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                <text>Brent Jesiek</text>
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                <text>(PDF, 172KB; Full text below.)&#13;
&#13;
&lt;b&gt;Kevin Granata, PhD (December 29, 1961-April 16, 2007)&#13;
[Obituary]&lt;/b&gt;&#13;
&#13;
Marras, William S. PhD; Stokes, Ian A. F. PhD; Abel, Mark F. MD&#13;
&#13;
Address correspondence to William S. Marras, PhD, E-mail: marras.1@osu.edu; Ian A. F. Stokes, PhD, E-mail: istokes@uvm.edu; and/or Mark F. Abel, MD, E-mail: MFA2M@hscmail.mcc.virginia.edu&#13;
&#13;
Kevin Granata, PhD, died tragically at the age of 45 on April 16, 2007 on the campus of Virginia Tech where he had worked since 2003. He had started the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics lab at Virginia Tech and held the rank of Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics. Dr. Granata was a prolific and innovative contributor to the field of spinal biomechanics.&#13;
&#13;
Dr. Granata earned a PhD in biomechanics in the Biodynamics Laboratory at Ohio State University in 1993, where he used both analytical models and experiments with human subjects to determine the magnitude of muscle forces around the lumbar spine in the work place. His early contributions in this area dealt with integrating electromyographic (EMG) data into analytical models, reflex responses to loads, and the relationship to trunk stability. He also expanded understanding of how brain injury in children with cerebral palsy interferes with balance and movement, using his training in dynamics and control theory.&#13;
&#13;
Dr. Granata was one of the most gifted engineers in the field of biomechanics. His scientific achievements are documented in 66 peer-reviewed articles published in a broad range of scientific journals, including &lt;i&gt;Spine&lt;/i&gt;. His extraordinary productivity in his tragically shortened career was directed especially at two areas of control theory applied to neuromuscular control of movementâ€”movement impairments in people with cerebral palsy and dynamic aspects of trunk stability. He introduced new and challenging concepts, questioning the accepted paradigms. He pioneered the idea of reflex dynamics in trunk stability, representing the trunk as a multi-joint system stabilized by muscles having activation dependent stiffness and reflex delays with variable gain. This was tested in critical experiments involving pseudo-random perturbations of human subjects, with the data subjected to nonlinear systems-identification analyses. His most recent paper establishes the necessity for having reflex muscle responses in the control of spinal stability. He was extraordinarily talented in his thinking, in attracting the best students, and tenacious in obtaining funding and pursuing rigorous peer-reviewed publications for his work. Visiting his lab was exhilarating.&#13;
&#13;
In all areas of his research, he combined innovative theoretical models and tested them in cunningly designed experiments using human subjects. He undertook ambitious clinical gait studies, including pre- and postoperative comparisons, to identify interactions between gait patterns and recruitment of multi-joint limb muscles. These theories are now making their way into clinical practice.&#13;
&#13;
Dr. Granata was extremely logical and had a keen intellect. He was a big picture thinker and possessed a "moral intellect;" he always tried to do the right thing. He was a gifted lecturer and teacher, and a great mentor to his students whom he respected, and from whom he commanded respect. While he delved into complex concepts to spinal stability, he was able to make these concepts understandable to everyone; he loved to use simple models to clarify complex theoretical ideas. Like most successful people, Kevin Granata was determined, tough, disciplined, and highly educated. His Ohio upbringing included farm work, carpentry, athletics, and of course academics. Kevin was clearly a whole person; he was a consummate educator, a man of action, and a compassionate family man. His immediate family that survives him includes his wife, Linda, and three beautiful, bright children to whom he was devoted.&#13;
&#13;
It is estimated that Kevin Granata&amp;#39;s memorial service was attended by nearly 1000 people; he touched the lives of so many. He will be sorely missed by numerous colleagues around the country, around the world, and by the generations of students whom he has mentored.&#13;
&#13;
--&#13;
&#13;
Archived with permission of publisher.&#13;
&#13;
Original Source: Spine, Volume 32(16), 15 July 2007, p 1699&#13;
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                <text>David O&amp;#39;Brien&#13;
Lippincott Williams &amp; Wilkins, Medical Research,&#13;
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                <text>By: Yoni Noble&#13;
Posted: 5/7/07&#13;
&#13;
April 16th, 2007, the awful day when a disturbed student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, will be forever etched in the Jewish consciousness. Liviu Librescu, professor of aeronautical engineering and a survivor of the Holocaust, sacrificed his own life for those of his students. The magnitude of this act is a cause for mournful reflection on a Jewish life cut short.&#13;
&#13;
Liviu Librescu was born in 1930 to a Jewish family in Ploiesti, Romania. During World War II, when Romania joined forces with Nazi Germany, he was imprisoned in a forced labor camp. Subsequently he was sent, along with his family and thousands of others, to a ghetto in the city of Focsani about 100 miles from his home. Hundreds of thousands of Jews from across Romania died in the Focsani Ghetto and in Transnistria, a Romanian-run Nazi killing field where Librescu&amp;#39;s father, a lawyer, perished.&#13;
&#13;
