Blaine Hoshizaki

Blaine Hoshizaki is director of the Neurotrauma Impact Science Laboratory at the University of Ottawa. He is an internationally-recognized scientist in head and brain injury.

Over the past 25 years, Dr. Hoshizaki has developed a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between head impact mechanics and neurological outcomes and damage. He has 190 refereed scientific publications, has given over 300 scientific presentations and holds 22 product patents.  He has applied scientific discovery to product development in VP roles for CCM Hockey and Bauer Hockey. He has consulted for the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers, and in 2011, was named as one of the top 50 most influential people in sport by the Globe and Mail.

During the United States Senate committee hearings on concussions and the marketing of sports equipment (112th Congress), Professor Hoshizaki was described as an expert scientist and biomechanical engineer who had published excellent work regarding helmet performance and the mechanics of head injury.  

Hoshizaki’s engineering and design teams have developed helmets for a multitude of sports, including ice hockey, cycling, snowmobile, lacrosse, equestrian sport and football, as well as motorcycle helmets.  Hoshizaki has chaired the ISO Committee for Ice Hockey Product Certification, as well as serving as a member of the NOCSAE, ASTM and CSA helmet safety committees. 
With 25 years of head injury research and business development experience, Hoshizaki sees an opportunity to make a large-scale impact on risk mitigation through monitoring and managing head trauma accurately and accessibly.

Professor Hoshizaki is accepting new students for thesis supervision.

Neurotrauma Impact Science Laboratory

Improving our understanding of the relationship between head trauma and brain injury.

• We undertake head impact reconstruction to measure brain trauma in sports. By understanding how and why impacts occur in different environments and sports, and with different groups (age, sex), we can better understand the relationship between physical brain trauma and the manifestation of injury and disease. 

Working with industry partners to inform product innovation based on science.

• Our research creates valid, diverse datasets consistent with our industry collaborations on science-based innovation projects. Our methods and research create tools to evaluate, develop and inform safer sports product designs. Examples include CCM youth and women-specific helmets and body protection, and MIPS evaluating rotational technology in motorsport, cycling, snow, older adult head protection, etc.

Understanding the relationship between game environment (rules) and risk of head injuries in sport.

• Our research supports the understanding of how the rules and game environment create a risk of brain trauma and injury. Our methods objectively evaluate sport-specific rules and regulations, enforcement, interventions, level of play and age group to determine how trauma is created and experienced by participants. This provides sports groups (Hockey Canada, USA Hockey) and educational institutions with scientific research to guide them in implementing rules and developing strategies to mitigate injury risk within their organizations.

Developing data capture technology and applying AI to create large data sets, to understand the relationship between brain trauma and neurodegenerative brain disease.

• The relationship between physical brain trauma and short and long-term consequences, including neurodegenerative brain disease, is complex and poorly described. We are developing a method of automatically evaluating and quantifying brain trauma using AI techniques to create large datasets to understand this phenomenon better. Large data sets are needed to discern subtle relationships between brain trauma and mental health.

See Blaine Hoshizaki’s publications.

