research Archive

Kinesiology graduate student Sarah Brinkerhoff is the recipient of the American Kinesiology Association’s Graduate Student Writing Award. Brinkerhoff’s paper, “Words matter: instructions dictate “self-selected” walking speed in young adults” was published in Gait & Posture last year. It is a methods paper written to help inform the field on how researchers can best reliably collect […]

Peter Hastie, Alumni Professor and the Wayne T. Smith Distinguished Professor in Auburn University’s School of Kinesiology, was recently awarded the 2019 Exemplary Paper Award from the American Educational Research Association. The award was in the association’s Special Interest Group category on Learning and Instruction in Physical Education. The paper, “Effects of situational constraints on […]

Auburn University School of Kinesiology Assistant Professor Austin Robinson received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study racial differences in sodium and blood pressure regulation. Robinson is researching why African Americans in particular are more likely to have diminished cardiovascular function after eating high amounts of dietary sodium. He will receive $764,093 […]

Auburn University School of Kinesiology doctoral student Dulce Gomez has been named a trainee for the 2020-2021 Center for Clinical and Translational Science Predoctoral Clinical/Translational Research Program, or CCTS TL1, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The immersive program provides 12 months of protected time for fellows to develop projects focused on reducing health […]

The Molecular and Applied Sciences Laboratory, directed by Dr. Mike Roberts in the School of Kinesiology, recently completed a large-scale clinical trial that tested the efficacy of a multi-vitamin/mineral/omega-3 complex on nutrient status in pre-menopausal women (21-40 years old) over a three month period. The trial was sponsored by the health company, Ritual. “The results […]

Every high school biology student knows that the mitochondrion is “the powerhouse of the cell.” But what does that really mean? In scientific terms, the mitochondria (the plural form) perform cellular respiration. This means that the mitochondria break down the nutrients in the cell and turn those nutrients into energy. In other words, the food […]

Kinesiology doctoral student Hailey Parry was recently tapped as a winner of the National Philanthropic Education Organization (P.E.O.) Scholar Award. “We are so proud of Hailey!” said Director of the School of Kinesiology, Mary Rudisill, Ph.D. “Hailey was selected as one of the 150 women out of 945 nominees to receive the PEO Scholar Award […]

Doctoral candidate, Kaitlin McGinnis, MS, ATC, was selected to receive the Norm Mackie Memorial Scholarship from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) Research & Education Foundation. The $2,300 scholarship is sponsored by the Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers’ Society. “Kaitlin is my senior doctoral student and the manager of the Neuromechanics Research Laboratory,” said JoEllen Sefton, […]

School of Kinesiology graduate student Dulce Gomez, won first place for the Master’s Student Research Award for her poster on “Gaming enjoyment, perceived exertion, and exercise intensity in active virtual reality games,” at the Southeast ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) (SEACSM) conference February 14-16 in Greenville, SC. At the conference, eight finalists presented their […]

Matthew Romero, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the Molecular and Applied Science Laboratory (MASL), was selected as a recipient of the William Townsend Porter Predoctoral Fellowship from the American Physiological Society for the 2018-2019 academic year. The award covers his stipend for one year. The purpose of the fellowship is to encourage diversity among students […]

President Steven Leath created the Presidential Awards for Interdisciplinary Research, or “PAIR,” in 2017 that awards funding for up to three years for innovative, interdisciplinary research collaborations at Auburn University. The program funds ideas that foster creativity among different departments and will assist Auburn University in reaching the next level of research and development distinction. […]

Bruce Gladden, Ph.D., Humana-Germany-Sherman Distinguished Professor of Education in the School of Kinesiology in the College of Education, has been named a Fellow of the American Physiological Society, or APS, a nonprofit professional organization devoted to fostering education, scientific research, and dissemination of information in the physiological sciences. It has over 10,500 members. Most members […]

‘Jumping genes’ (or transposable elements) have been known to exist in organisms since the 1950s when Barbara McClintock, Ph.D. at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory theorized that they were responsible for the pigmentation of corn kernels. Given that this discovery was around the time Watson, Crick, Franklin and others elucidated the chemical structure of DNA, the […]

For a long and healthy life, women should exercise, have two to four kids, and breastfeed them. Well, it may be a little more complicated than that, but research performed by Wendy Hood (Ph.D.), Associate Professor in Biological Sciences, and Andreas Kavazis (Ph.D.), Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology in the College of Education, […]

The School of Kinesiology had four Physical Education/Teacher Education (PETE) faculty and eight doctoral students participate at the 2018 Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE) National Convention in Nashville, Tennessee March 20-24, 2018. Together they delivered 13 presentations at the conference. Additionally, Peter Hastie, Ph.D., Wayne T. Smith Distinguished Professor, and Sheri Brock, Ph.D., […]

Auburn University students who developed a personalized electrotherapy garment to aid injury rehabilitation earned $25,000 in funding, plus additional services, as winners of the fourth annual Tiger Cage student business pitch competition. Two College of Education Kinesiology doctoral students, Sarah Gascon and Matt Hanks, were part of the three-person team that won the grand prize […]

Several researchers from the School of Kinesiology’s Sports Medicine and Movement Lab recently returned from the regional South East American College of Sports Medicine (SEACSM) annual meeting. Lab researchers made ten separate presentations (1 podium, 1 award poster session, 5 poster sessions, and 3 thematic posters). “All of these presentations were student first authored,” said […]

