RR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application

Dr. Steven Gard is a Research Health Scientist with the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center (JBVAMC), Department of Veterans Affairs, Chicago, IL; the Executive Director of the Northwestern University Prosthetics- Orthotics Center (NUPOC) for Education & Research, Dept. of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL; an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine; and has Affiliate Faculty appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University. The VA helped launch Dr. Gard’s research career; notably, in 1998 he received a Career Development Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and he was the PI on an equipment grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs that provided startup funds for the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center Motion Analysis Research Laboratory (JBVAMC-MARL). Research has since been Dr. Gard’s primary interest and responsibility throughout his career. The JBVAMC-MARL and the NUPOC Research Programs are supported entirely by grant funds, so Dr. Gard spends much of his time preparing grant proposals to submit to various funding institutions, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), the Department of Defense (DoD), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has been PI or Co-PI on 31 funded grant applications, including 19 through the Dept. of Veterans Affairs. The overarching objective of Dr. Gard’s research program is to increase understanding about mobility in persons with disability who use prostheses or orthoses. Increased knowledge about the functional biomechanics of gait is essential to enable the identification of deficiencies in, and improve upon the designs of, current P&O devices to enable persons with disability to walk more efficiently and with reduced compensations. Dr. Gard’s primary areas of expertise include quantitative movement analyses and lower-limb prostheses and orthoses. His grant portfolio includes projects in both research and development. He has collaborated with a number of well- known and respected investigators in prosthetics and orthotics (P&O), both with and without VA appointments. Importantly, Dr. Gard is careful to focus on projects that are clinically relevant; that is, all of his projects attempt to address practical problems in the P&O profession and increase understanding about P&O practice, thus improving the quality of life for P&O users. Dr. Gard has had the opportunity to teach and advise many students at Northwestern. During the past 25 years, he has served as an academic and research advisor to more than 40 graduate students, undergraduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Advising students and postdocs on their research projects requires a tremendous amount of time, but Dr. Gard enjoys this responsibility because it enables him to establish close, personal relationship with some very bright and motivated young people, and it allows him to closely monitor and guide their progress as they become more experienced and mature investigators. Dr. Gard has previously served on the editorial board of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development (JRRD), and he is currently the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics (JPO). He has also served as an external grant reviewer for study sections of NIDILRR, VA, DoD, NIH and NSF. Additionally, he is a member of the American Society of Biomechanics (ASB), the International Society for Prosthetics & Orthotics (ISPO), the American Academy of Orthotists & Prosthetists (AAOP) and the Gait & Clinical Movement Analysis Society (GCMAS). Finally, Dr. Gard has been the host of a monthly podcast called “O&P Research Insights” for AAOP since 2022. Project Number: 1IK6RD000447-01A2 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: Veterans Affairs (VA) | Principal Investigator: Steven Gard | Institution: JESSE BROWN VA MEDICAL CENTER, CHICAGO, IL | Activity Code: IK6 | Study Section: Research Career Scientist[RRD7] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11237857