NIRA Award honors emerging orthopaedics leader
The UNMC Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation actively participated in the Orthopaedic Research Society Annual Meeting in March 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. A prestigious international gathering in musculoskeletal research, the meeting brings together leading clinicians, scientists, engineers and trainees to share cutting-edge discoveries and advance orthopaedic care.
The team gave three podium presentations and presented two posters that reflect the strength and impact of the department’s research program and collaborations.
Kareem Omran, a researcher at UNMC completing his graduate studies in orthopaedic biomechanics, received the highly competitive New Investigator Recognition Award at the ORS for his work titled, “Automated 3D Analysis of Bilateral Weight-Bearing CT Data Enables Accurate Detection of Subtle Syndesmotic Injury.”
Omran served as presenter for all three podium presentations, with Kevin Dibbern, PhD, assistant professor in the UNMC Division of Pediatric Sports Medicine, as the senior author on two projects and national collaborators contributing across institutions, including the University of Iowa, Duke University and NYU Langone Orthopedics. Omran also is working under the guidance of faculty members Drs. Dave Kingston, Sara Putnam and Hani Haider.
Finalists for the NIRA Award are selected from thousands of submissions and invited to present their work in a podium session, where expert reviewers evaluate them. Omran’s recognition as one of only two award recipients in the models and imaging category also highlights his work’s innovation and clinical relevance.
The presentations, as well as prior weight-bearing CT work presented at the American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society, are notable because they were conducted in collaboration with external institutions before the installation of UNMC and Nebraska Medicine’s own weight-bearing CT technology, which will be available for patient care in the near future.
With the addition of a CurveBeam HiRise weight-bearing CT scanner, the orthopeadic department will be positioned to expand both clinical care and research capabilities in this rapidly evolving area.
-UNMC Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation
Former STAR scholar earns prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship
Vamsi Singu, a former participant in the UNMC Department of Anesthesiology’s Summer Training in Anesthesia Research (STAR) program, has been awarded the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, a prestigious undergraduate research award in the sciences, engineering and mathematics.
Singu, now a rising senior and Early Medical School Acceptance Program scholar at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, first joined the lab of Gurudutt Pendyala, PhD, Robert Lieberman Endowed Professor of Anesthesiology, through the STAR program in 2023. Over the past two and a half years, he has made substantial contributions to ongoing research, co-authoring two publications, including a manuscript currently under review for which he serves as first author.
The Goldwater Scholarship, established by Congress in 1986, is designed to identify and financially support outstanding undergraduates with the potential to become the next generation of research leaders Scholars are selected from an estimated pool of more than 5,000 college sophomores and juniors nominated by academic institutions across the country.
Singu plans to pursue an MD/PhD at Johns Hopkins University with a focus in neuroscience, specifically researching novel therapeutic targets for neurodegeneration.
“This national recognition speaks to his exceptional talent, dedication and promise as a future physician-scientist,” Dr. Pendyala said. “We’re very proud of him and excited to see what lies ahead.”
-Sarah Hankin, UNMC strategic communications