About Elemance

When elements of the human body collide with the world around it, the outcome is often nuanced.

Elemance, LLC, an engineering software and services company, explores the interaction of technologies with the human body. Elemance enables nuanced design through finite element analysis and other data science-based approaches. Elemance continually advances and licenses a suite of virtual human body models, giving companies and researchers tools to comprehensively evaluate products for safety and efficacy. Elemance’s talented team also provides services to partners addressing design challenges in applied biomechanics.

When designing a technology, one of the greatest challenges is to understand how the human body will respond to using it. Elemance licenses finite element models that accurately reproduce the human body’s response to real-life circumstances, greatly expanding the ability of researchers and product designers to address potential challenges.

In 2006, a global effort to advance crash safety technology, the Global Human Body Model Consortium (GHBMC), was founded. This international collaboration resulted in the original suite of human body models, now licensable through Elemance. The creation of Elemance helped to expand the application of the models by making the family of GHBMC models available to any researcher, whether in industry or academia.

At Elemance, we believe that giving deeper insight to how the human body behaves can improve the safety of technologies. We also believe that safety research should reflect a wide range of the population, so we continue to develop a family of models that represent a range of ages, sexes and sizes to help create technologies and procedures that take all types of people into account.

As the specificity and range of models has expanded, Elemance has also expanded its offerings to help R&D groups and individuals assess their designs in a detailed and accurate way through our team of biomechanics experts. Wherever technology touches a human, we want to be there to make sure that human is safe.

Developing Tools To Prevent and Reduce Injury

Behind every project that Elemance undertakes is the drive to protect human lives and prevent injuries. Our team of biomechanics experts uses their experience in injury biomechanics and finite element analysis to provide human body modeling tools with the greatest accuracy in predicting injury that can be applied to a wide range of industries.

MEET THE TEAM

Our biomechanics experts bring their knowledge and experience to the development and support of the GHBMC human body models, as well as the engineering services we offer to our clients.

Joel Stitzel, PhD

Joel Stitzel, PhD

CEO, Co-Founder

Joe Stitzel

Joel Stitzel, PhD

CEO and Joint Founder
Dr. Stitzel has worked in Injury Biomechanics for 18 years. He received a BS in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech, an MS in Biomedical Engineering from the Medical College of Virginia, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2003.  Dr. Stitzel’s expertise is in the prediction, mitigation, and prevention of trauma in automotive, sports, and military applications and has published over 145 peer-reviewed journal articles relating to injury biomechanics. He is currently Chair of Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s Biomedical Engineering Department and the Associate Head of the VT-WFU School of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Stitzel serves as the President of the AAAM (Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine). He is the engineering Co-PI of the Wake Forest – Virginia Tech Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) center, and was the founding PI and now co-PI of the Global Human Body Models Consortium (GHBMC) Integration Center.
Scott Gayzik, PhD

Scott Gayzik, PhD

CTO, Co-Founder

Scott Gayzik

Scott Gayzik, PhD

CTO and Joint Founder
Dr. Gayzik earned his BS and MS from Virginia Tech and his PhD from Wake Forest University in Biomedical Engineering in 2008. His dissertation work focused on the development of a computationally based injury metric for pulmonary contusion. His interests span multiple areas in injury biomechanics including morphometrics, the development of physical surrogates, and applications in bioheat transfer. Dr. Gayzik is currently an associate professor at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the Virginia Tech -Wake Forest Center for Injury Biomechanics. He is the technical lead of the Full Body Models Center of Expertise of the GHBMC. Dr. Gayzik currently serves on the scientific review committee for the International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury (IRCOBI). He has published extensively in the field, and his work has been recognized for excellence at the Stapp Car Crash Conference, and the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine.
Matthew Davis, PhD

Matthew Davis, PhD

Chief Operating Officer

Matthew Davis

Matthew L. Davis, PhD

Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Davis earned his BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He earned his MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering.  During his time at VT-WFU, Dr. Davis was a member of the Full Body Models Center of Expertise of the GHBMC, an industry-sponsored and government supported effort to develop a suite of industry-standard FE human body models for crash injury prediction and prevention.  He has also supported several DoD sponsored initiatives related to human body modeling and their application in the military arena.  His dissertation work was focused on the development of a human body FE model of a small female.  His interests span multiple areas in injury biomechanics including the development of computational human body models.
Derek Jones, PhD

