An improvised explosive device hidden in an olive oil can cost Jonathan Kuniholm '93 his right arm on New Year's Day of 2005 just south of Haditha, Iraq, but the Dartmouth alumnus has made the most of his misfortune by aiding other amputees with his non-profit organization Open Prosthetics Project.
OPP is an organization that puts its research on prosthetic hardware designs on the internet and allows the public -- both individuals and companies -- to access the information free of charge. Kuniholm said he and his partners decided that the greatest number of people would benefit from OPP research with free access to the website, openprosthetics.org.
Current OPP projects include a body-powered hook, which is a robotic hand or hook that responds to body movements, such as shoulder shrugs, and a pediatric trainer, which aids children in learning to use their prosthetic limbs.
While studying mechanical engineering and industrial design at North Carolina State University, Kuniholm and three other engineering students founded Tackle Design, an industrial design and technology firm. The 34-year-old and his three Tackle Design colleagues decided to create OPP after Kuniholm discovered deficiencies with his prosthetic limb during his months of recovery. It was also his commitment to public service that led to the creation of OPP.
Kuniholm joined the Marine Corps in 1997 after a year of engineering graduate work at NCSU.
"I was approaching the age limits where I could do it, and I just had a real desire to serve my country," he said.
He returned To NCSU to finish his degrees when his active duty as a logistics officer ended in 2000. Kuniholm then studied at Duke University where he assisted a professor with research on nano-instrumentation and biomedical engineering in addition to continuing his work with Tackle Design.
Kuniholm joined a Lynchberg, Va. Marine Reserve Unit in 2004 and in August of that year was sent to Iraq when his unit was activated. It was four months later when the engineer-turned-officer lost his arm to what he believes was an improvised explosive device.
His path to a career in engineering was not straightforward, Kuniholm said. For high school, he attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, but he majored in English as an undergraduate at Dartmouth.
"After high school, I was kind of turned off from science and technology," he said. He took advantage of Dartmouth's liberal arts education and traveled to Africa after his sophomore year to work with the Harvard Institute of International Development.
Kuniholm graduted from Dartmouth in 1993 and worked for a year as a paralegal for Plante, Hanley and Garety in White River Junction. He also interned on Capitol Hill, in Slovakia with the U.S. Treasury Department and with a Duke professor of economics in Lithuania.
Kuniholm considered pursuing a Ph.D. in economics, but ultimately decided that engineering was a better fit.
"I realized that what I liked doing for the Treasury Department was building math models of behavior, which is similar to engineering," Kuniholm explained. "The problems I liked to solve were more related to the kinds of problems that engineers resolve than economists."
