Li Li Ji, Ph.D., director and professor in the School of Kinesiology, is featured on CEHD’s ImprovingLives.org. Ji’s research on the antioxidant properties of oats shows their positive effects in reducing inflammation and improving health, and may have important implications for the food industry.
Ph.D. candidate Jessica Holst-Wolf featured on CEHD homepage
Kinesiology Ph.D. candidate Jessica Holst-Wolf is featured in Connect and on the CEHD home page in a story titled, “Engineer for Health.” Jessica’s emphasis is biomechanics and she is advised by Jűrgen Konczak, Ph.D. Read her story here.
Wiese-Bjornstal welcomes visiting scholar from Spain
Victor Rubio, Ph.D., CCP, associate professor in the Department of Biological and Health Psychology at the University Autonoma Madrid (Spain), is currently a Fulbright visiting scholar at the U of M’s School of Kinesiology, invited by sport psychologist Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, Ph.D., director of the Sports Medicine Psychology Laboratory.
Dr. Rubio’s research interests are focused on health and sport psychology. Particularly, he is keen on analyzing psychological variables that might make athletes more vulnerable to injury (e.g., stress responses, risk-taking behaviors), as well as those which can affect the rehabilitation process. He is currently involved in analyzing the role of perceived benefits and personal growth following a sport injury and how such aspects can affect recovery duration, treatment compliance, medical staff-athlete climate, and athlete well being.
Wade to present at Aging 2016 Conference
Michael Wade, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology, will be attending the Aging 2016 conference in London Feb. 9-11. Wade will give an invited talk titled “The impact of aging on postural dynamics and task engagement.” The conference is sponsored by Euroscion.
Renowned scholar Benoît G. Bardy to speak at Special International Scholar Presentation
A long-time collaborator with Kinesiology professor Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D., Dr. Benoît G. Bardy from the University of Montpellier-1, France, is the featured speaker for the Special International Scholar Presentation on Wednesday, February 10 at 4 p.m. in Walter Library 101.
The title of the presentation is “Health on the beat: When music synchronizes biology.”
Dr. Bardy is the founding director of EuroMov, the European Center for Human Movement Sciences. He and Dr. Stoffregen have worked together for over 20 years on research projects for NSA and NIH in the U.S. and on funded projects in Europe, and have co-advised many graduate students.
The presentation is co-sponsored by a number of U of M departments, including the School of Kinesology, Human Factors and Ergonomics, Center for Clinical Movement Science, and Center for Cognitive Sciences.
Kinesiology’s Tucker Center releases annual Women in College Coaching Report and Report Card
The Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota’s School of Kinesiology, in collaboration with the Alliance of Women Coaches, is releasing today the fourth annual Women in College Coaching Report and Report Card, coinciding with National Girls & Women in Sport Day on February 3, 2016.
In the more than 40 years since the passage of Title IX, female sport participation is at an all-time high, but the percentage of women coaching women at the collegiate level has declined from over 90 percent in 1974 to a nearly all-time low today of 40 percent, a number that appears to have leveled off in the last decade. This annual report card was created to increase awareness of the issue while helping increase the percentage of women in the coaching profession, and to start a national dialogue, says Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi, co-director of the Tucker Center. The report assigns letter grades A -F to institutions based on the percentage of women head coaches of women’s teams, providing a visible mechanism of accountability at the institutional level.
To read the full report, visit http://www.TuckerCenter.org. espnW provides additional coverage of the report launch online.
Kinesiology alum named head trainer for the LA Dodgers
Kinesiology alum Neil Rampe has been named head trainer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had been with the Arizona Diamondbacks since 2008 as their manual and performance trainer. Rampe graduated in 2002 with his M.Ed. degree in Applied Kinesiology, sport and exercise science emphasis.
Kinesiology BS alum accepts position at Mayo Clinic
Zachary Pohlkamp, Kinesiology BS (clinical movement science subplan, 2015) and former undergraduate research assistant in the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory, has accepted a full-time position as Associate Clinical Research Coordinator in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, beginning late February.
LaVoi gives keynote at Robert Morris Girls & Women in Sport Symposium
Nicole M. LaVoi, Ph.D., senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology and co-director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, will give the keynote address “Was 2015 a Tipping Point for Girls and Women in Sport?” at Robert Morris University’s second annual Girls and Women in Sport Symposium on Thursday, February 4, 2016 in Pittsburgh, PA. The event, which aims to increase awareness of girls and women in sports, promote positive youth development, and encourage lifetime wellness, is held to celebrate National Girls and Women in Sport Day.
Konczak presents at Institute for Engineering in Medicine Seminar
Juergen Konczak, Ph.D., professor of Kinesiology and director of the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, is the featured speaker at the Institute for Engineering in Medicine (IEM) Seminar on Tuesday, February 2, 12:00 p.m.-1:00 pm at 4-101 Nils Hasselmo Hall. The title of his presentation is “Robotic Rehabilitation and Human Motor Control: Challenges and Opportunities.” Konczak will discuss the future potential and challenges of implementing robotic devices in clinical health care.
The event if free and open to the public.
Kin Ph.D. Young Ho Kim publishes in South Korean magazine Pyeongchang
Young Ho Kim, Kinesiology Ph.D. student, sport management emphasis, published a column titled “Reply to the 1988 Seoul Olympics” in Pyeongchang magazine, a South Korean publication. The magazine is a special monthly issue on the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics that will be held in South Korea. It is the second time Kim has published in the magazine.