Derek Jones, PhD

VP of Engineering Services

Derek Jones

Derek Jones, PhD

VP of Engineering Services

Derek Jones, PhD, serves as Vice President of Engineering Services at Elemance. He earned his PhD and MS in Biomedical Engineering from Wake Forest University, and holds a BS in Engineering Science and Mechanics from Virginia Tech. With finite element modeling expertise spanning sports, military, medical devices, automotive, and aerospace, Derek has improved safety and performance in diverse industries. From enhancing sports gear design to researching life-saving automotive protection systems, his multidisciplinary approach has driven advancements across the board. Derek continues to lead teams shaping a safer and technologically advanced future.

James Gaewsky, PhD

James Gaewsky, PhD

Senior Engineer

Derek Jones

James Gaewsky, PhD

Senior Engineer

James (Jamie) Newman-Gaewsky earned his BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Rochester in 2013. He earned his MS (2015) and PhD (2019) in Biomedical Engineering from the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering with a focus on computational modeling and medical image analysis. His computational modeling experience spans multiple industries. While at Wake Forest, his research projects included finite element (FE) reconstruction of motor vehicle crashes, analysis of FE occupant models in spacecraft seats, and injury prediction with FE models in motor sport collisions. At Elemance, he has led the development and delivery of both commercially available and internal software products and tools, and has experience across the spectrum of data science, machine learning, web application development, GUI development, and advanced statistical modeling in the setting of injury biomechanics. He has also developed patient-specific cardiothoracic CAD datasets from MRI and CT data for industry partners.

Zach Hostetler, PhD

Zach Hostetler, PhD

Senior Engineer

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Zach Hostetler, PhD

Senior Engineer

Zach Hostetler earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Baylor University in 2017. He earned his MS (2019) and PhD (2022) in Biomedical Engineering from the Virginia Tech-Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering.

His Master's work focused on CT image analysis to develop population specific finite element models of thorax to investigate cortical thickness changes with age and sex. Zach's PhD work focused on computational human body modeling and injury risk curve development. His primary work included validation and injury risk curve development for lower extremity injuries using a human body model in the underbody blast environment. He also supported validation work for a finite element ATD model for military safety applications and automotive work for human body modeling and injury risk curve development in the far-side crash environment.

Elizabeth Carlson, MS

Elizabeth Carlson, MS

Project Manager

Elizabeth Carlson

Elizabeth Carlson, MS

Project Manager

Elizabeth earned her BS in Mathematics from UNC Charlotte and her MS in Engineering Management from Old Dominion University and has been with Elemance since 2016. She has experience leading engineering projects for military customers. Elizabeth has a technical background in weapons analysis in simulations and developing target vulnerability models.

Sarah Stitzel, MS

Sarah Stitzel, MS

Sales & Licensing Manager

Elizabeth Carlson

Sarah Stitzel, MS

Sales & Licensing Manager/Engineer

Sarah earned her B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1999 and 2000 and has been at Elemance since 2014. Her masters research focused on computational simulations of gas turbine engine flow fields. She has experience with finite element modeling in support of NASA aerospace and military projects.

Nolan Norton, PhD

Nolan Norton, PhD

Research Engineer

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Nolan Norton, PhD

Research Engineer

Nolan Norton earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama in 2016. He earned his MS (2018) and PhD (2021) in Bioengineering from the University of Kansas. His graduate research focused on the use of finite element (FE) modeling to understand musculoskeletal injuries in the thumb and knee. His interests are in the development and utilization of computational models to decrease injury risk and improve quality of life.

 

Alex Kalmar-Gonzalo, BS

Alex Kalmar-Gonzalo, BS

Biomechanical Engineer

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Alex Kalmar-Gonzalo

Biomechanical Engineer

​Alex earned his BS in Biomedical and Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2022. Alex played football at WPI which lead him to conduct a lot of his research in the field of Traumatic Brain Injuries occurring in sports collisions. His senior project focused on redesigning a football helmet to drastically reduce the effects of football collisions on the brain. This new design focused on a system of nonlinear springs that will theoretically absorb large amounts of forces as displacement continues to increase. He has also interned in the field of Biotechnology where he focused on developing a new synthetic Biomaterial.

