Owen Beck (Kinesiology ’13) came to Cal Poly Humboldt from Olympia WA.  At Humboldt, Owen majored in Kinesiology with a concentration in Exercise Science/Health Promotion. After hearing a guest lecture on by Dr. Justus Ortega in Foundations of Kinesiology, Owen focus his emphasis of study on the field of biomechanics. During his four years at Humboldt, Owen worked in the Humboldt Biomechanics Lab where he worked with Dr. Ortega and graduate student mentors conducting clinical balance and mobility assessments on older adults and later assisting on a series of three studies looking at the mechanics and energetics of locomotion. 
              During his time at Cal Poly Humboldt, Owen ran for the school's cross country and track and field teams for two years. These athletic experiences fueled Owen’s passion for understanding the biomechanics of running.  In 2011, Owen received the Student Athlete All-Academic Award and the Presidential Scholar Award. In his senior year, Owen was awarded the Professional Service Award from the Department of Kinesiology and Recreation Administration for is work the Biomechanics Lab.
             Following his graduation in the summer of 2013, Owen travelled with Dr. Ortega to the Locomotion Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder as part of a NIH and CSUPERB funded research internship. In Boulder, Dr. Ortega and Owen worked with Dr. Rodger Kram and Dr. Alena Grabowski to study the effect of age and physical activity on the economy & biomechanics of walking & running. After three months, 145 experiments and a couple hundred miles of trail running (see picture), Owen was accepted into the Doctoral Program in the Integrative Physiology at CU Boulder. In this program Owen will work with Dr. Grabowski in the Applied Biomechanics Lab to study the mechanics an energetics of running with prosthetic legs. As part of being accepted to the Applied Biomechanics graduate program, Owen received funding (tuition and stipend) as research assistant through one of Dr. Grabowski’s Veteran Affairs grants. Owen continues to collaborate with Dr. Ortega and will be presenting their research finding this summer at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting in Orlando FL and at the World Congress of Biomechanics in Boston, MA.