A nationally recognized leader in the field of biomechanics has joined the faculty at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. Daniel Ferris, Ph.D. is the first person to hold the Robert W. Adenbaum Professorship in Engineering Innovation, an endowment established with a generous $1 million gift from the Leo Claire & Robert Adenbaum Foundation in 2015.
Ferris’s current research helps to improve mobility and quality of life for people with motion disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease or those who have suffered a stroke or traumatic injury.
He brings four members of his Human Neuromechanics Laboratory with him, and will be an integral part in a cross-campus collaboration to expand the field of rehabilitation robotics at the University of Florida.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in mathematics education at the University of Central Florida, Ferris earned his master’s degree in exercise physiology at the University of Miami, followed by a doctorate in human biodynamics at the University of California, Berkeley. He joins the college after 16 years at the University of Michigan.
Ferris is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. At the University of Michigan, he held several prominent positions, including rehabilitation robotics faculty group director, chair of the school of kinesiology’s graduate program and associate dean for research in the school. He is editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.