Durham, NC - Duke biomedical engineering graduate student Jon Kuniholm, a Marine Corps reservist who was wounded during the Iraq war, will speak tonight at the Democratic convention.

Kuniholm, who was featured in a recent article in Duke Magazine, will speak shortly after 9 p.m. EDT. He is scheduled to follow remarks from former Vice President Al Gore at Invesco Field, the Denver Stadium where Sen. Barack Obama will give his address accepting the nomination.

Kuniholm is a member of a group of Iraq War veterans supporting the Democratic Party candidate.

He is also leading research into engineering devices to help disabled people. On New Years Day 2005, Iraqi insurgents ambushed Kuniholm's U.S. Marine patrol near the Euphrates River. The insurgents detonated an explosive device and then fired on the soldiers, killing several members of the unit. Kuniholm was wounded by the initial explosion. Later, his right arm was amputated below the elbow. Kuniholm has been fitted with three prostheses that allow him to move his right shoulder muscle, hold pens, extend his arm and do other tasks.

Following the injury, Kuniholm returned to Duke and entered the Department of Biomedical Engineering. For more information about his research, click here.

He is also a partner in Tackle Design Inc., an industrial design and research and development firm, and is part of the Open Prosthetics Project, which seeks to share advances in prosthetics design and promote collaboration among researchers.

His father is Bruce Kuniholm, director of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy and chair of public policy studies.