Conference Speakers

Dr. Richard Budgett OBE

Dr Richard Budgett is Chief Medical Officer for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He was Director of Medical Services for the British Olympic Association from 1994 to 2007 and has been Chief Medical Officer with Team GB at six summer and winter Olympic Games and member of the IOC medical commission for the last two. Team doctor to the Great Britain men’s rowing team from 2005 to 2008. Governing Body Medical Officer and team doctor for the Great Britain Bobsleigh Association from 1990 to 2007 attending the Olympic Winter Games in 1992 and 1994. Medical Officer at the Olympic Medical Institute from 1989 to 2009, and since September 2009 at University College London Hospital.

In 2003 he was appointed physician for the South East region of the English Institute of Sport (EIS) based at Bisham Abbey. He was appointed Chairman of BASEM in 2008 and was elected to the council of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise medicine in 2007. Chairman of the GB Rowing Medical Committee since 1992 and won an Olympic Gold Medal in rowing in 1984. World Anti-Doping Agency List Committee since 2005.

Dr. Ian Beasley

Dr. Ian Beasley qualified from St Bartholomews Hospital in 1982 as a mature student. He was awarded a scholarship to study Sports Medicine at the Royal London Hospital in 1986 and gained an MSc in Sports Medicine in 1997. He was previously the Medical Officer to England & Great Britain Hockey and has attended two Olympic Games and a Commonwealth Games.

Ian has worked in professional football since 1987, currently with Arsenal FC. He is also medical adviser to the Royal Ballet Company in London as well as to the David Beckham Football Academy in Greenwich. He is a foundation fellow of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine and has been elected to the Council of the Faculty.

Dr. Hans Geyer

Dr. Hans Geyer has been a research agent since 1983 at the Institute of Bio-Chemistry, at the German Sport University, Cologne. This IOC accredited laboratory is responsible for the screening of anabolic steroids through steroid profiling, detection of anabolic androgenic steroids and analysis of nutritional supplements. In 2003 he was made Managing Director of the Centre for Preventive Doping Research at the German Sport University in Cologne.

Prof Ron Maughan

Ron Maughan is Professor of Sport and Exercise Nutrition at Loughborough University. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. He chaired the Human and Exercise Physiology group of the Physiological Society for 10 years, and now chairs the Sports Nutrition Working Group of the Medical Commission of the International Olympic Committee. He has worked with many teams and organisations within football and other sports.

He has published extensively in the scientific literature and is author or editor of a number of books on sports nutrition and exercise biochemistry. He is a member of the Editorial Board of several Journals, including the International Journal of Sports Nutrition & Exercise Metabolism, Experimental Physiology, the Journal of Sports Sciences, the International Journal of Sports Medicine & Nutrition.

Prof Louise Burke

Louise is a sports dietitian with nearly 30 years experience in the education and counselling of elite athletes. She has been head of the Department of Sports Nutrition at the Australian Institute of Sport since 1990. Her role as the dietitian for the Australian Swimming Team from 1991–2007 provided extensive overseas experience with the organisation of team travel and dietary concerns of the travelling athlete. She was the team dietitian for the Australian Olympic Teams for the 1996, 2000, 2004 & 2008 Olympic Games. Louise’s publications include 70 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, more than 40 book chapters, and the authorship or editorship of several textbooks on sports nutrition. She is an editor of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.

Her research interests include sports supplements and ergogenic aids, carbohydrate intake before, during and after exercise, dietary periodisation strategies for athletes, protein and the response to training, and hydration practices for training and competition. Louise was a founding member of the Executive of Sports Dietitians Australia and is a Director of the IOC Diploma in Sports Nutrition. She is a member of the Working Group on Nutrition for the International Olympic Committee, and the Medical and Anti-Doping Committee of the IAAF. She holds an Honorary Chair in Sports Nutrition, at Deakin University in Melbourne for contribution to research and post-graduate and undergraduate units in Sports Nutrition. She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2009 for her services to sports nutrition.