Liviu survived the horrors of the Focsani Ghetto and the Holocaust and nobly committed his life to academia, studying aerospace engineering at the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, where he received both his undergraduate degree in 1952 and his Masters in 1953. In 1969 he received his Ph.D. in fluid Mechanics from Academia de Stiinte din Romania.&#13;
&#13;
Liviu Librescu was a brilliant mind and quickly established himself as a top researcher at the Bucharest Institute of Applied Mechanics and the Academy of Science of Romania. Yet his refusal to swear allegiance to the destructive Communist regime in Romania ultimately left him jobless. Without means to support his wife, Marlene, and two sons, Joe and Arie, Librescu tried to leave Romania for Israel. But under the Romanian communist regime Jews were not allowed to emigrate. In 1978 the Romanian government finally permitted Liviu to leave, but only after a direct request was made by the Prime Minister of Israel--Menachem Begin--to Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu.&#13;
&#13;
From 1979 to 1986 Librescu was a Professor of Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering at Tel-Aviv University and Haifa&amp;#39;s Technion. In 1985 he took a sabbatical from Tel Aviv University to research and teach at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. He quickly became a vital part of the School of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and in 1986 decided to make Blacksburg and Virginia Tech his full-time home.&#13;
&#13;
These extraordinary accomplishments in the face of such tribulations made Livui Librescu a hero to those who knew him. But his actions on the morning of April 16, 2007 shine through as beacon of everything that embodies his heroic spirit. On that frightful morning when a deranged gunman chose Librescu&amp;#39;s classroom as a target for his heinous, senseless murdering spree, Liviu Librescu barricaded himself against the classroom door in an attempt to lock the gunman out. He told his students to flee through a classroom window while he threw his body against the door. Librescu was fatally shot, but the gunman never managed to gain access and no student in the classroom was harmed.&#13;
&#13;
Following the tragedy, representatives of the Borough Park-based organization Chesed Shel Emes quickly contacted the morgue holding Librescu&amp;#39;s remains. Before an autopsy could be performed, Librescu was brought to Brooklyn for a levaya (funeral service). Though Liviu had no family in Borough Park, hundreds of Jews packed the tiny funeral chapel to grieve, console, and, celebrate a life nobly lived. After stirring remarks by New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind, Librescu&amp;#39;s body was flown to Israel for burial.&#13;
&#13;
The death of this great man forces us to reexamine our own grasp on life. What inspires a man to willingly forfeit his life in defense of another? Branded with the memories of the Holocaust, Librecu understood that life is fleeting and transitory. The end can come at any moment, without prior notice. When given the opportunity to save many lives , Liviu unflinchingly sacrificed his own, concretizing the boundless devotion he carried for humanity.&#13;
&#13;
Surely such a man deserves concrete memorials, at the very least a postage stamp or a place renamed in his honor. His name must soar as an inspiration for future generations -- not just for Jews, but for all. &#13;
&#13;
--&#13;
&#13;
Original Source:&lt;a href=http://media.www.yucommentator.com/media/storage/paper652/news/2007/05/07/Opinion/Liviu.Librescu.19302007-2890044.shtml&gt; The Commentator - May 7, 2007&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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                <text>Kevin Granata, who began his professional career at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, was among those killed in the Virginia Tech shootings on April 16. A professor of engineering science and mechanics, he was considered one of the nation&amp;#39;s top researchers working on movement dynamics in cerebral palsy. He was 45.&#13;
&#13;
Granata joined the Lab in 1986 and worked on low-frequency performance issues for long towed arrays in the former Submarine Technology Department (now the National Security Technology Department). His initial work helped to form the justification for the series of Doppler signal suppression experiments that were conducted by APL in 1990 and 1991. He was very interested in biomechanics and left the Lab in 1989 to obtain a PhD in biomechanics from Ohio State.&#13;
&#13;
"He was a bright young guy who came here from school, had a lot of energy and was very capable," Joseph S. Lombardo, his APL supervisor and now director of the Lab&amp;#39;s Center of Excellence in Public Health and Informatics, told The Baltimore Sun. "Kevin had a very good scientific background and was able to do a substantial level of analysis."&#13;
&#13;
Granata, who had received his bachelor&amp;#39;s degree in engineering physics and electrical engineering from Ohio State and master&amp;#39;s in physics from Purdue, went on to an esteemed career in teaching and research, first at the University of Virginia and then at Virginia Tech. He lectured nationally and internationally and had numerous publications and research grants.&#13;
&#13;
A runner and cyclist, he enjoyed participating in biathlons and triathlons. He also loved reading and coaching his sons&amp;#39; lacrosse teams.&#13;
&#13;
Survivors include his wife, Linda; two sons, Alex and Eric; a daughter, Ellen; and his parents, Mildred and Joseph Granata.&#13;
&#13;
Memorials can be made to the Kevin P. Granata Memorial Trust, 1872 Pratt Drive, Blacksburg, VA 24068.&#13;
&#13;
--&#13;
&#13;
Original Source: &lt;a href=http://www.jhu.edu/~gazette/2007/23apr07/23obit.html&gt; Johns Hopkins Gazette - April 23, 2007&lt;/a&gt;</text>
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