INDIANAPOLIS,IN- The American College of Sports Medicine recently announced several award winners at its annual meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. One Honor Award and seven Citation Award recipients were presented, and all of the winners were selected because of their significant contributions to sports medicine and the exercise sciences.
“Honor and Citation award winners are selected for their outstanding performance in the areas of research and scholarship, clinical care, administrative services or educational services,” said ACSM President Kathryn Schmitz, PhD, MPH, FACSM. “We are happy to recognize these awardees”
Barbara Ainsworth, Ph.D., M.P.H., FACSM is a recipient of the 2018 ACSM Honor Award. Ainsworth is a Regents’ Professor in the Exercise Science and Health Promotion Program in School of Nutrition and Health Promotion at Arizona State University. Dr. Ainsworth concentrates her scholarly activities on the assessment of physical activity and physical activity in women and minorities to understand how gender and race influence the cultural context for physical activity assessment.
Dr. Ainsworth has served as president of ACSM, the National Academy of Kinesiology, the Southwest Chapter of ACSM, and the Research Consortium of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). Dr. Ainsworth has received many awards in recognition of her scholarly expertise, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition; the McKenzie Award from AAHPERD; and the Henry J. Montoye Scholar Award from the Southeast Chapter of ACSM. She has mentored many post-doctoral fellows, as well as doctoral and master’s degree students who have developed noteworthy and inspiring careers. Collectively, Dr. Ainsworth has made major contributions to the field of physical activity and public health, thereby improving the health and well-being of society.
Lawrence Armstrong, Ph.D., FACSM, is a recipient of the ACSM 2018 Citation Award. Dr. Armstrong holds his main appointment in the Department of Kinesiology and has joint appointments in the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology and the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. Dr. Armstrong has pursued a rigorous research agenda while leading national and international environmental sciences studies that have positively impacted human performance and protected the health and lives of many of the world’s endurance athletes, warfighters and laborers. Dr. Armstrong has gained regional, national and international distinction through the application of basic science research findings that include hydration, thermal regulation, physiological and perceptual responses, exertional heat illnesses and performance outcomes in extreme environments. He has served as both director and associate director of the Human Performance Laboratory in the top-ranked University of Connecticut Department of Kinesiology.
Dr. Armstrong has published more than 220 peer-reviewed scientific publications and more than 140 book chapters, U.S. Government technical publications, books, journal supplements, position stands, and invited commentaries. For nearly 40 years, Dr. Armstrong has been a tireless worker for the American College of Sports Medicine, culminating in his serving as president in 2015-2016.
David Bassett, Jr., Ph.D., FACSM is a recipient of the ACSM 2018 Citation Award. Dr. Bassett is professor and head of the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sport Studies at the University of Tennessee. His productive scientific career includes more than 170 refereed publications, with the majority published in high-impact journals. In total, these works have been cited more than 10,000 times. His research addresses three major issues: how to accurately measure different types and intensities of physical activity (PA); how to convert PA measurements into energy expenditure values; and how differences in PA within and among populations are linked to health outcomes.
As a fellow of ACSM, Dr. Bassett has served as head of the ActivEarth Task Force, associate editor of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise® and member of the Board of Trustees. He provides service on several national advisory boards dealing with Physical Activity and health, provides leadership in international societies dealing with the measurement of Physical Activity, and is a fellow in the National Academy of Kinesiology.
Mary Jane De Souza, Ph.D., FACSM is a recipient of the ACSM 2018 Citation Award. Dr. De Souza is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and the Graduate Program in Physiology at the Pennsylvania State University where she has been a faculty member since 2008. Her research focus has been on the complex interplay between metabolic, reproductive and skeletal physiology in exercising women. Specifically, Dr. De Souza has investigated interactions between exercise and diet on the regulation of the female reproductive system and bone turnover. Over the years, she has conducted interventional studies using an array of drug therapies, hormonal modulations and lifestyle interventions that targeted translational outcomes while exploring underlying physiological mechanisms.
Dr. De Souza has made numerous contributions to ACSM. She is a long-standing Fellow and is currently a member of the editorial board for Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise® (MSSE), having previously served as an associate editor from 2006 to 2011. She is also a past president of the Female Athlete Triad Coalition. She regularly publishes her own research in MSSE, the ACSM flagship journal, and was the lead author of a consensus statement about treatment and return-to-play guidelines for the Female Athlete Triad.
William Dexter, M.D., FACSM is a recipient of the ACSM 2018 Citation Award. Dr. Dexter, a recipient of the Maine Governors Council on Physical Activity Lifetime Achievement Award, is professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. He also serves as chief of Athletic Medicine, head team physician and medical director for the Athletic Training Program for the University of Southern Maine, where he is professor of Sports
Medicine (adjunct).
As a fellowship director for more than 20 years, he helped to establish national benchmarks of excellence in the training of Primary Care Sports Medicine practitioners. Dr. Dexter has also made contributions through his broad-based research program on topics ranging from academic integrity to concussion management, injury epidemiology, recovery from muscle injury, mental health in athletes and exercise induced asthma. He has been a tireless worker for ACSM since 1989, culminating in his serving as president in 2013-14. He continues to serve the college through selfless contributions on various committees and as associate editor of Current Sports Medicine Reports.
Sandra Hoffmann, M.D., FACSM is a recipient of the ACSM 2018 Citation Award. Dr. Hoffmann is associate clinical professor at Idaho State University, former team physician at Idaho State University and Western Michigan University, and is active practicing internal medicine hospitalist.
Through her ACSM career, Dr. Hoffmann has served on or led numerous ACSM committees including - Membership, Ethics, Program, Musculoskeletal Task Force, SHI on Aging, and Medical Education. Dr. Hoffmann has served as faculty to ACSM’s Team Physician and International Team Physician Courses. She also served on the Board of Trustees from 2006-2009. Among her many accomplishments is her successful leadership in assuring that ACSM retains its full accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).
Timothy Lighfoot, Ph.D., FACSM is a recipient of the ACSM 2018 Citation Award. Dr. Lightfoot is currently the Omar Smith Endowed Professor of Kinesiology and Director of the Sydney and J.L. Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance at Texas A&M University.
Dr. Lightfoot has published more than 70 scientific, peer-reviewed articles on the genetics of daily physical activity and exercise endurance, as well as the physiological response to high-G exposure and hemorrhage, and has had more than $2 million in external funding from the National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense to conduct research on the genetics of physical activity. His lab also has a unique interest in the physiological responses of athletes in a variety of non-traditional venues such as auto racing as well as in musicians. He is a past-president of ACSM's Southeast chapter, a past member of the ACSM Board of Trustees and serves as an associate editor of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise®.
Janet Rankin, Ph.D., FACSM is a recipient of the ACSM 2018 Citation Award. Dr. Rankin is professor and associate chair in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. Her work includes a focus on examining the use of active transport for health.
Dr. Rankin has a long history of service to ACSM at the national level and at the Southeast Regional Chapter (SEACSM). She served as president of SEACSM, then served on the Board of Trustees for ACSM and was elected president of ACSM in 2012. She started the ActivEarth initiative during her presidency to advocate for the role of active transport in climate and health on a global level.