Prof Stuart Biddle

Stuart Biddle is Professor of Exercise & Sport Psychology at Loughborough University, UK, and was Head of the School of Sport & Exercise Sciences from 2001–07. Stuart graduated in Physical Education from Loughborough in 1977 and from the Pennsylvania State University in 1979 where he studied the ‘Psychology of Sport & Physical Activity’ for his MSc degree. While at Penn State he was fortunate to be in classes taught by Dorothy Harris, Dan Landers, Caroline Sherif, and Alan Kazdin, and be supervised for his project by Michael Mahoney. Stuart completed his PhD back in England, at the Department of Psychology at Keele University, specialising in social psychology, while lecturing at the then North Staffordshire Polytechnic. Between 1988–1998 he was on the staff at the University of Exeter before moving to Loughborough.

Stuart’s research adopts a behavioural medicine approach in studying the prevalence, correlates, and change of physical activity and sedentary behaviours in young people.

Stuart is President of the International Society for Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity for 2009–10, is Past-President of the European Federation for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, and Founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychology of Sport & Exercise. In addition to research papers, Stuart has authored and edited several books with colleagues, including:

• Psychology of Physical Activity: Determinants, Well-being and interventions (2008, Routledge; 2nd edition)
• Youth Physical Activity & Sedentary Behaviour: Challenges and solutions (2008, Human Kinetics)

He is a member of the Editorial Boards for the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition & Physical Activity, Preventive Medicine, Mental Health & Physical Activity, European Physical Education Review, and Psychology of Sport & Exercise.

Prof Angela Clow

Angela Clow is a professor of psychophysiology, trained in neuroscience and psychology and likes to work at the interface of these disciplines. For her PhD (Institute of Psychiatry, London) she investigated the function of brain dopamine receptors and during her post-doctoral studies (Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London) she developed an interest in the biochemistry of stress. In 1989 she joined the University of Westminster in London where she became a founder member of the interdisciplinary Psychophysiology and Stress Research Group.

Professor Clow’s current research investigates the physiological pathways by which stress and well-being can affect health and performance. In particular she studies daily patterns of cortisol secretion, a hormone important in the regulation of day-night cycles as well as stress responding.

Professor Clow has published over 95 full-length peer-reviewed papers, two books, and 25 book chapters or reviews and currently is a lead researcher in the well-being and health network at the University of Westminster. Angela is a National Teaching Fellow and a frequent public speaker (e.g. at the Royal Institution and the Edinburgh Festival of Science). Angela is an Honorary Vice-President of the International Stress Management Association and the Society for Coaching Psychology.

Dr Rod Jaques

Dr Rod Jaques is a Consultant in Sports and Exercise Medicine.

He did the London Hospital Diploma course in Sports Medicine qualifying with distinction and the David Ritchie prize in 1990. He also obtained the Society of Apothecaries Diploma in Sports Medicine. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine and is their current Vice-President.

Rod has been involved in Sports Medicine for the last 21 years and is National Medical Director at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) which services elite lottery funded athletes. He is based in the South West Region at Bath University .

He attended the Atlanta, Sydney, Athens and Beijing Olympics with Team GB and the Kuala Lumpur and Manchester Commonwealth Games with the England Team. From 1989–2007 he was Medical Advisor to the British Triathlon Association.

Rod was appointed to the British Olympic Medical Centre, London in 1998–2001 and joined the EIS in 2003. He also runs the Gloucestershire Sports Injury at the Winfield Hospital in Gloucester and works at the Droitwich Knee Clinic.

Dr Mai Chin A Paw

Dr Mai Chin A Paw is an associate professor at the Department of Public and Occupational Health, EMGO Institute – VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her background is in Human Movement Science and Epidemiology. Mai obtained her PhD in 1999 for her thesis that investigated the effects of physical exercise and micronutrient supplementation on the health of frail older people.

She is chair of the section Youth and Health within the department of Public and Occupational health, EMGO Institute of Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam. Mai is currently involved in several research projects related to physical activity in youth. Examples are the development and evaluation of strategies promoting physical activity and reducing sedentariness, measurement of physical activity, and prevention and treatment of obesity. She uses innovative methodologies in behavioural epidemiology such as Intervention Mapping – a protocol for theory and evidence-based development of interventions; analysis of mediators (how does an intervention achieve its effects); analysis of moderators (who responds to interventions); multi-level analysis; and the latest techniques for longitudinal data analysis.

