Prof. Dr. William R. Taylor

William (Bill) Taylor was appointed to the position of Professor of Movement Biomechanics within the Department of Health Sciences and Technology at ETH Zürich in 2012. After achieving his degree in Mechanical Engineering, he completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Bath, England in 1999 using finite element analysis to analyse the bone adaptation that occurs around new designs of hip prostheses. After spending a year at the Biomechanics Research Lab, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia, he moved to Germany in 2001, where he led the research group “Functional Analysis” at the Julius Wolff Institute, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.

As head of the Laboratory for Movement Biomechanics, his research now aims to provide new approaches for quantifying functional outcome in patients, both pre-operatively and after therapy. Through developing medical engineering concepts for evaluating joint stability and stiffness, as well as accurate and robust techniques for assessing motion patterns, his goal is to identify musculoskeletal deficits and movement pathologies at an early time point. Using these techniques to evaluate the differences between physiology and pathology, as well as functional status after therapy, his research further aims to complement clinical decision making by opening perspectives for targeting therapies towards patients who would gain most benefit. This research has led to a number of international awards and its impact has also been reflected in over 160 internationally peer-reviewed journal contributions.