Alum awarded National Science Foundation Fellowship
West Side alum Kathryn Rex (2015) was recently awarded a three-year U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (one of the most prestigious fellowships for early-career researchers) to support her research in upper limb biomechanics.
Kathryn is a doctoral candidate in the Penn State College of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Kathryn’s NSF-funded research project will investigate why rotator cuff repairs often fail after surgery. By collecting motion capture and muscle activity data from patients both before and after surgery, she said she hopes to better understand how altered shoulder movement patterns contribute to surgical outcomes.
Kathryn said the ultimate goal is to improve outcomes for patients recovering from shoulder injuries, an area of research that resonates with her personally. “I was actually an athlete on the softball team here at Penn State during my undergraduate years and experienced two shoulder injuries myself,” Kathryn said. “If I can use my research to prevent other people, whether it’s athletes or older adults, from having to go through that whole process, that’s the dream.”
Kathryn shared that “West Side pushed me to think outside the box and approach problems from many different perspectives, which has helped me tremendously in research.” After attending West Side, Kathryn went on to attend Notre Dame Academy and later earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Penn State in 2023.
Congratulations to Kathryn!
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West Side Montessori is an independent, accredited Montessori school educating children 13 months through 8th grade (preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, and middle school). We are one of the leading private schools in Toledo and the nation.
WSM does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic origin, race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability in the administration of its admission policy, educational policy, or any school-administered program.
WSM does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic origin, race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability in the administration of its admission policy, educational policy, or any school-administered program.