Trustee Candidate: Basic & Applied Science

James Carson, Ph.D., FACSM
Professor and Department
Director of Graduate Studies
University of South Carolina
Exercise Science Department
Columbia, SC

1.  Please list your previous service to ACSM.

It has been my pleasure to be a member of ACSM since my days as a graduate student in Exercise Science at The Ohio State University. I achieved Fellow Status (FACSM) in 2008, and have served ACSM on the Research Advisory Committee and on the Science Integration and Leadership Committee. I currently serve on the Editorial Board of the Exercise and Sports Science Reviews (ESSR) Journal, and am an active reviewer for the Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise® Journal. I am also serving as a co-chair for the organization of ACSM’s Integrated Physiology of Exercise Meeting to be held in 2014.  Over the years, I have consistently supported ACSM through attendance and participation in both National and Regional annual meetings. Since becoming faculty in 1999 at the University of South Carolina in Exercise Science my students have presented over 30 scientific abstracts at the National ACSM meeting and over 25 abstracts at our Southeastern Regional ACSM meeting. I have given 10 talks in symposiums at the National ACSM meetings and 3 talks at symposiums in Regional ACSM meetings. I have also published 2 reviews in the ESSR journal.

2.   What is ACSM’s greatest strength and how would you make that aspect of the organization even stronger?

In my eyes, ACSM is uniquely positioned as an organization to both create and disseminate knowledge related to complex questions involving physical activity, exercise, and health.  This uniqueness is directly related to the multi-disciplinary approaches used by the members of ACSM to study exercise and physical activity. My research interests over the past 20 years clearly align with the basic science understanding of skeletal muscle mass regulation during periods of increased and decreased use, and the impact of disease on these processes. However, my experience has demonstrated to me that true answers to multifaceted health problems will require the scientist to work within a trans-disciplinary approach that takes into account physiological, behavior, and population outcomes. At the University of South Carolina I am involved with a National Institutes of Health funded pre-doctoral training grant that has the goal of developing a scientist that can comfortably understand biomedical mechanisms, behavior outcomes, and the importance of population studies. To this end this training program involves exercise physiology, epidemiology and psychology components. It is clear to me that all of these disciplines are well represented within ACSM, and provides an environment ideal for answering complex physical activity and health questions. My goal as a board member will be to place an emphasis on reducing disciplinary silos, while creating cross-disciplinary linkages.  The additional nurturing of this type of environment will continue to advance ACSM to the forefront as an organization that can provide the scientific incubation required to answer complicated questions related to physical activity, exercise and health in the decades to come.

3.  ACSM works closely with many other organizations, including associations, companies, philanthropies, and governmental agencies. Indicate those organizations/companies/agencies for which you play an advisory, consulting, or leadership role.

I am a member of the American Physiological Society (APS), and National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). I currently serve on the Editorial Board for 2 American Physiological Society Journals, the American Journal of Physiology Integrative & Regulatory and Journal of Applied Physiology. I currently serve as an elected Exercise Physiology Councilor for the Environmental & Exercise Section of the American Physiological Society. I have an active research collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline LLC related to the examination of skeletal muscle mass regulation.