A New Chapter for Theo

An update from our Co-Founder 

To our Zebrafish Neuro community,

You know how spinal cord injury forces a change in identity, so we as SCI athletes tend to do things for our bodies so that we can re-gain the abilities we’ve lost?

Well, what if we put just as much effort post-injury into developing our minds, relationships, and passions? Isn’t that also part of recovery: the return to life, and the nourishment of the soul?

After spending the first five years following my injury just on my physical recovery, I switched my attention back to the part of myself that feels more like me than even my spastic legs: my curiosity.

I returned to my studies at MIT, built rocket hardware, and even fulfilled my dream to live in Brazil. Last month, I started my PhD studies in Aerospace Engineering at Georgia Tech with the Low Gravity Science & Technology Lab – a thrilling next stop toward my dream of building new systems for human spaceflight. 

Through some self-discovery and discussions with Stephanie about our vision for ZN this coming year, I’ve realized that I simply cannot be everything, everywhere, all at once (and still give the attention required to each area).

To focus on this new phase of my life I have begun – with both sadness and excitement – to wind down my direct involvement with Zebrafish. This letter to our community marks my official change in role at ZN: from Co-Director and ZN Partner to Advisor and SCI athlete ambassador. This means I will still represent SCI athletes in our program and materials, but Stephanie will spearhead ZN’s initiatives with a team who can be fully engaged to push our mission forward. 

Our decade together

We started working together as an SCI athlete-trainer duo in 2014 and continued to build a partnership based on innovation and creativity over the years. By 2016, it was just us, a few colleagues, a handful of SCI athletes, our mentors in the Pilates community, and an open-minded Pilates studio willing to let us tinker with their equipment. We didn’t quite know what we would find, but it was certain that whatever we did find, we would need to share with the rest of the community. In 2017, we launched Zebrafish Neuro with the conviction that there were untapped opportunities for recovery that the rest of the world needed to know about. 

Stephanie supporting me for standing exercises, 2014.

Experimenting with Pilates equipment, while Stephanie places pressure on my feet, 2016.

Seven years later and here we are: 

• Our book From the Ground Up has helped SCI athletes, professionals and family members all over the world find clarity in the process of recovering from paralyzing injury.

• Hundreds of movement and rehab professionals have learned about our Framework for Recovery through our online and in-person courses.

• The Pilates community is now more confident to welcome & work with individuals with spinal cord injury - a previously untapped resource making a huge impact in the lives of people with disabilities. 

• Our self-paced online movement programs have normalized the floor as a place for movement discovery, especially for those seeking autonomy in their recovery programs...

• Thousands of people around the world have seen something different in our approach to SCI recovery through our Instagram, and have had their minds opened to a new paradigm.

The following book testimonial made me smile, because this reader clearly delved beyond the mere exercises to discover and build a new relationship with their healing journey:

I appreciate this approach because it leaves a lot of room to develop meaningful recovery goals that go beyond ‘standing and walking’. I find this empowering because I can be more thoughtful about what’s actually going to be functional in my life as an SCI athlete. Thanks so much for creating this – it’s been truly life-changing and I really have learned so much about SCI rehab beyond ABT and traditional PT which I was basically told were my only options.

A full decade after Stephanie and I met at an activity-based therapy gym in Northern California, it’s clear to me that this wave of interest in whole-body, floor-based, developmental-progression, myofascial healing has developed a life of its own.

I feel a great sense of personal fulfillment to have contributed, through Zebrafish, to that evolution. I truly could not be more excited than to watch Stephanie and the team she’s assembling continue to champion this human-powered approach!

The next frontier

So, where else is my path leading? Right now, it’s looking like fluid-management systems for human spaceflight. Basically, my goal is to be a plumber…for rockets and spacecraft.

Rewinding a bit for anyone interested: in my second year back at MIT, I sought to combine my knowledge of the body with some of the new engineering skills I had just learned. I joined Hugh Herr’s Biomechatronics group where I designed a rig to characterize the stiffness of blade prosthetics.

While I loved the combination of human and machine, I quickly realized I needed a lot more experience in engineering before I could combine its principles to the body’s interconnectedness. The body seemed too complex for me to properly approach so early in my career.

I gravitated more toward aerospace, spending two summers designing rocket hardware at Relativity Space, researching risk mitigation of satellite debris, and building a liquid rocket engine with a friend.

Machining the rocket engine injector out of copper, a notoriously challenging material.

B.S. Aerospace Engineering, MIT, 2023

I’ve always had designing for the human in the back of my mind as a far-off goal, and now my research is bringing me closer to it. My PhD work will focus on magnetohydrodynamic electrolysis – using electricity to separate hydrogen and oxygen from water, with magnets to ensure viability in the zero-gravity conditions of space. Here’s a two minute summary video, if you want some detail!

This is all to say that through this opportunity at Georgia Tech, I’m pursuing what I feel right now is the most exciting field: building technological infrastructure for the next era of human spaceflight. 

The connection

Given how much we discuss ownership and returning to your passions through mindful movement, I think my shift toward engineering pursuits is exactly in line with the Zebrafish mission. Rebuild from the ground up – all the way up to space.

To all the SCI athletes who have followed our work and interacted with us, I’m so grateful to have been on this journey with, and learned from you.

To the many movement and rehab professionals who have committed to advancing the world  of neuro-rehab, I’m humbled and invigorated by your devotion to this community.

To the friends and family of SCI athletes, and anyone else I’ve interacted with in this chapter, you keep us going with your care and interest, and it’s been a privilege to iterate rehab strategies together.

Signing off (from the floor, of course),

Theo