Short Biography: Thor Besier PhD

Degrees & Employment

2007- current: Assistant Professor, Dept Orthopaedics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. 2003-2006: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Bioengineering Dept. Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
2000-2002: Research Associate, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
1996-2000: PhD, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
1996-current : Major Shareholder in siliconcoach Ltd and advisor on biomechanical issues.
1992-1995: B.PhEd. (hons) The University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

 

Research Interests

Mechanisms of musculoskeletal injury and disease - in particular: non-contact ACL injury, patellofemoral pain and knee joint osteoarthritis.

Dr. Besier joined the Bioengineering Division in March of 2003. Previously, at The University of Western Australia, he developed an EMG-driven musculoskeletal model of the knee to understand mechanisms of non-contact knee ligament injury. Dr. Besier has received awards for this research that include Young Investigator: Sports Medicine Australia (1999), Prince de Merode award for best scientific paper at the IOC Sport Science Congress (1999), and Young Investigator: International Society of Biomechanics in Sport (2001). He is currently working with Drs. Gary Beaupré, Garry Gold and Scott Delp to develop subject-specific musculoskeletal and finite element models of the patellofemoral joint to estimate in-vivo cartilage stress. Dr. Besier was the recipient of a Stanford Medical Training Fellowship in Regenerative Medicine and is now the Director of the Human Performance Lab at Stanford University and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics.

Thor enjoys Windsurfing and climbing and is part of the US based siliconcoach team

Selected Publications

  1. Draper, C. E., Besier, T. F., Gold, G. E., Fredericson, M., Fiene, A., Beaupré, G. S. & Delp, S. L. Effects of gender and patellofemoral pain on cartilage thickness at the patellofemoral joint. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. (In review).
  2. Pinnington, H.C., Lloyd, D.G., Besier, T.F. & Dawson, B. (2005). Kinematic and electromyographic differences when running on a firm surface compared to soft dry sand. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 94, 242-253.
  3. Rubenson, J., Lloyd, D. G., Besier, T. F., Heliams, D. B. & Fournier, P. A. Running in ostriches (Struthio camelus): three-dimensional joint axes alignment and joint kinematics. Journal of Experimental Biology (In press).
  4. Fukashiro, S., Besier, T. F., Barrett, R., Cochrane, J., Nagano, A., & Lloyd, D. G. (2005). Direction control in standing horizontal and vertical jumps. International Journal of Sport and Health Sciences, 3, 1-8.
  5. Besier, T. F., Gold, G. E., Beaupré, G. S. & Delp, S. L. (2005). Subject specific modeling to estimate patellofemoral joint cartilage stress. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise (in press).
  6. Lloyd, D. G., Buchanan, T. S. & Besier, T. F. (2005). Neuromuscular biomechanical modelling to understand knee ligament loading in static and dynamic tasks. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise (in press).
  7. Buchanan, T. S., Lloyd, D. G., Manal, K. & Besier, T. F. (2005). Estimation of muscle forces and joint moments using a forward-inverse dynamics model. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise (in press).
  8. Buchanan, T. S., Lloyd, D. G., Manal, K. & Besier, T. F. (2004). Neuromusculoskeletal modeling: estimation of muscle forces and joint moments and movements from measurements of neural command. Journal of Applied Biomechanics. 20, 367-395.
  9. Jindrich, D. L., Besier, T. F. & Lloyd, D. G. (2005). A hypothesis for the function of braking forces during running turns. Journal of Biomechanics. (In Press).
  10. Sturnieks, D. L., Lloyd, D. G. & Besier, T. F. (2005). Knee extensor strength is related to knee adduction moments following meniscectomy. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise. (In Review).
  11. Sturnieks, D. L., Lloyd, D. G. & Besier, T. F. (2005). Muscle activations to stabilise the knee in pathological gait. Clinical Biomechanics (In Review).
  12. Besier, T. F., Draper, C. E., Gold, G. E., Beaupré, G. S. & Delp, S. L. (2005). Patellofemoral joint contact area increases with knee flexion and weight bearing. Journal of Orthopaedic Research. 23, 345-350.
  13. Gold, G. E., Besier, T. F., Draper, C. E., Asakawa, D. S., Delp, S. L. & Beaupré, G. S. (2004). Weight-bearing MRI of patellofemoral joint cartilage contact area. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. 20, 526-30.
  14. Elliott B. C., Wallis R., Sakurai S , Lloyd D. G., & Besier, T. F. (2002). The Measurement of Shoulder Alignment in Cricket Fast Bowling. Journal of Sports Science, 20, 507-510.
  15. Besier, T. F., Sturnieks, D. L., Alderson, J. & Lloyd, D. G. (2003). Repeatability of a marker cluster model using optimized joint centres. Journal of Biomechanics. 36(8), 1159-1168.
  16. Besier, T. F., Lloyd, D. G. & Ackland, T. R. (2003). Muscle activation strategies at the knee during running and cutting manoeuvres. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise. 35(1), 119-12.
  17. Lloyd, D. G. & Besier, T. F. (2003). A dynamic EMG-Driven musculoskeletal model to estimate knee joint torque and soft tissue loads. Journal of Biomechanics. 36(6), 765-776.
  18. Besier, T. F., Lloyd, D. G., Ackland, T. R. & Cochrane, J. L. (2001) External loading of the knee joint during running and cutting manoeuvres. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise. 33:7, 1168-1175.
  19. Besier, T. F., Lloyd, D. G., Ackland, T. R. & Cochrane, J. L. (2001) Anticipatory effects on knee joint loading during running and cutting manoeuvres. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise. 33:7, 1176-1181.
  20. Lloyd, D. G. & Besier, T. F. (2001). New technologies in sport and coaching. Sports Coach, 24, 36-38.
  21. Baxter, K., Elliott, B., and Besier, T. F. (1999). Internal rotation of the upper arm segment during a stretch-shorten cycle movement. Journal of Applied Biomechanics, 15, 381-395.

Book Chapters

  1. Auckland T, Lloyd D, Besier T. and Cochrane J. (2002). Soft tissue loads at the human knee during running and cutting manoeuvres. International Research in Sports Biomechanics. Routledge, New York. pp 183-188. Ed. Y. Hong.