Behind the Science with Vincent Castronuovo, ORISE Fellow in the Military Performance Division
How long have you been at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine?
I've been at USARIEM for about a year and a half as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education research fellow, joining Kate Aaron and Julie Hughes on the Bone team.
How did you become interested in Soldier Nutrition and Performance?
I was taking a musculoskeletal biomechanics class during my master's at Northeastern University when Julie Hughes guest lectured in my class and talked about her work at USARIEM focusing on bone stress injuries in soldiers. I, myself, have had multiple stress fractures from running in the past and have always had a passion for understanding and preventing these types of musculoskeletal injuries. After meeting Julie, I knew I wanted to be a part of the work going on here at USARIEM.
What projects are you currently working on?
I am currently working on analyzing data from the ARIEM Reduction in Musculoskeletal Injury study and expanding capabilities for measuring and quantifying bone strength. In one analysis, I am comparing bone stress injury history to bone quality in soldiers at the start of basic combat training, measured by high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography. I'm also working on developing a method to reliably measure more proximal tibial sites with high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography and expanding finite element analysis capabilities to be a more accurate representation of Basic Combat Training scenarios.
What aspects of your job do you love and find most gratifying?
I love being able to contribute to the human science community and getting to do it with people with so much passion for the same cause. It's exciting to see all the different projects and individuals with different backgrounds all supporting soldier safety and human health.
What part of your job do you find to be the most difficult?
It can sometimes be frustrating how long things take to get approval and go through everyone required to review it before data can be collected or papers can be submitted, etc.
When you are not at the Institute, what do you like to do for fun?
I really love running. I've been competitively running since high school and have been mainly focusing on running marathons since college - I am planning on running my 4th Boston Marathon and 8th overall marathon this year! I also work part time at a running shoe store, Marathon Sports, in Boston.
2025
2024
2023
