Bethany Suderman, Ph.D., P.E.

Senior Biomechanical Engineer

Dr. Bethany Suderman is a Senior Biomechanical Engineer at Guidance Engineering and specializes in accident reconstruction and injury biomechanics. Dr. Suderman has investigated injury claims arising from motor vehicle accidents, slip/trip and falls, and recreational activities. By applying the principles of engineering to the human body, she determines the forces and motions experienced during an event and analyzes whether they are consistent with an alleged injury. Dr.Suderman also compares these forces and motions to injury tolerance levels and those produced during other activities to provide context for the forces and motions. She has investigated and evaluated injury claims involving personal protective equipment in workplace and recreational environments. Dr. Suderman also has experience using injuries as evidence to determine how a particular event occurred.

Dr. Suderman has conducted studies using anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs “crash test dummies”) and computational human models to determine forces and motions acting on the head and neck in accidents involving falling objects and falls to the ground. She has also assessed the energy attenuating potential of personal protective headgear. Dr. Suderman has worked with national motor vehicle and injury surveillance databases to determine the types of injuries people sustain in motor vehicle, recreational, and workplace accidents. Dr. Suderman has a critical understanding of kinematic and dynamic analyses and mechanics of biomaterials, which she uses to determine forces and motions acting on the human body.

Prior to joining Guidance Engineering, Dr. Suderman was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Washington State University where she conducted research in the field of biomechanical engineering. She developed musculoskeletal models of the cervical spine from magnetic resonance images (MRI) of human subjects to simulate human movement and determine muscle strains and forces, joint kinematics, and compressive forces on intervertebral discs. Dr. Suderman also conducted human subject studies where she measured neck strength and muscle activity of volunteers in different head and neck postures associated with whiplash.