USC Dornsife’s McNitt-Gray to co-lead NSF-funded Integrative Movement Sciences Institute

Landmark research, funded by a $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation, will delve into the complexities of muscle control during rapid, unsteady movements in complex environments. Jill McNitt-Gray, director of the USC Biomechanics Research Laboratory at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, will co-lead the research.

The large-scale initiative will be led by Monica Daley at the University of California, Irvine, in collaboration with McNitt-Gray and scholars from Northern Arizona University, Colorado School of Mines and the Georgia Institute of Technology, with the support of experts from 21 institutions throughout the U.S.

Through team-based science and mentorship of more than 450 trainees, UCI’s Center for Integrative Movement Sciences, where Daley is director, is poised to significantly advance understanding of movement performance and learning, with research findings that could have wide-ranging applications from improving athletic performance to developing rehabilitation techniques that enhance mobility.

McNitt-Gray, professor of biological sciences and biomedical engineering at USC Dornsife, uses both experimentation and modeling to advance understanding of neuromuscular control priorities and musculoskeletal dynamics during physically demanding tasks in complex environments. She has received prestigious career awards from the American Society of Biomechanics and International Society of Biomechanics in Sports for the originality and depth of her research in sport and has served as a biomechanics consultant for the International Olympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and other National Governing Bodies of Sport.

To learn more about this collaborative effort, read UCI’s full news release.