The Stapp Association and Conference Committee are honored to invest in the future of crash injury researchers presenting at the Stapp Car Crash Conference. Awards include the John Paul Stapp Award, conferred annually to a paper presented at the previous years’ conference, as well as the John W. Melvin Student Paper Award, conferred annually to graduate students presenting at the conference in which the award is presented.
John Paul Stapp Award
The John Paul Stapp Award is offered annually for the a paper presented at the previous year’s Stapp Car Crash Conference that best meets the goals of the Stapp Association as judged by the Stapp Advisory Committee.
John Paul Stapp Award Winners Announced at the 68th Conference
The 2023 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Allison J. Guettler, Samuel T. Bianco, Devon L. Albert, David M. Boyle, Andrew R. Kemper, and Warren N. Hardy—Virginia Tech, Center for Injury Biomechanics for, “Frontal-Crash Occupant Protection in the Rear Seat: Submarining and Abdomen/Pelvis Response in Midsized Male Surrogates.”
John Paul Stapp Award Winners Announced at Previous Conferences
67th Conference: The 2021-2022 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Sahar Benadi—LAB PSA Renault/Univ Gustave Eiffel, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1; Xavier Trosseille and Philippe Petit—LAB PSA Renault; Jérôme Uriot—CEESAR; Yoann Lafon and Philippe Beillas—Univ Gustave Eiffel, Univ Claude Bernard Lyon 1 for, “Ligaments Laxity and Elongation at Injury in Flexed knees during Lateral Impact Conditions.”
66th Conference: The 2021 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Yun-Seok Kang, John H. Bolte IV, and Amanda M. Agnew—Injury Biomechanics Research Center, The Ohio State University; and Jason Stammen and Kevin Moorhouse—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for, “A Novel Approach to Scaling Age-, Sex-, and Body Size-Dependent Thoracic Responses using Structural Properties of Human Ribs.”
63rd Conference: The 2018 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Amanda M. Agnew, Michelle M. Murach, Victoria M. Dominguez, Akshara Sreedhar, Elina Misicka, Angela Harden, and John H. Bolte IV—Injury Biomechanics Research Center, The Ohio State University; and Jason Stammen and Kevin Moorhouse—National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for, “Sources of Variability in Structural Bending Response of Pediatric and Adult Human Ribs in Dynamic Frontal Impacts.”
62nd Conference: The 2017 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Hiromichi Nakadate, Evrim Kurtoglu, Hidenori Furukawa, Shoko Oikawa and Shigeru Aomura from Tokyo Metropolitan University, Graduate School of System Design; Akira Kakuta, National Institute of Technology, Tokyo College; and Yasuhiro Matsui, National Traffic Safety and Environment Laboratory for, “Strain-Rate Dependency of Axonal Tolerance for Uniaxial Stretching.”
61st Conference: The 2016 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Anicet Le Ruyet, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, IFSTTAR, UMR_T9406, LBMC, Lyon, France; Fabien Berthet, Transpolis SAS, Lyon Saint-Exupéry Aéroport, France; Frédéric Rongiéras, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, IFSTTAR, UMR_T9406, LBMC, Lyon, France/Service Chirurgie Orthopédique et Traumatologie—Hôpital Desgenettes, Lyon, France; and Philippe Beillas, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, IFSTTAR, UMR_T9406, LBMC, Lyon, France for, “Effect of Abdominal Loading Location on Liver Motion: Experimental Assessment Using Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging and Simulation with a Human Body Model.”
60th Conference: The 2015 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Kerry A. Danelson, Wake Forest School of Medicine; Andrew R. Kemper and Matthew J. Mason, Virginia Tech; Michael Tegtmeyer, US Army Research Laboratory; Sean A. Swiatkowski (USN), Armed Forces Medical Examiner System; John H. Bolte IV, The Ohio State University; and Warren N. Hardy, Virginia Tech for, “Comparison of ATD to PMHS Response in the Under-Body Blast Environment.”
59th Conference: The 2014 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Lauren K. Wood, Carl S. Miller, Nathaniel H. Madura, Matthew P. Reed, Lawrence W. Schneider, Kathleen D. Klinich, and Jonathan D. Rupp from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute for, “Response and Tolerance of Female and/or Elderly PMHS to Lateral Impact.”
58th Conference: The 2013 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Carl S. Miller, Nathaniel H. Madura, Lawrence W. Schneider, Kathleen D. Klinich, Matthew P. Reed, and Jonathan D. Rupp from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute for, “PMHS Impact Response in 3 m/s and 8 m/s Nearside Impacts with Abdomen Offset.”
57th Conference: The 2012 John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award was presented to Meghan K. Howes, T. Stan Gregory, Warren N. Hardy, Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University Center for Injury Biomechanics; and Philippe D Beillas, IFSTTAR, France for, “Kinematics of the Thoracoabdominal Contents Under Various Loading Scenarios.”
John W. Melvin Student Awards
The John W. Melvin Student Awards of $1,500, $1,000, and $500 are presented to the three graduate students whose papers are judged by the Stapp Student Award Committee to have made the most significant contributions to the fields of injury biomechanics and injury reduction. Mentors of accepted papers that include significant contributions by a student are invited to describe those contributions in a letter for their student to be considered. The three awards are made at the end of the conference in which the papers were presented.
Award-Winning Papers from the 67th Conference
First Place: Allison Guettler, “Frontal-Crash Occupant Protection in the Rear Seat: Submarining and Abdomen/Pelvis Response in Midsized Male Surrogates.” Additional authors include Samuel T. Bianco, Devon L. Albert, David M. Boyle, Andrew R. Kemper, and Warren N. Hardy from the Center for Injury Biomechanics at Virginia Tech.
Second Place: Hollie Pietsch, “Comparison of Adult Female and Male PMHS Pelvis and Lumbar Response to Underbody Blast.” Additional authors include Danielle Cristino, Matthew Mason, Andrew Kemper, Warren Hardy, Kerry Danelson, John Bolte IV, and John Cavanaugh from Virginia Tech, Wake Forest School of Medicine, The Ohio State University, and Wayne State University.