Papers in refereed journals

• Amy Murphy; Andrew Pos; Michael D. Gilchrist; J. Michio Clark; Blaine Hoshizaki. Comparing equestrian helmets with and without rotational technology using an equestrian concussive specific helmet test protocol, Sports Engineering (2024), 27:7.
• Champeau Luc; A. Post; M.D. Gilchrist; T. B. Hoshizaki. Comparison of three different ice hockey helmets using an ice hockey specific test protocol Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology (2024).
• Katherine Poon, Andrew Post, Susan Brien, Jennifer Rovt, Scott Dutrisac, Michael Cusimano, Alireza Jalali, Shannon Goodwin, Oren Petel, Clara Karton, Thomas Hoshizaki. A Novel Mechanism of Periventricular Strain Observed in Post-Mortem Human Brains for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Neurosurgery, Vol. 69, No. 1 2023.
• Zimmerman, Karl; Cournoyer, Janie; Lai, Helen; Snider, Samuel; Fischer, David; Kemp, Simon; Karton, Clara; Hoshizaki, T; Ghajari, Mazdak; Sharp, David. The biomechanical signature of loss of consciousness: computational modelling of elite athlete head injuries, BRAIN-2022-01177.
• Jessica Butterfield, Andrew Post, Clara Karton, Michael A Robidoux, Michael Gilchrist & T. B. Hoshizaki, A video analysis examination of the frequency and type of head impacts for player positions in youth ice hockey and FE estimation of their impact severity, Sports Biomechanics.
• Vale A, Andrew Post, Janie Cournoyer, T. Blaine Hoshizaki & Michael D., Gilchrist. Influence of play type on the magnitude and number of head impacts sustained in youth American football, Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering.
• Cournoyer J, C. Karton, D. Koncan, M.D. Gilchrist, R.C. Cantu, T.B. Hoshizaki. Brain trauma exposure for American tackle football players 5 to 9 and 9 to 14 years of age, Journal of Biomechanics 127, (2021) 110689.
• Scott Dutrisac, Jennifer Rovt, Andrew Post, Shannon Goodwin, Greg O. Cron, Alireza Jalali, Katherine Poon, Susan Brien, Hanspeter Frei, T. Blaine Hoshizaki, Oren E. Petel. Intracranial displacement measurements within targeted anatomical regions of a postmortem human surrogate subjected to impact, Annals of Biomedical Engineering 2021 49(10), 2836-285.
• Oren E. Petel, Scott Dutrisac, Jennifer Rovt, Andrew Post, Shannon Goodwin, Cron G.O., Alireza Jalali, Hanspeter Frei, Katherine Poon, Susan Brien, T. Blaine Hoshizaki. Intracranial Displacement Measurements Within Targeted Anatomical Regions of a Postmortem Human Surrogate Brain Subjected to Impact, Annals of Biomedical Engineering (2021).
• Hoshizaki T., A. Post, C. Zerpa, E. Legace, T.B. Hoshizaki and M. Gilchrist. Evaluation of two rotational helmet technologies to decrease peak rotational acceleration in cycling helmets, Nature – Scientific Reports 12:7735, 2022.
• Cournoyer, J., David Koncan, Michael D. Gilchrist, and T. Blaine Hoshizaki. The Influence of Neck Stiffness on Head Kinematics and Maximum Principal Strain Associated With Youth American Football Collisions, Journal of Applied Biomechanics.
• Kosziwka G. L. Champoux. J. Cournoyer, M Gilchrist, T.B. Hoshizaki. Risk of head injury associated with distinct head impact events in elite women’s hockey, Journal of Concussion, Vol. 5 1-8. 2021.
• Dutrisac S., M. Brannen, T.B. Hoshizaki, H. Frei, E. Petel. A parametric analysis of embedded tissue marker properties and their effect on the accuracy of displacement measurements, Journal of Biomechanical Engineering June 2021.
• Meliambro J, Clara Karton, Janie Cournoyer, Andrew Post, T. Blaine Hoshizaki & Michael D. Gilchrist. Comparison of head impact frequency and magnitude in youth tackle football and ice hockey, Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering.
• Khatib A, Andrew Post, Thomas Hoshizaki & Michael D. Gilchrist. Brain trauma characteristics for lightweight and heavyweight fighters in professional mixed martial arts, Sports Biomechanics, ISSN: (Print) (Online) 2021.
• Meehan A, Post, A., Gilchrist, M.D., Hoshizaki, T.B. Investigation of ice hockey helmet test protocol representing three concussion event types, Journal of Testing and Evaluation, 2021.
• Khatib, A., Post, A., Hoshizaki, T.B. The influence of neck stiffness on head kinematics and maximum principal strain associated with youth American football collisions, Journal of Applied Biomechanics. 2021.
• Ignacy, T., Post, A., Gardner, A. J., Gilchrist, M.D., Hoshizaki, T.B. Comparison of dynamic response and maximum principal strain of diagnosed concussion in professional men’s rugby league, Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology. 2021.
• Zimmerman, K.A., Kim, J., Karton, C., Lochhead, L., Sharp, D.J., Hoshizaki, T.B., Ghajari, M. Player position in American Football influences the magnitude of mechanical strains produced in the location of chronic traumatic encephalopathy pathology: a computational modelling study. Journal of Biomechanics, 118:110256, 2021.
• Karton, C., Post, A., Laflamme, Y., Kendall, M., Cournoyer, J., Robidoux, M.A, Gilchrist, M.D., Hoshizaki, T.B. Exposure to brain trauma in six divisions in minor ice hockey. Journal of Biomechanics, 116:110203, 2021.
• Post, A., Karton, C., Thevenot, O., Hoshizaki, T.B., Robidoux, M., Gilchrist, M.D. Comparison of frequency and magnitude of head impacts experienced by Peewee boys and girls in games of youth ice hockey. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 24(1):1-13, 2020.