Dr. Ania Lipat completed her Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, and PhD in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology at the University of Florida, specializing in Biomechanics. Throughout her training, she has gained extensive experience in gait analysis, with a specific focus on aging and chronic pain populations. During her undergraduate studies, she worked in the Orthopedic Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, where she helped develop and assess novel quantitative gait technologies for preclinical models of knee osteoarthritis.

As a Master’s student working in the Applied Neuromechanics Laboratory, she honed her clinical gait analysis skills while working on several interdisciplinary NIH grant-funded projects aimed at understanding age- and pain-related effects on mobility. As a PhD student in the Phenotyping and Assessment in Neuroscience (PAIN) Laboratory, she applied her gait expertise toward investigating neurophysiological sources of mobility impairments in older adults with chronic pain. Her recent work has focused on applying machine learning methods to physical function data to advance our understanding of the aging process. As part of her dissertation, she developed a novel ‘gait age’ measure using machine learning methods to predict age based on spatiotemporal gait performance.

Education

• PhD, University of Florida
• MS, University of Florida
• BS, University of Florida

Selected Editorial Activities

• Reviewer, Experimental Gerontology
• Reviewer, Journal of Pain

Selected Awards & Honors

• Top Student Presenter, Institute of Exercise Physiology and Rehabilitation Science Annual Meeting, 2025
• Allen, Holyoak, & Varnes Endowed Scholarship, College of Health and Human Performance, University of Florida, 2024
• Biological Sciences Minority Investigator Travel Award, Gerontological Society of America Annual Meeting, 2023
• Potter-Chafin Scholarship, College of Health and Human Performance, University of Florida, 2018
• Dr. Linton E. Grinter PhD Fellowship, The Graduate School, University of Florida, 2017

Selected Professional Activities

• Member, United States Association for the Study of Pain
• Member, Gerontological Society of America
• Member, American Society of Biomechanics