In addition, she has teaching responsibilities concerning courses for students in Medicine, Health Sciences, and Epidemiology. Mai is associate editor of the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport and member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Dr. Martin Gibala

Dr. Martin Gibala is Professor and Chair of the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. He studies the regulation of energy metabolism at the molecular to whole body level and also conducts applied research that examines the impact of nutrition and training on exercise performance. Dr. Gibala has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in leading scientific journals and his work has been funded by numerous organizations including the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, The Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canadian Olympic Committee.

He has served as an invited consultant to several leading sports agencies and co-authored the most recent consensus statements on sports nutrition for The International Olympic Committee and the International Association of Athletics Federations. Dr. Gibala served as Vice-President (Research) for the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology from 2006–2008 and received the 2005 SIRC Award for Outstanding High Performance Sport Research in Canada. He has also received three awards for teaching excellence from McMaster University as well as the 2009 President’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Supervision.

Nigel Mitchell

Nigel has a clinical and sport career spanning almost twenty years. He is currently the Head of Nutrition British Cycling/TeamSky Professional Cycling Team. At the 2008 Beijing Olympiad the Olympic British Cycling team became the most successful British Olympic team of all time, Nigel has worked with British Olympic athletes for over ten years. His role involves leading and providing specialist nutritional service to British Cycling and the recently formed professional cycling team ‘Sky’.

Additionally he has had previous responsibility for the development and quality assurance of performance nutrition services to sports in the north of England this as included helping to establish performance nutrition services to the Royal Yacht Association and British Swimming. Nigel qualified has a registered dietician in 1991 since then he has worked in a variety of clinical roles and developing sport expertise.

Since 1999 he has worked full time in sports nutrition however he recognizes the importance of clinical practice and still provides a dietetic service to a local GP. He has a special interest in elite athletes with post viral syndrome, critical weight management and supporting athletes to manage training stress. Nigel recognises and values the contribution that innovation and research provides to sports nutrition and he is currently involved in partnerships with Universities on academic projects this has included projects with Portsmouth University were he holds an honorary position as Senior Lecturer.

Prof Paul Greenhaff

Paul Greenhaff is Professor of Muscle Metabolism and Head of the Metabolic Physiology Group, School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Nottingham. The Group’s strength lies in the experimental application of integrative physiology. Colleagues within the Group cover the range of expertise and techniques necessary to perform integrated metabolic investigations in healthy human volunteers and patients, and to dovetail these with relevant animal, cell and and molecular biological approaches, enabling truly translational research.

Paul has an international research standing in the area of skeletal muscle metabolism. Current research in his laboratory is focussed on the control and integration of muscle fuel utilisation in health and disease, and the molecular regulation of muscle mass. Particular focus has been directed towards investigating the impact of exercise, inactivity, and nutritional and pharmacological interventions have in modulating muscle metabolism and function in health and disease.

Dr Luc van Loon

Dr. L.J.C. van Loon received his PhD degree at Maastricht University for his thesis “The effects of exercise and nutrition on muscle fuel selection”. Thereafter, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Exercise and Muscle Metabolism Unit (EMMU) at Deakin University in Melbourne. After his external stay, he was awarded with a 4-year post-doc fellowship from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

At present, Dr. Loon is appointed as Associate Professor at the Department of Human Movement Sciences at Maastricht University Medical Centre. He supervises a research team whose main fields of interest include human skeletal muscle metabolism, exercise metabolism, sports nutrition, adaptation to endurance and resistance type exercise, and the use of physical activity and/or dietary (lifestyle) interventions to improve health in chronic metabolic disease (aging and type 2 diabetes). The latter are investigated on a whole-body, tissue and cellular level, with skeletal muscle as the main tissue of interest. The use of stable isotope methodology has a special interest in his group. To support the use of stable isotopes in biomedical research, Dr. van Loon is also scientific co-ordinator of the Stable Isotope Research Center (SIRC).

Pedro J. Teixeira

Pedro J. Teixeira (born in Lisbon, Portugal, 1970) received B.S. and M.S. degrees in the field of Sport and Exercise Science and a Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences (University of Arizona, 2001). He is an Assistant Professor of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the Technical University of Lisbon, Faculty of Human Kinetics, the largest Sport Science academic institution in Portugal. At the Exercise and Health Laboratory, he leads a research group whose primary interests are behavioural issues in obesity treatment and physical activity, and psychosocial predictors of obesity, weight control, and related outcomes.

