Rate My Professor Meghan Vidt

Meghan Vidt is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Pennsylvania State University. She holds the position of Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and serves as Chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Vidt earned her BS in Biomedical Engineering from North Carolina State University in 2006, PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences in 2014, and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo in 2015. Her career at Penn State has progressed from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor, focusing on advancing biomechanics research.

Vidt's research centers on musculoskeletal biomechanics of the shoulder and upper limb, utilizing experimental, computational, and medical imaging techniques to evaluate upper limb mobility, functionality, and injury risk in clinical populations. Her interests encompass biomechanics and mechanobiology, computational and experimental fluid dynamics, musculoskeletal systems, shoulder and upper limb mechanics, medical imaging, and orthopaedics. Notable projects include the Characterization of Upper Limb Function Following Mastectomy and Reconstruction for Breast Cancer (CUFF) study, which assesses the effects of breast cancer surgeries on shoulder function and quality of life, and the development of breast reconstruction-specific computational models to predict post-surgical outcomes and aid clinical decision-making. She has published extensively, with key works such as 'Benchmarking of dynamic simulation predictions in two software platforms using an upper limb musculoskeletal model' (2015, Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 514 citations), 'Characterizing upper limb muscle volume and strength in older adults' (2012, Journal of Biomechanics, 135 citations), 'Assessments of fatty infiltration and muscle atrophy from a single magnetic resonance image slice' (2016, Arthroscopy, 110 citations), 'The effects of a rotator cuff tear on activities of daily living in older adults' (2016, Journal of Biomechanics, 69 citations), and 'Modeling a rotator cuff tear' (2018, Clinical Biomechanics, 54 citations). Vidt received the Outstanding Collaborative Research Team award in 2021. Her contributions influence rehabilitation strategies for upper limb disorders, particularly in aging and post-surgical contexts.