How does your body work?

Researching movement and physical activity

Jürgen Konczak in the Sensorimotor lab


Victor Koscheyev in the Laboratory for Health
and Human Performance in Extreme
Environments

Thirty years ago the School of Kinesiology was known as the School of Physical Education, Recreation, and School Heath Education and its primary purpose was to train teachers of physical education, recreation, and health. Today the school has two divisions, kinesiology and recreation and sport studies, and the mission has expanded dramatically to include the study of biological, developmental, psychosocial, and behavioral attributes of physical activity, recreation and sport, and the pursuit of scholarly inquiry and applied research.

The school’s seven laboratories and centers are recognized internationally for cutting-edge research and innovative programs. In 2001, the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education ranked the doctoral programs in schools of kinesiology in 26 colleges and universities nationwide. The college’s department was rated among the top ten in five out of seven areas (rankings in parentheses): visibility (1), productivity (10), contributions to graduate programs (1), attraction (number of applicants) (1), and program efficiency (2).

Here’s a quick reference guide to the variety of interdisciplinary physiological research in the School of Kinesiology:

Donald Dengel, associate professor; exercise physiology, obesity, metabolism, and vascular biology

Jürgen Konczak, associate professor; biomechanics, neural control of movement, clinical movement assessment, neurological movement disorders, motor learning after brain injury, motor development in infancy and childhood

Victor Koscheyev, senior fellow; human factors physiology, human performance, exercise physiology; human performance in extreme environments

Arthur Leon, professor; exercise science and physiology

Moira Petit, assistant professor; community-based physical activity interventions to optimize bone health during childhood and adolescence; childhood and youth obesity prevention; interrelationships of physical activity, nutrition, and endocrine status on bone health and fracture prevention; bone-muscle adaptation to mechanical loading

Robert Serfass, professor; metabolic and physiological response to physical conditioning, cardiac rehabilitation, exercise prescription, and sport training

Thomas Stoffregen, professor; perception and action, human factors, control of posture and orientation, ecological psychology; perception and control of body orientation in the context of human-computer interaction; postural stability and motion sickness in virtual environments; perception and control of the dynamics of actor-environment systems

Michael Wade, professor; motor learning and performance, human factors, lifespan development, gerontology, disability studies

You can read more about kinesiology research, look at the work being done in the various labs, and find out more about the professors listed above and their colleagues at School of Kinesiology.