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John G. Thacker
Professor
Telephone: (434) 924-6294
Office: MEC 346
E-mail: jgt@virginia.edu
John Thacker received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Virginia in 1967. He received a commission in the United States Army in 1969 and served with the 54th Combat Engineering Battalion from 1969 to 1972. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia in 1973 and 1976.
Dr. Thacker is currently the Associate Chairman of the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Virginia. He has twenty three years experience in university and engineering research involving biomedical, rehabilitation, automotive safety and design. He is the former Director of the Wheelchair and Seating Rehabilitation Engineering Center and the Transportation Rehabilitation Engineering Center at the University of Virginia. His research during the last twenty-five years has focused on the design and evaluation of equipment used in medicine, rehabilitation and automotive safety. He has studied wheelchair dynamics, comfort, reliability, and efficiency. He evaluates and designs medical products used in the treatment of wound healing including irrigation systems, medical implants, diagnostic equipment, sutures, needles, scalpels, surgical gloves, and syringes. He is currently involved in large scale nonlinear impact finite element models of automobiles to evaluate safety with the University of Virginia Automotive Safety Laboratory. He is also investigating automotive equipment used by the disabled.
He teaches courses in mechanical design, instrumentation, rehabilitation engineering, medical materials and manufacturing.
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