Biographies of Authors and Editors
McKellop, Harry A. Ph.D.
Director
The J. Vernon Luck Sr. M.D. Orthopaedic Research Center
Vice President for Research, Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital
2400 South Flower Street, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA
E-mail: Hmckellop@laoh.ucla.edu
Web-site: www.orthohospital.org - www.jri-oh.com
During the past thirty years, in affiliation with the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles, Harry McKellopÕs research has involved the biomechanics and biomaterials of orthopaedic implants, including fracture fixation devices and artificial joints. In particular, Dr. McKellop has investigated the fundamental wear processes of prosthetic joints, how these are best modeled in laboratory wear simulators, and how the materials may be modified to improve their wear resistance. The metallic components have included stainless steel, cobalt-chromium alloy and titanium alloy, in some cases with hardening treatments such as diamond-like coatings and ion-implanting. Most recently, Dr. McKellopÕs team developed a technique for crosslinking the UHMW polyethylene components using gamma radiation and remelting, which increases the wear resistance of the polymer ten-fold while markedly improving stability against long-term oxidative degradation.