He has nearly 50 peer-reviewed international publications and has been involved as an investigator in NIH- and Europen Commission-funded research projects, including the Portuguese National Weight Control Registry (PI). He is the current vice-President of the Portuguese Obesity Society and a former Executive Committee member of the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Dr Ken van Someren

Ken is the Director of Sport Sciences at the English Institute of Sport. He has worked as a sport physiologist with elite athletes and coaches across a wide range of sports for over 15 years. He holds BASES High Performance Sport Accreditation and previously chaired the BASES Division of Sport and Performance, serving on the BASES Board. Ken's research interests include exercise-induced muscle damage and recovery strategies; physiological determinants of sports performance; and methodological issues in physiological assessment – areas in which he has published extensively in sport and exercise science peer-reviewed journals. Ken holds honorary research positions at Kingston University and St Mary's University College.

Jamie Pringle

Dr Jamie Pringle is an exercise physiologist with the English Institute of Sport, based at the East Midlands regional head quarters on the Loughborough University campus. He works with national teams across a variety of sports, and in particular British Canoeing. Jamie completed both his undergraduate studies in sport science and hid doctoral research in cardio-respiratory exercise physiology at Manchester Metropolitan University. A British Association of Sport and Exercise Science Accredited physiologist, Jamie's specialist interests and research publications stem from the areas of cardio-respiratory physiology, the modelling of human performance, and the interaction of muscle metabolism and muscle mechanics.

He previously held the position of Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton where he consulted extensively with endurance athletes. Jamie has advised a variety of sports agencies and sports national governing bodies and has published research supported by a number of organisations including international collaborations via Inter-reg European Union funding. Although now working in elite sport, Jamie serves as a reviewer on six international science journals, and leads on a number of research collaborations with academia.

IñigoMujika

Iñigo Mujika earned Ph.D.s in Biology of Muscular Exercise (University of Saint-Etienne, France) and Physical Activity and Sport Sciences (University of The Basque Country). He is also a Level III Swimming and Triathlon Coach and coaches World Class triathletes.

His main research interests in applied sport science include training methods and recovery, tapering, detraining and overtraining. He has also performed extensive research on the physiological aspects associated with sports performance in professional cycling, swimming, running, rowing, tennis, football and water polo. He received research fellowships in Australia, France and South Africa, published nearly 80 articles in peer reviewed journals, a book and 13 book chapters, and has given over 130 lectures and communications in international conferences and meetings. Iñigo was Senior Physiologist at the Australian Institute of Sport in 2003 and 2004. In 2005 he was the physiologist and trainer for the Euskaltel Euskadi professional cycling team and between 2006 and 2008 he was Head of Research and Development at Athletic Club Bilbao professional football club. He is now Director of Physiology and Training at USP Araba Sport Clinic, Associate Editor for the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, and Associate Professor at the University of the Basque Country.

Andrew Jones

Andrew M Jones is Professor of Applied Physiology at the University of Exeter. Professor Jones is internationally recognised for his research in respiratory physiology (particularly the pulmonary gas exchange responses to exercise), bioenergetics, and elite sports performance physiology (particularly in relation to endurance athletes).

Jones has authored more than 130 original research and review articles and is co-editor of the books, “Oxygen Uptake Kinetics in Sport, Exercise and Medicine” (2005) and “Sport and Exercise Physiology Testing Guidelines; the BASES Guide” (2007). Jones is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, and the European College of Sports Sciences. He is an Associate Editor for Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and serves on the Editorial/Advisory Boards of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, European Journal of Applied Physiology, International Journal of Sports Medicine, International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching, Journal of Applied Physiology, Journal of Sports Sciences, and Respiratory Physiology and Neurobiology. In addition to his research activities, Professor Jones has a keen interest in applied sports physiology and has served as a consultant for a number of sports including UK Athletics.

Prof Roald Bahr

Roald Bahr MD PhD is professor of sports medicine and chair of the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center and the Department of Sports Medicine at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences. He also holds a clinical appointment at the Department of Sports Medicine at the Olympic Training Center.