Drew DiSerafino, BS

Drew DiSerafino, BS

Biomechanical Engineer

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Drew DiSerafino

Biomechanical Engineer

​Drew DiSerafino earned his BS in Biomedical Engineering from the NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2022. His research work included developing a Finite Element model for an in vitro human vocal fold platform. Drew also has project experience developing a computational model of electromagnetic heating of liver tissue during ablation therapy.

 

Sarah Crimmins, MS

Sarah Crimmins, MS

Biomechanical Engineer

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Sarah Crimmins, MS

Biomechanical Engineer

Sarah earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering (2022) and MS in Biomedical Engineering (2023) from Virginia Tech. Her graduate research work focused on quantitative texture analysis of patellar tendon ultrasound images in collegiate basketball players to help understand patellar tendinopathy injuries in jumping sports. Sarah also focused on developing a bobsled transfer device for paraplegic athletes in Lake Placid during her senior design project. Her interests are focused in injury biomechanics and medical devices for the improvement of quality of life.

 

Jeremy Schap, BS

Jeremy Schap, BS

Biomechanical Engineer

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Jeremy Schap, BS

Biomechanical Engineer

Jeremy earned his BS in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Biomechanics at North Carolina State University in 2013. In 2013 to 2018 he was a research engineer at the Center for Injury Biomechanics at Wake Forest University where his primary work was on the development and validation of the full body GHBMC FE models. He then spent two years living in Germany where he learned German and German culture before returning to the U.S.A. in 2020 to resume FE biomechanics modeling work. Throughout his career, he has developed and collaborated on FE models across multiple applications. Some of these models include an ATD for under-body blast (UBB) for the Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin (WIAMan) program, the I-PREDICT human model for Behind Armor Blunt Trauma (BABT) research, the NASCAR race car model, and an ovine thorax finite element model for high-rate non-penetrating blunt injuries.

 

Tanner Filben, PhD

Tanner Filben, PhD

Research Engineer

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Tanner Filben, PhD

Research Engineer

Tanner Filben earned his BS in Biomedical Engineering from West Virginia University in 2018. He earned his MS (2020) and PhD (2023) in Biomedical Engineering from the Virginia Tech - Wake Forest School of Biomedical Engineering.

Tanner’s MS and PhD work was based on the measurement and characterization of sport-related head acceleration exposure. His primary focus was quantifying head impact kinematics and tissue-level brain strain during purposeful soccer heading and evaluating strategies for reducing head acceleration exposure in soccer. In addition to soccer-related work, Tanner also contributed to projects focused on the measurement of head accelerations in football and motorsports. Tanner’s experience has cultivated skill sets in wearable sensors, 3D motion capture, signal processing, finite element modeling, statistical analysis, and interpretation of neuropsychological assessments of brain health.

Elemance’s Global Roots and Global Reach

At Elemance, the human body models we distribute are rooted in the work of the Global Human Body Models Consortium (GHBMC), a global effort founded in 2006 to advance crash safety technology.

The GHBMC brought together the resources and expertise of 10 automakers and suppliers and seven universities to advance human body modeling technologies. By consolidating world-wide research into crash simulation, the GHBMC created a family of validated virtual human body models that are incredibly detailed and able to predict tissue-specific injuries with great accuracy. Each region of these virtual human body models were developed by researchers from institutions specializing in that specific body region, giving the models a great depth of expertise.

The result of this international collaboration was a family of 13 human body models with both detailed and simplified versions of a variety of ages, sexes and sizes in multiple postures.

The Center for Injury Biomechanics at Wake Forest School of Medicine serves as the integration center for the GHBMC, led by Joel Stitzel, PhD, and Scott Gayzik, PhD. In 2014, Stitzel and Gayzik founded Elemance out of the GHBMC as a way to provide access to these state-of-the-art human body models to non-GHBMC members. Elemance became the sole distributor of the GHBMC family of models.

While the GHBMC was created with the express purpose of advancing crash simulations, Elemance brings the same technology to simulations across a wide range of applications and industries in order to prevent and reduce injuries.

General Motors
Nissan
Renault
Honda
Hyundai
Honda

Let’s Introduce Ourselves

If you’re interested in how Elemance can support your research or product design process, we’d love to start a conversation with you about our products and services.

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Our Mission

Elemance strives to provide truly human-centered design solutions to enhance the protection and quality of life.