Niccolo Fiorentino
Prior to coming to U.Va., Nic Fiorentino held a post-baccalaureate fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Through this work at NIH he met Silvia Blemker, assistant professor of both mechanical and aerospace engineering and biomedical engineering at U.Va. Fiorentino was intrigued with Blemker’s muscle modeling research and became inspired to apply to U.Va.
Now a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Fiorentino works with Blemker in the Multi-scale Muscle Mechanics Laboratory to design computer models of muscle.
Fiorentino received a prestigious National Science Foundation fellowship in 2007 to support an ambitious project that uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the way in which muscles contract during joint movement and to construct accurate musculoskeletal models. “My research project focuses on characterizing the way muscles change shape during motion, determining how muscles generate force to produce joint movement, and developing methods to model complex muscle behavior,” says Fiorentino.
Fiorentino’s research will further our knowledge about the complexity of muscle behaviors and holds promise for understanding and treating muscle impairments associated with movement disorders such as cerebral palsy.
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