Diane Damiano

Diane Louise Damiano is an American biomedical scientist and physical therapist specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation approaches in children with cerebral palsy. She is chief of the functional and applied biomechanics section at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Damiano has served as president of the Clinical Gait and Movement Analysis Society and the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.

Education Damiano completed a B.A. in biological sciences at the Catholic University of America in 1974. In 1979, she earned a M.S. in physical therapy from Duke University. Damiano completed a Ph.D. in research methods and biomechanics in the School of Education and Human Development (then the Curry School of Education) at the University of Virginia. Her 1993 dissertation was titled, Effects of Quadriceps Strengthening on Functional Gait in Children With Spastic Diplegia. Her doctoral advisor was Luke E. Kelly and Kit Vaughan served as her mentor. In 2017, Damiano and a team of researchers created a robotic exoskeleton designed to treat crouch (or flexed-knee) gait in children with cerebral palsy by providing powered knee extension assistance at key points during the walking cycle.

Damiano has published more than 90 papers in peer-reviewed journals. She currently sits on the editorial board of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, and the Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation. Damiano is a past president of the Clinical Gait and Movement Analysis Society (GCMAS) and the current president — the first physical therapist to serve in the role in the organization's 61-year history — of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. She is a member of the scientific advisory board of the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Education Foundation.

Awards In 1994, Damiano became a fellow of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.

Selected works