Sophia K. Tushak, Ph.D.

Dr. Sophia K. Tushak is a biomechanical engineer at Engineering Systems Inc. (ESi) in the Minnesota office. Dr. Tushak has expertise in injury causation analysis, experimental design and execution, imaging and video analysis, motion capture systems, injury detection and risk, computational modeling and simulation, analysis of vehicle crash databases, statistical analysis and data science. She has experience working with human surrogates, including biological tissue, anthropomorphic test devices, and computational models of the human body. At ESi, she is building her practice in a range of injury biomechanics investigative scenarios, such as motor vehicle crashes, product and premises liability claims, slips, trips, falls, and criminal matters.

Prior to joining ESi, Dr. Tushak earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia. Her doctoral research at the Center for Applied Biomechanics focused on quantifying traumatic lumbar spine fracture tolerance and developing statistical tools for predicting fracture risk in frontal vehicle crash scenarios. She also has researched pediatric biomechanics, multiple event crashes, reclined occupants, pelvis fractures, bone microstructure, and advanced statistical and computational modeling. She has presented her research at domestic and international conferences and is published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings, including the Journal of Biomechanics, Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Traffic Injury Prevention, Enhanced Safety of Vehicles, and International Research Council on Biomechanics of Injury.