Thurmon Lockhart

Dr. Lockhart is the Inaugural MORE Foundation Professor of Life in Motion Professor in the Biomedical Engineering program in the School of Biological Health and Systems Engineering at Arizona State University.  He also serves as a Research Affiliate Faculty at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology.  Previously (2000-2014), Dr. Lockhart was a Professor at Virginia Tech, Industrial and Systems Engineering Department and, Virginia Tech/Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering and Science. 

Professor Lockhart’s research and publications concern the identification of injury mechanisms and quantification of sensorimotor deficits and movement disorders associated with aging and neurological disorders on fall accidents. His academic grounding in biomechanical modeling, nonlinear dynamics, human postural control, gait mechanics, and wearable biosensor design underscore a fundamental capacity to provide unique clinical solutions to injury preventions utilizing both engineering and biomedical principles. As a result of above initiatives, Dr. Lockhart has published 3 edited books on "Sensors for Gait and Posture" and 2 textbooks (Biomechanics for Biomedical Engineers: ISBN 9781792456053 and, An Introduction to Statistics for Biomedical Engineers:  ISBN 9781792445453) and more than 200 full-length manuscripts in a variety of journals and proceedings.  Professor Lockhart was an Editor for Ergonomics (2010-2016) and is currently an Associate Editor of the Annals of Biomedical Engineering (Springer) and Editorial Board of the Ergonomics (Taylor & Francis), Academic Editor of the Sensors, and Board of Consulting Editors of the Journal of Biomechanics (Elsevier). Dr. Lockhart is the Section Editor for Wearable Biomedical Systems section in the Sensors (MDPI).

Professor Lockhart has worked on a number of research projects in the area of human locomotion, gait and posture, and wearable sensors.  His efforts have involved contractual research and development from the National Science Foundation (NSF), CDC, NIH, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Office of Naval Research (ONR), Department of Labor (DOL), Whitaker Foundation, Los Alamos National Laboratory, UPS, ITT and others.   Additionally, collaboration with ITT in development of the new “Night-Vision” system in 2014 has led to the patent-8648897: A System and Method for Dynamically Enhancing Depth Perception in Head Borne Video Systems.

Dr. Lockhart has translated research findings into practice by reaching a significant number of external organizations and individuals.  His outreach efforts have impacted several organizations including the UPS, Diageo, Los Alamos National Security, DOE, GE, BP, the US Navy.  In recognition of these scientific achievements, Dr. Lockhart and co-workers were awarded the Alexander C. Williams, Jr., Design Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 2008.  His research was recently featured on the PBS NOVA Science Now and Good Morning America programs, Fortune, AgingWell, Men’s Health and Discover magazines.

Current research directions include:  Collection of real-time physiological data about an individual's health behaviors (e.g., fall risk, fatigue, frailty etc.) and performances (e.g. wearable systems -heart rate variability using PPG and gait stability using Graphene sensors as well as EMG, FMG, and ECG etc.).  And, decouple and gather actionable intelligence from the biosensor system utilizing various computational methods utilizing nonlinear dynamics and theory of Chaos.  Finally, prediction of behavior utilizing machine learning and deep neural network from the wearable devices in order to predict and react to declines in performance and readiness.