Our congratulations go to Dr Sebastian Kopf who has been awarded the 2008 AGA-Aircast Pittsburgh Research Fellowship. Sebastian, who is resident in Traumatology and Orthopaedics at the University Clinic of Orthopaedics at Magdeburg, Germany, has a special interest in arthroscopy, sports medicine and related research.

Sebastian won the AGA-DonJoy Award 2006 with the paper ‘’The extent of laceration of circumferential fibres with suture repair of the knee meniscus’. His first introduction to arthroscopic related research was while he was investigating the effect of Vascular Endothelial Growth factor (VEGF) on meniscal healing for his dissertation sponsored by AGA. He has also been involved in biomechanical research regarding meniscal lesions, clinical follow-up and MRI studies of patients after ACL reconstruction. Following his meeting with Professor Fu in Salzburg at last year’s AGA, he accepted a personal invitation from him to visit him in Pittsburgh last December. He said: “Because of my experience in Pittsburgh and my specialist interests I am convinced that spending a year with Professor Fu will be invaluable to my career. I am truly thankful to AGA and fellowship sponsors DJO/Aircast for giving me this exceptional opportunity.”