UNE to host 'Wicked Good Sports Medicine Symposium'

The University of New England will host the "Wicked Good Sports Medicine Symposium" on Friday, September 14, 2012, 1-5 p.m. on the Biddeford Campus.  (Doors open at noon.)

The event, coordinated by Program Director Lara Carlson, Ph.D., FACSM, CSCS, a UNE assistant professor in the Applied Exercise Science Program, will feature internationally renowned speakers in the field of sports medicine.

The event is free and open to the public.  The University of New England is recognized by the Board of Certification, Inc., to offer continuing education for certified athletic trainers, and attendance of the symposium will provide 4.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) (Program Level of Difficulty 2-Advanced). Attendance verification forms will be available.

Each speaker will present for approximately 25 minutes, and the symposium will conclude with a panel discussion, during which the audience will have the opportunity to ask questions of the presenters.

Carlson feels that "the mission of sports medicine professionals is to disseminate information to the public."  She believes that the upcoming symposium will help accomplish this goal by providing "an opportunity for each of the six remarkable sports medicine scientists to have a dialogue with other scientists, practitioners and the public."

Carlson is very impressed with the amount of community support the symposium has received in terms of corporate sponsorship, noting that "it is the generous donations from community businesses that make this event possible."  Sponsors include: AV Technik, The Breakwater Inn & Spa, CareFusion, Goodall Hospital, iworx, King's Port Inn, The Nonantum Resort, ParvoMedics, PartyPlus, Quest Fitness, Shipyard Brewing Co., and Wun-Jo.

Several of the sponsors will be exhibiting information and products at the event.

Presenting at the "Wicked Good Sports Symposium" will be:

Daniel Lieberman, Ph.D., Harvard University; "Why Exercise Really Is Medicine (An Evolutionary Explanation)"

Harvard College Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He is also a member of Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.  He was educated at Harvard (AB '86, Ph.D. '93) and Cambridge (M.Phil. '97). His research is on how and why the human body is the way it is, with particular foci on the origins of bipedalism, how humans became superlative endurance runners, and the evolution of the highly unusual human head. To address these questions, he combines experimental biomechanics and physiology, paleontology, and comparative anatomy. He teaches a variety of courses on human evolution, anatomy, and physiology and has published three books and more than 100 articles. His latest book is The Evolution of the Human Head (Harvard University Press, 2011).  His work on barefoot running, which he also practices, has earned him the nickname "The Barefoot Professor."

Samuel Headley, Ph.D., RCEP, CSCS, FACSM, Springfield College; "Exercise and Chronic Kidney Disease"

Professor in the Exercise Science and Sport Studies Department at Springfield College. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and a Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist (RCEP). He is also a member of the Clinical Exercise Physiology Association (CEPA) and the coordinator of the Clinical Exercise Physiology track at Springfield College, which is one of the few CAAHEP accredited clinical exercise physiology programs in the country. Headley's current research is focused on the effects of exercise training in persons with chronic kidney disease (CKD).

Stella Lucia Volpe, Ph.D., RD, LDN, FACSM, Drexel University; "Prevention of Weight Gain in a Large Portion Society"

Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutrition Sciences at Drexel University. She is also Co-Director of their newly established Center for Integrated Nutrition and Performance. Volpe is Chair of the President's Council for Fitness, Sports and Nutrition. She is a nutritionist and exercise physiologist who has built a program of research focusing on three interrelated areas that traverse the lifespan: 1) obesity and diabetes prevention via mineral supplementation, 2) weight management through diet, exercise and educational programs, and 3) environmental change leading to weight management. She is presently conducting a randomized controlled trial on the effect of magnesium supplementation on the prevention of the metabolic syndrome. Volpe has also become interested in studying the effects of the Human-Animal Interaction on weight loss and health in children and older adults.  Prior to beginning her faculty appointment at Drexel University, she was on faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, and previous to that, she was on faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Volpe is both a Certified Clinical Exercise Specialist (American College of Sports Medicine [ACSM]), and a Registered Dietitian.  She is a Fellow of the ACSM.

J. Timothy Lightfoot, Ph.D., RCEP, CES, FACSM, Texas A&M; "Can You be Born a Couch Potato?  The Genetics that Control your Physical Activity"

Currently the Omar Smith Endowed Professor of Kinesiology and the Director of the Sydney and JL Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance at Texas A&M University. Following completion of his doctorate from the University of Tennessee, Lightfoot completed a research consultantship with NASA at Kennedy Space Center in the Biomedical Laboratory and then a three-year National Institute of Health (NIH) postdoctoral research fellowship in the Division of Physiology at Johns Hopkins University. Lightfoot has published over 50 scientific, peer-reviewed articles on the genetics of daily physical activity and exercise endurance, as well as the physiological response to high-G exposure and hemorrhage and has been funded by the NIH to conduct research on the genetics of physical activity. His lab also has a unique interest in the physiological responses of motorsports athletes to the race environment. His research has been featured in numerous general media outlets including the Los Angeles Times, Time.com, National Public Radio, "The Rush Limbaugh Show," CNN, the NBC "Today Show," MSNBC, "Charlotte Talks" radio show, Revista Epoca (a Brazilian weekly magazine), and on Australian National Radio. Lightfoot is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), an ACSM Certified Exercise Specialist, a Registered Clinical Exercise Physiologist, a Past- President of the Southeast Regional Chapter of the ACSM, and a past member of the Board of Trustees for the ACSM.

Samuel N. Cheuvront, Ph.D., RD, FACSM, United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine; "Answers to 10 Common Questions about Hydration"

Research Physiologist in the Thermal and Mountain Medicine Division at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM), Natick, MA. His research includes the broad study of nutritional and environmental factors influencing human work performance. Specific aspects of his research include the study of human fluid needs, hydration assessment, heat stress mitigation, thermoregulation, ergogenic aids, and physiological modeling. Over the past decade he has published more than 90 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on these subjects. Cheuvront is a long-time member and Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).  He is also a member of the American Physiological Society (APS).

David Epstein, M.A., M.S., Sports Illustrated; "Missing the Phenotypes for the Genotypes"

Senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he is an investigative reporter and covers sports science and medicine as well as Olympic sports. He previously covered higher education policy (including both science research funding issues and NCAA policy) at Inside Higher Ed, and, before that, he was the overnight crime reporter at the New York Daily News. His writing on sports science and medicine has won several national awards, including a National Headliners Award for work on brain trauma in sports, a Luce Award for an investigation of the dietary supplement industry, and most recently--for a package of stories on pain, painkiller addiction, and anticipatory skill in sports--he was a finalist for the Livingston Award for the top works of journalism in the country by authors under age 35. Prior to journalism, David was a graduate student studying geology. He worked in the Sonoran Desert, on a ship in the Pacific, and in the Lower Arctic Tundra. As an 800-meter runner, he competed at U.S. Nationals in 2003. He is currently at work on a book about genetics and sports performance.

For more information, contact Lara Carlson at lcarlson@une.edu