Gelsy Torres-Oviedo

Dr. Gelsy Torres-Oviedo is an accomplished researcher and educator specializing in locomotor learning, motor control, and neurorehabilitation. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh and Co-director of both the MS2PhD BRIDGE Fellowship and the Program in Neural Computation, a joint initiative between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Torres-Oviedo earned her B.S. in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin, a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Georgia Tech-Emory University, and completed postdoctoral training in Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Torres-Oviedo has received numerous honors, including the NSF CAREER Award and the Early Career Award from the Society for Neural Control of Movement. She has led multiple NIH- and NSF-funded projects. Through her leadership roles and interdisciplinary collaborations, Dr. Torres-Oviedo continues to advance knowledge in motor learning and rehabilitation, aiming to improve mobility and independence for older adults and individuals with movement disorders.

Her research focuses on understanding how humans adapt their walking patterns through interactions with their environment, with a particular emphasis on aging and neurological conditions such as stroke. Dr. Torres-Oviedo has made significant contributions to identifying age-related changes in locomotor plasticity, understanding muscle coordination for balance and locomotion, and characterizing gait adaptability in older adults and stroke survivors using split-belt treadmill paradigms. Her work has provided critical insights into how cognitive and neural mechanisms influence gait adaptability across the lifespan.

(2013 - 2014) Claude D. Pepper Center Junior Scholar.
(2010) Student Travel Award, 6th World Congress of Biomechanics.
(2010) Selected participant at NSF ADVANCE Junior Faculty Development Workshop.
(2010) Hon. Ruth D. Vogel Award.
(2007) Selected participant at NSF ADVANCE Women in Science and Engineering workshop for emerging faculty.
(2006) Howard Hughes Teacher-Scholar in ORDERS/INSPIRE program at Emory University.
(1999) Jeannie Hunter Hackett Award.
(1999) Natural Sciences College Scholar, University of Texas at Austin.
(1996 - 1999) Outstanding Undergraduate Scholarship ITESM Campus Monterrey.

Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, 2001 - 2007
B.S., Physics, University of Texas, 1999 - 2001

Gonzalez-Rubio, M., Iturralde, P.A., & Torres-Oviedo, G. (2026). Weber's Law in walking: sensory scaling is observed in multi-sensory, dynamic tasks. Sci Rep, 16(1), 25767.Springer Nature. doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-54948-5.
Mariscal, D.M., Sombric, C.J., & Torres-Oviedo, G. (2025). Age and self-selected walking speed impact the generalization of locomotor memories across contexts. J Neurophysiol, 133(5), 1410-1421.American Physiological Society. doi: 10.1152/jn.00432.2023.
Liu, S., Rosso, A.L., Baillargeon, E.M., Weinstein, A.M., Rosano, C., & Torres-Oviedo, G. (2023). Novel attentional gait index reveals a cognitive ability-related decline in gait automaticity during dual-task walking. Front Aging Neurosci, 15, 1283376.Frontiers. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2023.1283376.
Refy, O., Blanchard, B., Miller-Peterson, A., Dalrymple, A.N., Bedoy, E.H., Zaripova, A., Motaghedi, N., Mo, O., Panthangi, S., Reinhart, A., Torres-Oviedo, G., Geyer, H., & Weber, D.J. (2023). Dynamic spinal reflex adaptation during locomotor adaptation. J Neurophysiol, 130(4), 1008-1014.American Physiological Society. doi: 10.1152/jn.00248.2023.
de Kam, D., Iturralde, P.A., & Torres-Oviedo, G. (2020). Cerebral Contribution to the Execution, But Not Recalibration, of Motor Commands in a Novel Walking Environment. eNeuro, 7(1), eneuro.0493-eneu19.2020.Society for Neuroscience. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0493-19.2020.
Iturralde, P.A., & Torres-Oviedo, G. (2019). Corrective Muscle Activity Reveals Subject-Specific Sensorimotor Recalibration. eNeuro, 6(2), eneuro.0358-eneu18.2019.Society for Neuroscience. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0358-18.2019.

Research Interests

Sports science and exercise Neurosciences Biomedical engineering

Gelsy Torres-Oviedo

Awards

Biography

Publications