 100 in 1985. Just before the end of 2014, the ESB reached the symbolic target of one thousandmembers (in good standing). In 2019, the ESB has 1360 members (30% female). The first official meeting of the ESB, i.e., the ESB conference, was held in Brussels (Belgium) in 1978 and gathered 107 registered researchers. The ESB conference was then repeated biannually until 2012, and once a year from 2012 onwards. Along the years, the meetings of the Society have been traveling around Europe: Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Czech Republic, Spain, and Austria, and the number of participants grew substantially to around 700. In 2014, the ESB conference was combined for the first time with the World Congress of Biomechanics in Boston, USA. The current council is formed by María Angeles Pérez (President, University of Zaragoza, Spain), Luca Cristofolini (Vice President, University of Bologna, Italy), Markus Heller (Secretary-General, University of Southampton, UK), Harry van Lenthe (Treasurer, KU Leuven – University of Leuven, Belgium), Sara Checa (Scientific Communications Chair, Julius Wolff Institute, Germany), David Mitton (Meetings Committee Chair, University of Lyon, France), Mark Thompson (Meeting WebPortal Committee Chair, University of Oxford, UK); Jérôme Noailly (Membership and External Affairs Committee Chair, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain); Dieter Pahr (Publication Committee Chair, Vienna University of Technology and Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Austria), and Enrico Dall’Ara (Education and Student Committee Chair, University of Sheffield, UK). The main goals of the ESB are to promote excellence in biomechanics research, to foster integration of clinical and basic science, and to facilitate the translation of such science into healthcare technologies and clinical practice. In particular, the ESB supports its mission by recognition of outstanding members with prestigious awards given at the ESB Congress. The Huiskes Medal for Biomechanics is an Award launched in 2012 by the ESB to honor the lifetime of service that Prof. Huiskes (one of our founding fathers) gave to biomechanics as a whole, and to the ESB in particular. This award is given to senior researchers who have contributed significantly to biomechanics throughout their careers. Prof. Georg Bergmann (Julius Wolff Institute, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany), Prof. John Currey (Un ive r s i t y o f York , UK) , P ro f . Roge r Kamm (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA), Prof. Lutz Claes (University of Ulm, Germany), and Prof. Ralph Müller (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) have been the awardees so far. Another prestigious award is the S.M. Perren Research Award (firstly presented at the 2002 ESB Congress * María Angeles Pérez [email protected]