• Dear Friends,
  
  I wanted to share the news that our colleague, mentor, and friend Bob Johnson passed away last week in Vermont, surrounded by his wife Shirley, his daughters, and friends. Bob was a giant in the field of Orthopedics, and his impact on skiing safety and on our ISSS group over the past 50 years is hard to capture.
  
  I met Bob in the winter early in 1988, at the injury clinic at Sugarbush, where so many people in our industry spent some time learning about ski injury epidemiology, boot-binding interfaces, and knee biomechanics, and later worked briefly in the Department of Orthopedics at University of Vermont, where I met my wife Ann, who Bob mentored as Master’s student studying knee injuries in sports. So you could say Bob had a pretty significant impact on my life professionally and personally! What struck me most was Bob’s strong desire to apply scientific method and rigor and to teach others the same, recognizing the messiness of field data collection and analysis surrounding winter sports injuries on the slopes. Bob led ISSS for many years with a never-ending passion to make our Society better and improve our collective scientific knowledge, and his worldwide reach alongside many others including Ejnar and Arne (and so many others), touched the lives of many orthopedic surgeons, ski injury researchers, and his patients.
  
  I know we all, together with SeongPyo and the others who will attend ISSS 2026, will honor Bob and his legacy, and remember his many contributions and service.
  
  Wishing you and your families peace.
  
  
  
  Best regards,
  
  Rick Greenwald
  
  

• ISSS 2026 PyeongChang will open with a very special keynote that honors one of the most influential research journeys in sports medicine history—the Sugarbush Project and the Vermont Group.
  The opening keynote will be jointly delivered by Jasper E. Shealy, a member of the Vermont Group and a key figure in ISSS history, and Heidi Ettlinger, who continues the lifelong work of her father, Carl Ettlinger, a legend whose contributions shaped modern concepts of ski injury prevention.
  This keynote will trace the origins of the Sugarbush Project, offering first-hand historical perspectives on how the research began, the scientific methodology that guided it, and the critical milestones that transformed our understanding of knee injuries. Beyond research findings, the session will highlight how decades of rigorous science were translated into real-world impact through initiatives such as ACL Awareness and Tips for Knee-Friendly Skiing, fundamentally changing injury prevention practices worldwide.
  By combining historical insight, scientific rigor, and practical application, this opening keynote will set the tone for ISSS 2026—linking the congress’s rich legacy with its future direction in sports injury research and prevention.

• Professor Emeritus from RIT (Rochester Institute of Technology)
• Principal of GEAR (Guidance Engineering and Applied Research)
• Co-Principal Investigator for the Sugarbush Group

• Snowsports Education Leader
• Founder, Gearing to Go LLC
• Steward of the Ettlinger Injury Prevention Legacy
• PSIA-AASI National Alpine Team alumna (2012–2021),
• member of the ASTM F-27 Committee

ISSS2026.com      info@isss2026.com

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