Prof. Stéphane Sobczak

Professor Stéphane Sobczak earned a Master’s degree in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, as well as a specialized Master’s degree in Motor Sciences with a focus on Osteopathic Physical Therapy, both from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium, in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

Following this specialized Master’s, he became an assistant professor at the Laboratory of Anatomy, Biomechanics, and Organogenesis (LABO) at the same university's Faculty of Medicine.

He has conducted extensive research in the fields of orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation, and he received his PhD in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences in January 2012.

Before joining the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières in June 2015, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) in Lubbock.

After his postdoctoral fellowship, he returned to Belgium to continue his research and clinical practice at the musculoskeletal rehabilitation center of the Erasme University Hospital.

Professor Sobczak has spent many years teaching human anatomy, topographical anatomy, palpation anatomy, and clinical joint testing across numerous medical and paramedical science programs.

Since April 2021, Professor Sobczak has been a full professor of clinical anatomy at UQTR. He is also involved in postgraduate training and serves as an instructor in manual therapy at the Collège d’Enseignement en Thérapies Manuelles Appliquées (Brussels, Belgium), where he has been the scientific director since 2018.

His research focuses on the mechanical and physiological consequences of applying manual techniques, as well as surgical procedures, within the neuro-musculoskeletal system.

Currently, his research program is focused on developing a new functional diagnostic method to determine lumbar spine movements using ultrasonography.

He is also working on intervertebral disc rehydration, specifically investigating treatments that can improve the disc's fluid reuptake.

Since arriving in Quebec in June 2015, Professor Sobczak has secured numerous research grants, including a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

More recently, he was awarded a research chair in functional anatomy, which has allowed him to develop a brand-new laboratory dedicated specifically to functional anatomy research using cadaveric models.

He is the author of over 50 scientific articles published in international journals and serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals in the fields of manual therapy, biomechanics, and orthopedic trauma.

His expertise is frequently sought internationally to provide training to clinicians in the field of manual therapy.

‍