He is authorised as Sports Medicine Physician (Idrettslege NIMF) by the Norwegian Society of Sports Medicine and a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. He serves as team physician for the national teams in beach volleyball.

Roald Bahr is past president of the National Council on Physical Activity, past president of the Norwegian Society of Sports Medicine, a current member of the Sports Medicine Council of the Norwegian Olympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, member and president of the Medical Commission of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), and member of the IOC Medical Commission – Medical and Scientific Group. His main research area is sports injury prevention. He is a former national team volleyball player and coach.

Prof Romain Meeusen

Romain Meeusen, (PhD) is head of the department of Human Physiology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His research interest is focussed on ‘Exercise and the Brain’ exploring the influence of neurotransmitters on human performance and training. Recent work is focussing on thermoregulation, Overtraining Syndrome, Neurogenesis. He teaches on exercise physiology, training & coaching and sports physiotherapy. Romain published over 200 articles and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals, 18 books on sport physiotherapy, and gave lectures at more than 250 national and international conferences.

He is President of the Belgian Society for Sports Medicine and Sports Science and President Belgian Federation of Sports Physiotherapy. He is secretary general of the European College of Sport Science. In 2009 he received the Belgian ‘Francqui Chair’ at the Université Libre de Bruxelles on ‘Exercise and the Brain’. He is also holder of two named lecturing chairs at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel – where he is director of the Human Performance Lab, working with several top athletes – and is scientific advisor of the ‘Lotto Cycling Institute’ (Silence-Lotto professional cycling team).

Dr Simon Kemp

Simon graduated from St Mary’s Hospital in 1986 and gained his Diploma in Sports Medicine from London University in 1992. Having completed primary care training he worked as a sports physician in Wellington, New Zealand from 1994–6 and was team physician to the Wellington Hurricanes in the first Rugby Super 12 competition.

Returning to the UK he was a lecturer in Sports Medicine at the Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham in 1997. From 1998–2001 he was team physician to Fulham Football club and medical officer to the English Basketball Association. In 2001 he joined the Rugby Football Union as their Head of Sports Medicine. He was the team physician during the Rugby World Cup campaigns in 2003 & 2007. In addition to his pitch-side experience of managing the concussed player, he is a member of the International Rugby Board Specialist Concussion group and has helped develop and implement a leading concussion management programme within elite English rugby since 2004.

Prof Nicola Maffulli

Nicola Maffulli is the Centre Lead and Professor of Sports and Exercise Medicine, and Consultant trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon, Queen Mary University of London, Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. He has been the President of the British Orthopaedic Sports Trauma Association, and sits on many committees in Sports Medicine and in Trauma and Orthopaedics. He is an Editorial Board Member of some 10 Sports Medicine and Trauma and Orthopaedic Journals.

Nicola Maffulli’s continuing research interests are varied, and reflect his training in molecular biology, cardiovascular physiology, and musculo-skeletal medicine. The recent research thrust has been in the genetics of orthopaedic conditions, in tissue engineering of tendons, and mesenchimal stem cell therapy for tendinopathy. He performs clinical research on tendinopathy, and has carried out many randomized controlled trials in musculo-skeletal medicine. During the years, Nicola has established a host of collaborations in the UK and abroad, and has lead multidisciplinary research teams in multicentre trials.

Nicola has published more that 450 articles in peer reviewed journals, and has edited several textbooks, the latest being ‘Postgraduate Orthopaedics’.

Dr. Stéphane Bermon

Dr. Bermon is a sports physician and exercise physiologist at the Monaco Institute of Sports Medicine and Surgery since 2006. He is a member of the Medical and Anti-doping Commission of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Stéphane is the author and co-author of more than 25 books or peer-reviewed scientific papers. He is graduated (MD) from Nice University Medical School and also holds a PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of Aix-Marseille II. He also holds a specialised Master (Ecole Centrale de Paris) in Health Engineering.

He was team physician for a professional soccer team (4 years) and for professional road cycling teams (3 years). Dr. Bermon is 44 years old and a former professional snowboarder. He still practices endurance sports such as long distance triathlon.

Dr Ulf Ekelund

Ulf Ekelund is program leader in physical activity epidemiology at the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge. He is also visiting professor in Sport Science at Örebro University, Sweden. He obtained his PhD in medical nutrition at the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden with post-graduate training in epidemiology at the University of Cambridge.

