RSD Alumni Spotlight – Arun Jayaraman

We recently heard from RSD alum, Arun Jayaraman, who provided an update below on what he has been doing since graduation. We enjoy hearing good news from alumni and current students. If you have a story you would like to share please contact us.

Arun Jayaraman PT, PhD

I graduated from the RSD program in 2008. I went on to do a two year post-doc at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago/Northwestern University under Drs. William Zev Rymer and Thomas George Hornby.

Currently, I am an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. I am also a Research Scientist at the Center for Bionic Medicine, and the Associate Director of The Max Nader Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

My current grant funding, both as a Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-Investigator (co-I), include a five year National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR, co-PI) grant, a five year industry grant from Ottobock Inc. (PI), a couple of Department of Defense (DOD, PI &Co-I) grants, and a couple of NIH small business innovation research grants (SBIR, Co-PI). I have previously received funding from the Paralyzed Veterans of America and Honda R&D. Recently, I have recently published manuscripts as both senior and co-author in peer-reviewed journals such as PLoS-1, Neurorab Neural Repair, and Journal of Physiology.

I owe a lot of my limited success to the RSD program. It significantly prepared me for a faculty position by training me in both basic science and clinical research. The program gave me the opportunity to take courses from different departments and to interact and collaborate with numerous research groups. The RSD program has state of art research facilities and the best faculty for mentorship and guidance.  Coming out of the RSD program, I had great confidence in not only my research skills but also in my teaching and networking skills.  On the flip side, it is a great place to have fun. I played basketball and flag-football with colleagues and faculty members and also thoroughly enjoyed being part of the RSD student block for the Gator Football games.