Thomas Seacrist joined CHOP's Center for Injury Research and Prevention (CIRP) in 2007 with the primary responsibility of overseeing pediatric volunteer biomechanics experiments. His current research includes understanding how the anatomical and developmental differences between children and adults affect their motion during motor vehicle crashes, evaluating the biofidelity of child crash test dummies and identifying potential improvements, and detecting differences in driving behavior between novice teen and experienced adult drivers using simulated driving assessments. He has presented and published internationally at traffic safety and engineering venues.

Seacrist also serves as Training Director of CIRP’s, Injury Science Training Program, including overseeing CIRP's Injury Science Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site. Stemming from his own career-changing internship experience, Mr. Seacrist has made it a priority to incorporate trainees into CIRP’s research portfolio. Since assuming his role as Training Director, Seacrist has nearly doubled the number of undergraduate trainees per summer, expanded the REU summer curriculum to include more than 30 seminars, workshops, lab tours, and professional networking activities, and has increased trainee diversity through targeted recruitment of underrepresented students.

Prior to his time at CIRP, Seacrist studied the biomechanics of human motion in children with cerebral palsy at the National Rehabilitation Hospital and performed mechanical testing on bioengineered cartilage equivalents in the Orthopedics Research Department at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children.