His research has focused on the development and evaluation of objective and self-report physical activity measurement techniques. A second area of research aims to understand the dose-response associations between sedentary behaviour and physical activity, with obesity, diabetes and other metabolic and chronic diseases across the life span. His has also strong interest in the biological determinants of physical activity, such as genotype and early life growth, and how these variables may modify the associations between physical activity and chronic diseases.

Ulf has published more than 150 original research papers, review articles, and book chapters. He was named New investigator scientist of the American College of Sports Medicine in 2007.

Ulf’s research is currently funded by the Medical Research Council, the National Prevention Research Initiative, the British Heart Foundation, the Welcome Trust and the National Institute of Health.

Chelsea Warr

Chelsea’s career commenced as an Exercise Physiologist at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in the early 90's where she worked with a number of key High Performance Programmes and coaches. In the mid 1990’s she was involved in the establishment of Australia’s first National Talent Identification (TID) and Development Programmes designed to support the systematic detection and development of talent towards Sydney 2000 and beyond.

In 2002 Chelsea moved to the UK to support the development of the World Class TID and Development systems in British Diving. She is currently a member of the senior manager team within UK Sport’s Performance Directorate leading the Athlete Development department in the Olympic and Paralympic Programmes.

Dr David Martin

David received his B.Sci. degree in Zoology from the College of Idaho, his M.Sci. degree in Exercise Physiology from Northern Michigan University and his Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Wyoming. Before beginning doctoral studies, David worked as a research assistant at the United States Olympic Training Centre in Colorado Springs Colorado. Master's research focused on stability of the “Anaerobic Threshold” training intensity and doctoral research was aimed at better understanding peaking, tapering and overtraining in cyclists.

David is currently a senior sports physiologist working within the Department of Physiology at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra and is also the National Sport Science Coordinator for Cycling Australia. Sport science support for Australian Cycling teams has been provided by David in the lead up to the 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 Olympic Games.

Michael Stow

Michael Stow has spent the last four years working in anti-doping having joined UK Sport in 2006 before moving over to UK Anti-Doping was formed in December 2009. In March this year he was appointed as the Head of Science and Medicine.

In this time he has led on a number of organisation initiatives including a full steroid profiling programme, a blood profiling programme, supporting the GH-2004 research team in establishing a new Growth Hormone test and supporting the nutritional supplements risk management resulting in HFL’s Informed-Sport. Prior to this he spent two years in the pharmaceutical industry having been employed by both Gilead Sciences Ltd and GlaxoSmithKline.

Dr Roger Palfreeman

After qualifying at Sheffield Medical School in 1997, Roger Palfreeman began work as the Team Doctor to the British Cycling Team, initially combining this with training in General Practice (with a Specialist Interest in Sports Medicine). Roger fulfilled this role until very recently, being privileged to be part of the highly successful Great Britain Cycling Team at three Olympic Games, as well as numerous World Championships.

He now combines Musculoskeletal Clinic sessions with more general Sports Medicine work and a number of projects – some of them cycling-related. Roger is a very keen cyclist, regularly competing in long distance Cyclosportives. He is a Foundation Fellow of the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine, A member of the UK Anti-Doping TUE Committee and Advisor to UK Anti-Doping (UKAD).

Dr Nick Caplan

Dr Nick Caplan is a Senior Lecturer in Biomechanics at Northumbria University, which he joined in 2005. Nick graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2005 with a PhD in Biomechanics, and in 2002 with a BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Sciences. Nick is the Academic Director of the North East Orthopaedic and Sports Injury Research Group. He is an accredited biomechanist (research) with the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and regularly acts as a reviewer for international journals including Sports Engineering, Journal of Sports Sciences, Sports Biomechanics, and the Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology.

Nick’s research interests mainly lie in the area of man-machine interactions during exercise, as well as clinical biomechanics. He has received industry funding for both consultancy and research from companies including Biomet UK Ltd, De Puy (a Johnson & Johnson company) and Draeger Safety Ltd, looking at the influence of their products on human movement and the rehabilitation of gait.