Paul Roberson, a doctoral student in the School of Kinesiology’s Molecular and Applied Sciences Laboratory, directed by Dr. Mike Roberts, won best overall abstract presentation in the doctoral student category at the 2018 Southeastern American College of Sports Medicine Meeting in Chattanooga TN.  Paul’s presentation was titled “Changes in amino acid transporters and metabolic proteins […]

Renaissance Periodization (RP), a training and diet services company for world-class athletes, donated a monetary gift to the Molecular and Applied Sciences Laboratory (MASL) at Auburn University. Mike Roberts, Ph.D., is the director of MASL and an Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology. “We are very excited to receive this gift,” said Roberts. “It […]

Doctoral student Marcos Daou won the 2017 the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) Outstanding Student Paper Award. And it truly is outstanding when you realize the prestige of NASPSPA and this particular award, as well as the voluminous amount of data collection Daou conducted in his research. The […]

Professor Wendi Weimar, Ph.D., in the School of Kinesiology at Auburn University’s College of Education, was awarded around $10,000 to conduct research on the efficacy of a new dumbbell design. The DB2 dumbbell has two handles with the weight located in the center, rather than having one handle in the middle and weight distributed on […]

School of Kinesiology doctoral student Brooks Mobley is coordinating a study for his dissertation in the Molecular and Applied Sciences Laboratory (MASL) on the role of whey protein in building muscle mass. The dissertation is entitled, “The Effects of Different Protein and Amino Acid Supplements on Muscle Hypertrophy after 12 Weeks of Resistance Exercise in […]

Dr. Michael Roberts, Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Director of the Molecular and Applied Science Lab, has recently received a large research grant from the University of Tampa. A majority of these funds are being used for the first phase of an eventual two-phase study through 2017 to investigate how aging affects […]

Still sore from last week, Haley Huff comes to the Auburn University School of Kinesiology over the noon hour to work up a sweat. She does a back squat as Ph.D. student Ashley Hoden reminds her to keep her feet shoulder width apart and her head up. This is “A” day, which means weight lifting, […]

Kinesiology doctoral student Brandi Decoux has been awarded an Auburn University Research Initiative in Cancer (AURIC) Fellowship. Her focus will be on post-menopausal survivors of breast cancer who are prescribed a type of hormone therapy drug called aromatase inhibitors. Decoux’s project is the first known biomechanical study to investigate the relationship between lower extremity pain […]

Doctors Matt Miller and Keith Lohse, both assistant professors in the School of Kinesiology, teamed up with Dr. Alessandro Bruzi and Dr. Marco Barbosa at the Federal University of Lavras in Brazil to investigate the effects of learner-controlled feedback and difficulty on motor learning. Dr. Miller and his doctoral student, Kirk Grand, first worked with […]

Dr. Alice Buchanan, Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and Coordinator of the Physical Education Internship Program, has recently begun a novel research study at the Lee County Youth Development Center (LCYDC) in Opelika to assess and positively impact students’ behavior. Dr. Vanessa Hinton of the Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, and Counseling is […]

Dr. Andreas Kavazis, Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Muscle Biochemistry Lab, recently received a $100,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct research investigating metabolic health in females following lactation. The study is a two-year project in collaboration with Dr. Wendy Hood, Co-Principal Investigator and Assistant […]

The Molecular and Applied Science Lab in the College of Education’s School of Kinesiology, led by Dr. Mike Roberts, received a $9,200 research agreement with a new industry sponsor, Maximum Human Performance, LLC (MHP), to conduct a pre-clinical study on the ability of various plant extracts to burn fat. Roberts and his doctoral student, Brooks […]

Dr. Michael Roberts, Assistant Professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Molecular and Applied Science Lab, and Dr. Jeffrey Martin, Chair and Assistant Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM)-Auburn Campus, are Co-Investigators on a $30,318 research project for NormaTec, a Massachusetts-based company that […]

Dr. Gretchen D. Oliver, director of the Sports Medicine and Movement Laboratory in the College of Education’s School of Kinesiology, is a certified athletic trainer, a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, and a corrective exercise specialist. She is also a prolific researcher, having published 60 papers in the past five years, mostly […]

Brooks Mobley (pictured in the lab working with cell cultures) won 2nd overall in the Ph.D student poster competition at the Southeastern American College of Sports Medicine 2015 Conference in Jacksonville, FL. The poster was titled “Induced overexpression of p21Cip1 in myotubes promotes increases in protein synthesis and myotube hypertrophy.” This study was done in […]

Wes Kephart (pictured with Dr. Anthony Almada from Vitargo Global Sciences, and working in the Molecular and Applied Sciences Laboratory), won the male 2015 International Society of Sports Nutrition National Conference Abstract Award sponsored by Vitargo. The award came with a $1,000 cash prize to help support his Ph.D stipend and ongoing research. The project, […]

Heidi Kluess and doctoral student doing research in Canada through Visiting University Scholar Program Dr. Heidi Kluess, Associate Professor in the School of Kinesiology, and her doctoral student, Leslie Neidert, are visiting Western University in Ontario, Canada for three weeks in May to study neuropeptide Y with Dr. Dwayne N. Jackson. Dr. Kluess was named […]