2019 Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievements in Research presented to Hai Yao

The 2018-19 winner of the Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievements In Research, is the Ernest R. Norville Endowed Chair and Professor of Bioengineering and Professor of Oral Health Sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, Hai Yao. Yao is working to advance the biomechanical function, degeneration and regeneration of skeletal systems, specifically the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). Yao’s group established the first multi-scale TMJ model, integrating joint imaging and kinematics, tissue mechanics, cell metabolism, and genetics, to determine the path of normal TMJ remodeling or degeneration. He is serves on the committee for a consensus study on TMJ disorders at the National Academy of Medicine.