Dr. Marcus Hollis earned a BS (1979) in civil engineering from Clemson University, then an MS (1983) in biomedical engineering from UAB and a PhD (1988) in bioengineering from the University of California in San Diego.  After seven years as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and head of the Section of Biomechanics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, he accepted a position as Assistant Professor with the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of South Alabama (USA), and became president of Blue Bay Research Inc. in Mobile, AL.  In 1996, Dr. Hollis earned the rank Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at USA, and became president of Vector Medical Inc. in 2000.

Dr. Hollis’ current research interests include soft tissue injury biomechanics, injury causation, and other areas of biomechanics.  He has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, abstracts and presentations. In his SCIB-sponsored research, Dr. Hollis is focusing on the determination of cervical spine substructure mechanical properties.  Specifically, the study is designed to establish an efficient in vivo cadaveric biometrical experimental model of the spine as a method capable of quantifying both the gross structural properties of multiple and single motion segments of the spine, and the structural and material properties of the constraining soft tissue for a single specimen.  This information will be made available for incorporation into spinal models, with the eventual goal of developing age, size and gender specific spinal injury models.