Author biographies



Author biographies

This special issue of the Journal of Sport and Health Science （JSHS） is focused on Physical activity continuum throughout the lifespan: Is exercise a medicine or what？ edited by Drs. Sulin Cheng and Lijuan Mao. It includes a total of 5 review

articles， 2 original articles and 1 opinion piece contributed by research scientists in the USA， UK， Denmark， Norway ，Finland， and China. Below， we present the biographies of the guest editors and main authors for each of these articles.

Dr. Sulin Cheng， a professor of health science and technology at the University of Jyväskylä， Finland and a chair professor in Shanghai Jiao Tong University， China. Her research interests have been in body composition development and obesity related metabolic disorders in human including family studies across 3 generations. Particularly， the research has been focused on the effect of exercise and diet intervention on bone， skeletal muscle， and adipose tissue metabolisms.

Dr. Lijuan Mao is a professor and Vice-President of Shanghai University of Sport. She is also a member of National Supervision Board for Physical Education of Higher Education， Chairman of Traditional Sports Branch of China Sport Science Society and Research Committee of Federation of University Sports of Shanghai. Currently， Dr. Mao’s research is focused on sport culture， training of soccer， and health promotion for special populations. She has authored over 30 scientific publications on exercise and health，sport culture， sport management， and health promotion for special populations particularly older adults. Dr. Mao has been funded by National "Twelfth Five-Year" Plan for Science & Technology Support and Projects of the National Social Science Foundation of China. In 2012， 2013， and 2014， she was honored with Outstanding Individual of Shanghai Yucai Award， Baosteel Outstanding Teacher Award， New Century Excellent Talents in University， and the Second Class Prizes of National Teaching Achievement Award.

Professor Andy Smith， MBE， PhD， CSci， FBASES， SFHEA， is Head of Sports Performance and Participation at York St John University. Andy has been an accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist since 1994 and holds Chartered status. He was the Chair of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences （BASES）between 1998 and 2000. He has conducted research on "exercise adherence" and is currently working on a number of studies including how to stop bullying in sport and the role recreation in well-being.

Dr Mark Nesti is an associate professor of psychology in sport at Liverpool John Moores University. He is a specialist in applied sport psychology， especially in relation to professional sport including football. He has worked in English Premier League football as counselling sport psychologist in 3 clubs for a total of 7 years，helping players develop their psychological skills and qualities， and acting as an organisational psychologist to support the coaching and sports science staff. He has written on existential phenomenological psychology， counseling， identity， anxiety， spirituality， and peak performance in sport. Mark is a former Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Sport and Spirituality at York St John University and is Research Lead at the Pope John Paul II Foundation for Sport. Currently he leads the MSc in sport psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. Mark is a British Psychological Society chartered sport psychologist and has worked with a range of sports at different levels of performance， from club to Olympic standard.

Professor J. Larry Durstine is a distinguished professor in the Department of Exercise Science at the University of South Carolina. Before arriving at the University of South Carolina， he earned his PhD in exercise physiology/biochemistry and medical physiology from the University of Toledo and The Medical College of Ohio at Toledo. His primary research area is the evaluation of regularly practiced exercise and the impact of a single exercise session on blood lipid and lipoprotein concentrations. In addition， he has other research interest in evaluating the relationships between exercise and novel cardiovascular disease risk factors such as C-reactive protein and Lp（a）. Additionally， Dr. Durstine has sought to understand the role of physical activity and exercise in the management of chronic disease. He has published over 80 refereed articles and has written and edited 9 professional books and more than 35 book chapters.

Jakob Tarp is currently pursuing a PhD in exercise epidemiology at the Centre for Research in Childhood Health （RICH）， University of Southern Denmark. The purpose of the PhD program is to study the epidemiological relationships between physical activity， cardiorespiratory fitness， and adiposity with cardiometabolic risk factors in youth. Other research interests include physical activity assessment in population studies， school-based physical activity interventions to improve population health and physical activity， and the measurement of human anthropometry. Jakob earned his MSc in sports and health from the University of Southern Denmark in 2013.

Dr. Petri Wiklund is a researcher in sport and health sciences at the University of Jyväskylä， Finland. He was originally trained as a physiotherapist and then got his MSc and PhD in sport and exercise medicine. The main focus of his research is development of obesity and related metabolic disorders with special reference to physical activity. The unifying theme in his current research is combining metabolomics and transcriptomics data to elucidate mechanisms underlying common metabolic traits associated with obesity.

Dr. Shuzhe Ding received his BS from Harbin Normal University in 1983， MS and PhD from East China Normal University in 1989 and 1999. He engaged in laboratory studies which explore mitochondrial responses to exhaustive exercise and physical activity in Beijing Medical University in 1993， St Olaf College in 1998， and University College London in 2005. He is currently a senior professor in exercise biochemistry. He is also a Council Member of Chinese Society of Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry，affiliated to China Sport Science Society. His research interests include mitochondrial adaptations to exercise， mitochondrial oxidative stress， the role of exercise in insulin resistance， type 2 diabetes， and obesity.

Professor Gisela Sjøgaard is a professor in physiology and biomechanics at University of Southern Denmark. Her main field of competence is in human exercise physiology with focus on muscle mechanics， metabolism and fatigue in relation to peak performance as well as development of musculoskeletal disorders. Her area of interest is neuromuscular control and biomechanics， using kinematics， kinetics， and electromyography including single motor unit recordings. Additional fields of research include development and monitoring of physical activity patterns and training programs to decrease musculoskeletal disorders and life style diseases to improve performance and well-being. She has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and text book chapters in international scientific journals and text books.