Adamczyk receives ASB Founders’ & Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards

Peter Adamczyk, Mead Witter Foundation Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering, has been recognized with the Founders’ Award from the American Society of Biomechanics (ASB).

The Founders’ Award was established in 2017 to recognize scientific accomplishment in biomechanics and excellence in mentoring and is open to investigators of all disciplines within ASB.

Adamczyk directs the Biomechatronics, Assistive Devices, Gait Engineering and Rehabilitation Laboratory (UW BADGER Lab) and teaches courses in Robotics and Mechatronics. His research aims to enhance physical and functional recovery from impairments affecting walking, running, and standing. Core foci include basic research on locomotion biomechanics; design of semi-active foot prostheses for gait restoration after amputation; wearable sensors for movement assessment during real-life activities; and rehabilitation robotics to explore motor learning and neural adaptation in the lower limb.

“I am deeply honored to receive the ASB Founders’ Award. I have tried throughout my career to always “think differently” and have tried to mentor my students to do the same. The Founders’ Award recognizes their success above all, and is a tribute to the environment at UW-Madison that has allowed us to flourish while pursuing creative work that’s a little off the beaten path,” shared Adamczyk.

“The Award also allowed me to give a reflective presentation, so I chose to focus it on a consideration of the “roles” a person can play in the process of planning, executing and reporting research in the Biomechanics field. Roles might include “inventor”, “tester”, “explorer”, “methodologist”, “converger”, “envisioner”, “distiller”, “applier”, or “critic”, among others. It was a nice chance to think about the different types of thought processes and activities I have engaged in, and asked my students to engage in, and the different challenges they bring and types of growth they generate.”

Adamczyk is on sabbatical this year and was also named a 2025-26 Fulbright U.S. Scholar! He is working in Bangkok, Thailand at the Sirindhorn School of Prosthetics and Orthotics, which is part of Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University.

“I’ll be observing to learn from their clinical practice and potentially gain some new practical skills. I’ll also be working with them to combine technology developed by my group with technology developed locally there, and to do some research projects in their lab. I’ll work with physical therapists in the same hospital and engineers at nearby universities as well,” shared Adamczyk.

Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators, and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. Fulbright Scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions.

Everything is coming up Adamczyk! Congratulations, Peter!

Thanks to Evan Dooley at ASB for providing conference images.