Here, you will uncover historical information about the society. Enjoy these nuggets curated by John Challis, our Archives Officer.
The International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) holds its congress biennially, the roots of these congresses started in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a series of seminars. Each of the first four seminars had published proceedings,
- Zurich in 1967 the First International Seminar on Biomechanics
Wartenweiler, J., Jokl, E. & Hebbelinck, M. (1968) Biomechanics. New York: Basel.
- Eindhoven in 1969 the Second International Seminar on Biomechanics
Wartenweiler, J., Jokl, E. & Hebbelinck, M. (1971) Biomechanics II. New York: Karger.
- Rome in 1971 the Third International Seminar on Biomechanics
Cerquiglini, A. Venerando, & Wartenweiler J. (1973) Biomechanics III. New York: Karger.
- State College in 1973 the Fourth International Seminar on Biomechanics
Nelson, R. C., & Morehouse, C. A. (1974). Biomechanics IV. Baltimore: University Park Press.
It was at this fourth seminar that the ISB was formed. The ISB congresses are numbered not starting at the first in 1975 (Jyväskylä, Finland), but starting from the 1967 seminar.
The first two books of the proceedings have images from Étienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) on their covers, the third is from Harold "Doc" Edgerton (1903-1990), and the fourth represents state of the art computer graphics in the early 1970s. The diving sequence was produced by Doris Miller.
Doris is a charter member of the ISB and was the first woman to serve on the ISB Executive Council. In 2009 she was appointed as an honorary member of the ISB. This honorary membership is restricted to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the ISB and the field of biomechanics; Doris is one of only two women to have received this award to date. Doris held positions at various universities: University of Toronto (1961–1963), University of Saskatchewan, (1964–1967, 1970–1973), University of Washington (1973–1984), and the University of Western Ontario (1984–2000), where she is currently a Professor Emerita.
In 1967 Doris enrolled at Penn State University to undertake a PhD supervised by Richard Nelson (2nd ISB President, serving as president from 1977 to 1982). Her work focused on diving and in 1970 resulted in a thesis titled “A Computer Simulation Model of the Airborne Phase of Diving”. The images on the cover of Biomechanics IV arise from that work.
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