Holst-Wolf awarded School of Kinesiology Doctoral Dissertation Award

Jessica Holst-Wolf, a doctoral student in the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory (HSCL), is the recipient of the School of Kinesiology Doctoral Dissertation Award for the academic year 2015-16.

Jessica Holst-Wolf
Jessica Holst-Wolf

The School of Kinesiology Doctoral Dissertation Award provides the School’s most accomplished Ph.D candidates with an opportunity to devote efforts to an outstanding research project under the mentorship of the student’s primary faculty advisor.

Holst-Wolf is advised by HSCL director and professor Juergen Konczak, Ph.D., and her research concerns  patients with peripheral sensory nerve damage (PSN). Individuals with PSN do not feel their affected limb(s) as well as healthy people. As a result, their movement becomes compromised and they will have problems with balance, walking or fine motor tasks. Unfortunately, current neurorehabilitation therapies for this patient group are very limited. Jessica’s project attempts to enhance the current therapeutic treatment arsenal by employing a new robot-guided training program designed to improve sensorimotor function in these patients. If successful, there would be an alternative treatment avenue for patients with PSN.