In the column, Kim asks why a certain generation of Koreans who experienced the 1988 Seoul Olympics feel nostalgia for the period, even though it was still a time when the military government wielded enormous power. He suggests that “it’s probably because of the fluttering memories of bringing international attention to South Korea by the event and because of the glory in making the event one of the most successful Olympics in history.” He also suggests that since South Korea has hosted all three major world sports events (Summer/Winter Olympics and FIFA Word Cup), its people may no longer be interested in hosting sporting events.
“Also, we know that hosting mega sports events may no longer bring us as much sensational social impact as we experienced before,” he wrote. “However, as a host nation for the 2018 Winter Olympics, we should have the obligation to make the event a success again, recalling the memory of the ‘88 Seoul Olympics.”
Kim is advised by Lisa Kihl, Ph.D.
Konczak presents at the Italian Institute of Technology
Juergen Konczak, Ph.D., director of 
the Human Sensorimotor Control Lab (HSCL), recently gave a presentation to research scientists in robotics engineering at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia.
Konczak spoke on how robotic rehabilitation will change standard care in the next decade. He highlighted the challenges that arise from human-robot interaction that need to be considered when designing effective treatment protocols.
Doctoral students from HSC lab receive pre-doctoral dissertation awards from CATSS
Sanaz Khosravani and Yu-ting Tseng, both doctoral students in the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory (HSCL), each recently received a pre-doctoral dissertation award from the Center for Applied and Translational Sensory Science (CATSS). This award will partially fund both of their dissertation projects.
Video playlist now available for ICPA conference
School of Kinesiology professors Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D., director of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL), and Michael Wade, Ph.D., organized and hosted the XVIII International Conference on Perception and Action in July 2015. The International Society for Ecological Psychology (ISEP) sponsors the ICPA biennial conferences.
Now, video recordings of many of the conference talks have been posted to YouTube. The videographer was Eric Haaland, kinesiology graduate student.
Stoffregen publishes in Kinesiology Review
Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D., Kinesiology professor and director of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory, has published in Kinesiology Review. The invited article was based on an invited talk given at the September 2015 meeting of the National Academy of Kinesiology. The full citation is: Stoffregen, T. A. (2016). Functional control of stance in older adults. Kinesiology Review, 5, 23-29.
Kinesiology student and alum connect with Twins and MLB in Seoul
A group with School of Kinesiology and Minnesota baseball connections met for dinner in Seoul, South Korea recently. From left to right, Jeff Jurgella (U of M MBA, 1996), director of sport partnerships for the Minnesota Twins; Giny Oh, sport management senior and intern for the Minnesota Twins; Laura Day, executive vice-president of business development for the Minnesota Twins; Sungjin Kim, who graduated in Fall 2014 with his M.Ed. in applied kinesiology, sport management emphasis; and Songjae Song, MLB International. Jurgella, Day, and Song were in Seoul on official MLB business and Oh was visiting her family in Seoul for the holiday break. Kim has been living in Seoul since graduating.Kinesiology alums coaching women’s sports teams featured in MinnPost
Two Kinesiology alumnae and former Gopher athletes have unusual jobs–they are women
coaching women.
Natalie Darwitz (B.S. Sport Studies, 2004), pictured at left, and Kelly Roysland (B.S. Sport Studies, 2005), pictured center, are coaching women’s teams at St. Paul’s Hamline University and Macalester College. Darwitz is in her first year as women’s hockey coach at Hamline, and Roysland has been coaching women’s basketball at Macalester for two years. They are featured in a recent edition of MinnPost. Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D., lecturer and associate director of the Tucker Center in the School of Kinesiology, pictured at right, was also quoted in the article on reasons for the low numbers of women coaches in sports. Read the full story here.
Stoffregen conducts research on the ocean
Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL), is conducting research onboard the R/T Thomas G. Thompson, traveling from Seattle to San Diego. His research team comprises Hannah Walter, graduate student in APAL and visiting professor Nurtekin Erkmen, from Turkey, who is spending a sabbatical year in APAL.
Under near-hurricane conditions they are studying the kinematics and kinetics of nautical gait among the ship’s crew. If the weather improves they will be able to conduct an additional study of the perception of affordances for gait at sea.
The Thompson is scheduled to arrive San Diego on Friday, January 15.
Pope, Gao, and Lewis publish in Journal of Physical Activity and Health
Doctoral student Zachary Pope, together with assistant professor Zan Gao, Ph.D., and associate professor Beth Lewis, Ph.D., all from the School of Kinesiology, published an article in the latest issue of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health titled “Using the Transtheoretical Model to Examine the Effects of Exergaming on Physical Activity among Children.” Mr. Pope is the lead author on the article.
The study employed an innovative physical activity intervention, exergaming, in a sample of elementary school children, while also assessing changes from pretest to posttest in the children’s stages of readiness for change within the Transtheoretical Model. Specifically, the authors were interested in how the novel exergaming intervention, which utilized the game Dance Dance Revolution, affected a child’s physical activity self-efficacy and decisional balance from pretest to posttest. Findings from this study were significant in that very little research has analyzed the Transtheoretical Model in samples of children. In addition, no known study has used the model to evaluate the effectiveness of an exergaming intervention. The article can be found at the following link: http://journals.humankinetics.com/jpah-current-issue
Stoffregen presents at Microsoft headquarters
Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D., professor in t
he School of Kinesiology and director of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory, gave an invited presentation Friday, January 8, at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA. The title of his presentation was “Motion Sickness in Interactive Technologies.”