A recognized researcher, academician, and pioneer in the use of robotics and virtual reality to enhance motor recovery, Dr. Alma Merians was honored by the American Physical Therapy Association with a Catherine Worthington award.

Merians is associate dean for Strategic Initiatives and Interprofessional Education and Practice at Rutgers School of Health Professions.

The Catherine Worthington Fellow is awarded to those whose contributions significantly advance the physical therapy profession. Merians was nominated as a visionary who has spent decades making an impact in the field.

She was recognized for her impressive body of research as an academic investigator whose work has led to new treatments in neuromotor rehabilitation.

“I’m honored,” said Merians, a professor who also has served as a longtime department chair and interim dean. “This is one of the highest awards in the profession.”

Merians studies basic mechanisms underlying neuromuscular control of movement and sensorimotor learning. She focuses on using technology-assisted rehabilitation to re-train people with neurological disorders caused by such things as stroke or cerebral palsy.

Her current work studies the impact of very early interventions using virtual reality in hand recovery for stroke patients.

Merians was one of the first in her field to recognize the importance of the integrating disciplines such as engineering and physical therapy to chart new paths for sensorimotor rehabilitation.

Collaborating with researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Merians and her team developed interventions that integrated robotics, virtual reality, and serious gaming to improve motor recovery in upper extremities within clinics and home settings. Their revolutionary work has been published in high-impact journals and has been integral to the development and clinical use of virtual reality in rehabilitation.

“Dr. Merians sets the standard for how a physical therapist can engage in novel and original scholarship, implement it in education and transfer that information to clinical practice,” said Nancy Kirsch, chair of the Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences Department.

An author of over 48 manuscripts and book chapters, Merians is often invited to speak internationally and serve on National Institutes of Health study sections.  According to Google Scholar, her work has been cited over 6,700 times. She has one publication that is a seminal work in the field having been cited more than 1,000 times.

She has been awarded millions of dollars in research grants, including prestigious RO! Grants from the National Institutes of Health.

The award will be presented at association’s conference in July.