Sport Health And Exercise Research Goes From Strength To Strength

Our BSc(Hons) Sport Sciences course has recently been ranked inside the top 10 of all UK based universities running similar courses. This is a tremendous achievement, in no small part driven by the applied research taking part both from staff and students.

At the recent British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) student conference held at the University of East London in March 2012, almost a quarter of all poster presentations were represented by University of Hertfordshire undergraduate students. Students including Jessica Findlay, Dominic Boyle, Hannah Fletcher and Matthew Clemo were amongst the student cohort pitching their undergraduate projects to fellow researchers from other universities.

One of the most prestigious meetings in the area of sport and exercise medicine, is the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual World Conference. In 2012, this was held in San Francisco, California. Under the supervision of Dr Justin Roberts, two undergraduate students (Sarah Brice and Matthew Shaw) and two postgraduate students (Fabrizio Garguilo and Clare Thomas) presented their research findings having been reviewed and selected amongst thousands of applicants.

In July 2012, another of our graduate students, Rachel Hurst presented her work on the effects of sprint interval training and endurance training on the anaerobic threshold, cardiovascular parameters and exercise performance at the Physiology Society Meeting, at the University of Edinburgh. For this presentation, Rachel was awarded the Rob Clarke Undergraduate Award – a fantastic achievement.

But its not just the students making waves. In July 2012, new staff member Dr Amy Tanner presented her research on hormonal biomarkers and exercise performance at the 17th Annual Congress of the European College of Sports Science.

Having recently published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Ms Lindsy Kass presented her findings on ‘The Effect of Magnesium Supplementation on Blood Pressure with Physical Activity’ at the 2nd World Congress on Endobolism, Beijing, China.

And finally, Dr Justin Roberts, who not only supported and presented at the ACSM World Conference in San Francisco, California in May 2012, but recently published his findings on the ‘Effect of a Commercially Available Carbohydrate-Protein-Electrolyte Beverage on Short Term Repeated Exercise’ in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

Dr Roberts also presented two keynotes on ‘New Thinking for Performance Nutrition’ at the Neapolis University, Cyprus, and will be presenting later this year on ‘Energy, Performance and Nutrition’ at the Functional Medicine Conference in London.