Dr Nikolai Nordsborg

Nikolai Baastrup Nordsborg M.Sc., Ph.D. (1974), was appointed associate professor in 2009 at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences. The research conducted has focused on human fatigue mechanisms during short duration intense exercise as well as adaption to high vs. moderate intensity training. In addition to the basic research, a number of applied studies have also been conducted with a special focus on running and lately also swimming. Nikolai has a strong research and educational collaboration with the Danish elite sport organisation; The Danish sport federation and the Danish swimming federation.

Dr Angus Hunter

Angus was awarded a foreign scholarship to UCT/MRC Research Unit for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Human Biology, University of Cape Town 1997 to complete his PhD in ‘Manipulations of Neural Fatigue’. He then returned to the UK in 2001 where he was awarded a lectureship at the University of Stirling in sport and exercise physiology where he remains to this day.

Dr Hunter is currently working on the acute neuromuscular response to resistance training in elite athletes in a series of studies funded by UK Sport and is involved in muscle function assessment in athletes through the Scottish Institute of Sport. He is also evaluating training intensity distribution in endurance athletes by exploring different performance and fatigue markers. Clinical research has involved working on neuromuscular function assessment and strategies to improve mobility in patients with multiple sclerosis along with collaborators at Glasgow University.

Steve Cram MBE

Steve is one of the UK’s most well known sporting individuals. As an athlete his career was forged alongside Coe and Ovett to form a period of unprecedented success in British athletics and since retiring has become one of the BBC’s most respected Presenters/Commentators. In a career spanning over three decades, since appearing as a 17 year old at the Commonwealth Games in 1978, Steve’s many achievements include six Gold medals at the Commonwealth Games and the European and World Championships.

At the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, Steve returned from injury to take a Silver medal in the 1500m behind Sebastian Coe. The following year he broke World records in the 1500m, 2000m and Mile, all within 19 days; the latter lasting almost 9 years.

Since retiring from competitive athletics Steve has become a very successful television commentator, first with Eurosport, and then with Channel 4 before joining the BBC as the Chief Athletics Commentator. Steve has co-presented the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Athens in 2004 where his commentary of Kelly Holmes’ victories will always be well remembered and more recently both the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing. Steve has also been a regular contributor to BBC Radio 5 Live including hosting the popular 606 and Sunday Sport.

Following an incredible season in 1983 Steve was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, one of the few athletes to have won the award, and in 1986 he was awarded an MBE.

Away from the track and the commentating Steve is also Chairman of the English Institute of Sport, which is a nationwide network of sport science and sports medical support services, designed to foster the talents of our elite athletes of all sports. Closer to home though Steve was honoured to accept the role of Chancellor of Sunderland University in 2008. An establishment where he received his own BA Hons degree back in 1983 and a region which is extremely close to his heart up here in the North East.

Athletic Achievements

• 1993 World Championships, Stuttgart
• 1991 World Championships, Tokyo
• 1990 5th – European Championships, Split
• 1988 4th – 1500m, Seoul Olympic Games
• 1985 Bronze – 800m, European Championships, Stuttgart
• 1985 Gold – 1500m, European Championships, Stuttgart
• 1985 Gold – 1500m, Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh
• 1985 Gold – 800m, Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh
• 1985 Winner – 1500m European Cup Final
• 1985 World Record for 2000m, Budapest (4:51:39)
• 1985 World Record for Mile, Oslo (3:46:32)
• 1985 World Record for 1500m, Nice (3:29:67)
• 1984 Silver – 1500m, Los Angeles Olympic Games
• 1983 Voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year
• 1983 Winner – 1500m European Cup Final
• 1983 Winner – 1500m European Cup Final
• 1983 Gold – 1500, inaugural World Championships, Helsinki
• 1981 Member of 4 × 800m World Record breaking British relay team
• 1981 Gold – 1500m, Brisbane
• 1981 Gold – 1500m, Athens Commonwealth Games
• 1981 Gold – 1500m, European Championships
• 1980 8th – 1500m, Moscow Olympics
• 1979 European Junior 3000m Title, Bydgoscz
• 1979 First English School’s 1500m
• 1978 Commonwealth Games, Edmonton
• 1978 First 1500m UK age 17 record for 1500m (3:40:01)
• 1978 World Mile best time for a 17 year old (3:57:04)
• 1977 Set UK age 16 best for 1500m (3:47:07)