Fear of reinjury can greatly increase an athlete’s chances of getting hurt again – but VR techniques developed by Shelby Baez can get them back in the game.
Jason Mihalik and Johna Register-Mihalik — both exercise and sport science professors — have spent the past 17 years beautifully navigating the personal-professional divide at UNC-Chapel Hill. Not only did they meet and get married at Carolina, but they’ve since gained tenure and now oversee innovative and complementary research programs within the field of sports-related concussion.
Nearly 4 million sports- and recreation-related concussions happen each year. About 300,000 of those occur in football. For a long time, such data didn’t exist because these injuries weren’t understood or taken seriously. Decades before he became UNC’s chancellor, neuroscientist Kevin Guskiewicz strived to create the playbook for preventing and treating concussions — and changed the game forever.
Claudio Battaglini is a professor of exercise physiology in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science within the UNC College of Arts & Sciences. He studies how exercise can help alleviate cancer treatment-related side effects.