The Alexandria, VA-based American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association (AOPA) honored Saeed Zahedi, OBE, FREng, BSc, PhD, FIMechE, CEng, RDI, with its Lifetime Achievement Award at its September World Congress in Las Vegas.
Zahedi is a prolific author and inventor and helped develop the Linx, the first fully integrated microprocessor-controlled lower limb system, according to AOPA. Zahedi is technical director at Chas A. Blatchford and Sons in Basingstoke, UK, and visiting professor at the Bournemouth University Design Simulation Research Center in Poole, UK. Queen Elizabeth II knighted him this year “for services to engineering and innovation.”
AOPA gave Inventor Awards to Van Phillips for Reykjavik, Iceland-based Össur’s Flex-Foot; Martin “Marty” Carlson, CPO(E), FAAOP, for Minneapolis, MN-based Tamarack Habilitation Technologies’ Flexure Joint; M.E. “Bill” Miller, CO, for Avon, MA-based Boston O&P’s thoraco-lumbo-sacral-orthosis; and Kelly James, PEng, for Austin, TX-based Ottobock’s C-Leg.
Thranhardt Lecture Series “best in show” winners are Shenan Hoppe-Ludwig, CPO, of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, for a report on microprocessor-controlled orthoses, and Andrea Giovanni Cutti, MEng, PhD, of the Budrio, Italy-based National Institute for Insurance Against Accidents at Work, for work on gait rehabilitation reference values for lower-limb amputees.
