Alumni

I was lucky enough to have studied both my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at UWA. Initially, I completed a BSc with honours in Human Movement (now known as Exercise and Sport Science) from 2001-2004, before going on to complete a PhD in Exercise Physiology from 2005-2009. During this time, I met some great people who would go on to become my closest friends, and one became my wife! Clearly, this means I have a very strong connection to UWA, and I am very fortunate to have studied here. Eight years after finishing my studies, I find myself back at UWA as an academic staff member, enjoying the challenges of teaching and research.

My research interests revolve around athlete populations, and how we can use science to inform best-practice in the elite sport industry. Among numerous areas of interest (i.e., nutritional supplements, environmental manipulation, ischemic pre-conditioning and training load monitoring), I have a strong curiosity for the role that dietary iron plays in athlete health and performance. Specifically, we are interested in the mechanisms behind iron absorption in the gut, and how exercise can impact on this process.

I am currently passionate about the research centre we are developing in collaboration with the Western Australian Institute of Sport (WAIS) – the WA High Performance Sport Research Centre. This centre aims to provide high performance sport programs at WAIS with evidence-based, innovative solutions to performance-driven questions. The key intent of the centre is to produce practical and applied research outcomes, which can subsequently be translated into the WAIS daily training environment in order to optimise current practice and athlete success. Currently, we have 7 PhD and 3 honours students from UWA based out at WAIS, conducting their applied research studies as part of the centre, with a real industry focus. I would love to see this centre develop into a broader high performance research hub that connects numerous partners across domains such as sport, defence, and emergency services, with the intent of positively impacting human performance.

Currently, a core focus of our research concentrates on iron deficiency among athlete populations, since this nutritional issue may negatively impact athletic-performance, in addition to athlete health and well-being. Although our work is focused on reducing the incidence of this issue in athlete populations, it is important to consider that exercise can be used as a great model for research translation and knowledge sharing to other areas, such as the ‘everyday’ population, as well as those with chronic disease. As such, we hope that some of our research findings on iron metabolism will spill-over from an athlete-context to other domains, helping many people, not just elite sports people.

It is exciting that UWA is at the forefront of research in many areas, and that this work is being used to inform our curriculum and teaching practice. With a blended focus on student engagement and the student experience, in addition to research translation and industry impact, UWA graduates can be certain that they have received a world-class education, with exposure to current and evolving knowledge that is shaping practice and policy across numerous industries, world-wide.