2019 PSRS Lifetime Research Achievement Award Recipient
Michele Crites Battié, PhD
Dr. Battié began her academic and research career with the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Washington (Seattle) before being recruited by the University of Alberta as Professor and Chair of the Department of Physical Therapy, where she subsequently held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Common Spinal Disorders. Recently, she joined Western University in Canada as Professor and Western Research Chair in Musculoskeletal Exercise, Mobility and Health. Her clinical and research interests focus on low back pain, spinal stenosis and other degenerative conditions of the lumbar spine, and her work has ranged from genetic studies of disc degeneration to investigations of factors influencing back pain related disability in the workplace. She has over 170 original, full-length research publications, as well as more than 30 book chapters. Her work has been recognized with a number of prestigious international research awards, including multiple Kappa Delta Awards from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons/ORS and Volvo/ISSLS Prize Awards from the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (in all three categories of biomechanics, basic and clinical sciences), and a North American Spine Society Best Paper Award, among others. Currently, her work focuses on the etiopathogenesis of degenerative and painful conditions of the lumbar spine, including the identification of biomarkers and refined phenotypes to inform prognosis and provide insights into underlying pathology. She is also dedicated to facilitating more precise and accurate communication in spine research through broad adoption of a common language of shared nomenclature, associated concepts and core measures needed to accelerate advances in knowledge.
About the PSRS Lifetime Research Award
The PSRS Lifetime Research Achievement Award was created in 2013 by the Philadelphia Spine Research Society (PSRS) to honor an investigator who has established him/herself with sustained and long-lasting contributions in the area of spine research. The award is given biennially when at the ORS PSRS International Research Symposium.
The first recipient of this award was Professor Irving Shapiro, the Anthony and Gertrude DePalma Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Director of Orthopaedic Research at Thomas Jefferson University. The award continues today with a generous support of the Shapiro Family Trust.
Past Award Recipients:
2017 Jill Urban, PhD
2015 Peter Roughley, PhD
2013 Irving Shapiro, PhD
