left to right: Amy Bunyamin, Mahdi Hosseinitabatabaei, Yuwen Zheng, Kelsey Bjorkman, Anthony Kehrig

Graduate student successes

Our graduate students have had a busy term this fall

By Amanda Davenport

Several College of Kinesiology graduate students were featured in the Department of Pediatrics Research Report for November, 2017.

Anthony Kehrig (MSc), Kelsey Bjorkman (PhD) and Yuwen Zheng (MSc) collaborated with Amy Bunyamin and Mahdi Hosseinitabatabaei, fellow students from the College of Engineering, to write the feature article in the newsletter about their experiences at the International Workshop on Musculoskeletal and Neuronal Interactions (IWMNI) in Montreal earlier this fall.  This invaluable opportunity not only gave them a chance to gain presentation experience but also to network with the leading researchers in the field, building relationships that could lead to future collaborations for the U of S.  Other highlights from the conference included:

  • Anthony Kehrig received the Young Investigators' Award for his research on models predicting bone strength gain follwing increases in physical activity and bone loading impacts
  • Kelsey Bjorkman and Yuwen Zheng presented their research on the precision of peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) based muscle outcomes in children (Bjorkman) and reliability of annual physical performance meansures in children (Zheng)

Kinesiology professor, Dr. Saija Kontulainen, also presented at the same conference on preliminary findings of an ongoing study assessing bone and muscle health in children with autism spectrum disorder and related animal-assisted exercise-intervention. 

Later in the same newsletter, PhD candidate, Stephanie Fusnik (supervisor: Dr. Corey Tomczak), is featured as the recipient of the Richard Rowe Prize for the Best Trainee Research Presentation at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress.  Her award-winning presentation, Blunted exercise pressor reflex in children with hypoplastic left heart syndrome after the Fontan operation, was recognized for, "outstanding research in heart disease in children undertaken during training."

For more information about these honours, please review the Department of Pediatrics Research Report for November, 2017 (reposted here with permission).

We are also pleased to share that MSc graduate, Nicole Cameron, and PhD candidate, Alexandra Stoddart, were recognized in September with the Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy SIG Best Paper for an Early Career Researcher as presented at the British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference.

  • Lorusso, J., Morrison, H., Johnson, A., Borduas, C., Cameron, N., Lim, C., Price, C., & Stoddart, A. (2017, September). Graduate student experience in focus: A photovoice investigation of physical and health education graduate students in Canada. BERA, Brighton, U.K. 

Congratulations on these notable honours!