Kristen M. Stewart wins the 2026 Dr. Mike Marshall Baseball Biomechanics Research Award.
Stewart, Ph.D. candidate in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, was honored for her presentation at the 2026 SABR Analytics Conference on “Individual Muscle Capacity to Generate Elbow Varus Moment during a Fastball Pitch.”
She works in the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab with professor Rick Neptune studying how assistive devices influence joint mechanics using motion capture, musculoskeletal modeling, and simulation. She has also applied her modeling and simulation expertise to baseball, analyzing muscle function during pitching. She will complete her Ph.D. in Summer 2026 and is passionate about pursuing a career in baseball biomechanics.
The award was created through the support of Deborah Marshall and Dr. Mike Marshall’s Pitching Academia and named in honor of the maverick former major-league pitcher. This award honors the legacy of Dr. Marshall by encouraging the study of baseball biomechanics and its application in further understanding pitching, with an emphasis on the risks, causes and/or prevention of pitching injury. The recipient will receive a prize of $2,500.
