PhD candidate Hoey earns research fellow honor

Bioenergetics and exercise science student Mackenzie Hoey.

Mackenzie Hoey was named by the North Carolina Space Grant as one of its 2024-25 graduate research fellows. These 22 awardees will conduct STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) research to benefit NASA, commercial space or the International Space Station.

Hoey is a PhD candidate in the bioenergetics and exercise science program, part of the Department of Kinesiology in the College of Health and Human Performance. Her project is titled, “A finite element analysis of the effects of microgravity and return to gravity on cervical spine biomechanics.”

The N.C. Space Grant award announcement highlighted that: “Hoey’s research focuses on understanding the effects of spinal flattening, spine lengthening, multifidus atrophy and bone mineral density loss in spaceflight and in return to Earth. These effects would apply to astronauts, but could also be linked to the general population through the rise of cellphones and the occurrence of cervical lordosis, an exaggerated inward curve of the spine.”

Dr. Zac Domire, director of the Performance Optimization Lab and associate professor in kinesiology, and Dr. Alex Vadati, assistant professor in the ECU Department of Engineering, are co-directing Hoey’s dissertation.