Lumsden, Matthew

Matthew currently works as the Technical Programs Director for a large soccer club in Alberta. He has coached at the Provincial Level in Canada and with the Youth National Club league in the United Kingdom.

Matthew initially decided to pursue the MHPCTL degree to enhance his understanding of current high-performance trends and to apply more informed practices into his current and future working environments. According to Matthew, the program “has reinforced my philosophy of implementing evidence-led practices within my day-to day environment, while a major benefit of the program is that the many hands-on projects I completed benefited the organization for which I work in real way.

“The MHPCTL program has provided me with a great foundation for a well-balanced and comprehensive understanding of the various elements of high-performance sport. Programs such as these continue to raise the standards of coaching and add credence to the professionalism of our industry. When it comes to online learning. I really enjoyed the blended learning approach between the residential weeks and online teaching. It provided a flexible approach around full-time work and a busy family life.”

Labelle, Dominic

Dominic Labelle is currently in charge of the “Under 12 and Under 10” tennis Program at the Academy Aliassime. He has coached at the university, provincial and national level across the country. He has also worked for Tennis Canada’s Under 10 camps.

When first thinking of pursuing a graduate degree, he states “while I was accepted into Sport Psychology at the University of Ottawa, I felt that the MHPCTL was more specific to my long-term goal to coach at the professional level. Furthermore, the MHPCTL helped me to finish the Advanced Coaching Diploma that is a requirement for the Coach 4 at Tennis Canada, which is the highest certification.”

He says the MHPCTL program has helped him with his planning and has made him more structured and precise in the preparation of his athletes. “I also have a better idea about which path to take in order for my players to reach the professional circuit. I’m also better able to assess the gaps between a good national junior player and an international one. I believe the degree has provided me with more credibility, as I don’t have a professional background in tennis, and it will most definitely accelerate my certification with Tennis Canada.”

Reflecting on his first two years of his online learning experience Dominic recalls “that he met many coaches from other fields across the country and having some great cross-fertilizing discussions. The last year of my studies was focused more on working solo on my final project, titled “The Effect of Break Point on the Serve Characteristics in Men’s Professional Tennis” – which is related to sport analytics and match statistics.

Devlin, Kraig

Kraig Devlin is a high-performance karate coach and former High-Performance Director for Karate Canada. Kraig believes that the UBC MHPCTL program armed him with the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to prepare and lead Karate Canada’s Team to Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Kraig has also coached or led teams at dozens of international World Cups, numerous Pam American Champions and two Pan American Games.

“Being able to study and interact online with the student cohort and professors while still continuing to work made the entire endeavor possible,” states Kraig. “I can’t say enough positive things about the content and structure of the program, I completed each assignment and was almost immediately able to turn around and begin to apply it in my high-performance sport context. The instructors and curriculum are top-notch.”

Kraig took a brief hiatus from the program in 2019 to focus on preparing for Tokyo while also supporting Karate Canada’s HP program through the COVID 19 pandemic but returned post-Olympics to finalize his program-culminating research into scoring in the women’s karate kumite events at the Tokyo Olympics.

Congratulations Atila Ozkaplan (BHK 01, MSc 04), Alumni Builder Award Recipient!

Created in 2017 as part of the 100th year of alumni UBC, the Alumni Builder Awards recognize a cross-section of alumni representing both campuses who have significantly contributed to the university and enriched the lives of others, and in doing so, have supported alumni UBC’s mission of realizing the promise of a global community with shared ambition for a better world and an exceptional UBC.

We are happy to honour this year’s Alumni Builder Award recipients and particularly proud to honour KIN alumnus, Atila Ozkaplan whose generous contributions have been recognized by the School of Kinesiology.

Atila Ozkaplan, BHK’01, MSc’04
School of Kinesiology

Atila Ozkaplan is a successful professional as Vice President of Production Operations, Olympics for the NBC Sports Group Olympic and model alumni mentor. He understands the vital importance of a mentor in facilitating career connections and fostering professional development for students. He has served as an inspiring keynote speaker at several events, has donated to the university and is engaged in numerous ways including the sharing of professional networks with students, providing valuable survey input, alumni profiles, and newsletter articles. Atila is a strong ambassador in the world for the School and its values. He is a true alumni builder.

Read about all UBC Alumni Award Recipients here.

Russell, David (1937-2021)

David Russell was an accomplished academic and professor with the School of Physical Education, University of Otago, in New Zealand. He began his career at UBC where he received his BPE (1970) and MPE (1971) from the UBC School of Kinesiology (head of the graduating BPE class). He continued his academic journey at the University of Michigan where he completed an MA in psychology and his PhD in motor learning and control. He then went on to serve as a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois before moving to the Human Movement Studies Dept at the University of Queensland in Australia where he was a Senior Lecturer from 1974-81 and Head of the Dept from 1978-81.

In 1981 he became Dean of the School of Physical Education at the University of Otago, NZ until July 1991. Following his period as Dean of the School, David established the Life in New Zealand Activity and Health Research (LINZ) Unit and served as the Director until his retirement in 2001.

David’s research interests have included: coordinating a research review on drugs in sport for the Royal Society of NZ culminating in the publication ‘Drugs in Sport: Their Use and Abuse’; and exploring the cost of inactivity of the New Zealand population leading to the report ‘The Cost of Doing Nothing.’

Dr. Eli Puterman on Combatting Depression Through Exercise

Congratulations to Kin assistant professor Eli Puterman on his study in combatting depression through physical activity. Depression levels have significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. The question of finding a practical solution to reduce it is more relevant now than ever before.

Dr. Puterman was recently featured on CBC News.

Eli and his research team recruited more than 300 people to conduct this study. Each person was given a free subscription to an exercise app and assigned to one of four randomized groups that either did yoga, high-intensity interval training, a combination of the two, or were relegated to a waitlist. Each week, participants completed a standard questionnaire that is used in the diagnosis and treatment of depression. Using a scale of zero to three, people reported how often they experienced symptoms such as sleeplessness or feeling lonely.

His team found that during lockdowns, at-home exercise reduced depression levels significantly. Furthermore, Dr. Puterman recommends individuals to try at-home or app-based workouts because they are accessible, low-cost, and can be done with little space and no equipment.

To learn more about his study and gather tips on how to start exercising from home, click here.

Congratulations Dr. Jasmin Ma For Her Newly Published Study!

Congratulations to Dr. Jasmin Ma for her published study, “Implementation of the spinal cord injury exercise guidelines in the hospital and community settings: Protocol for a type II hybrid trial.”

Her research aims to evaluate the implementation of coordinated physical activity (PA) coaching delivered by physiotherapists and spinal cord injury (SCI) peers during the transition from in-hospital care to living in a community (implementation objective), and assess the effect of coaching on PA behaviour and psychosocial predictors among people with SCI (effectiveness objective).

Click here to read the full article.

Congratulations to Erica Bennett on her New Paper on Interpersonal Relationships and Older Canadian Men’s Body Image

Congratulations to Erica Bennett with co-authors Laura Hurd, Elizabeth Pritchard, Tayler Colton, and Peter Crocker for their recently published article, “‘You’re part of something bigger’: interpersonal relationships and older Canadian men’s body image” in the January 2022 issue of Psychology and Health.

The objective of the study was to examine older men’s body image, with a focus on the role of interpersonal relationships in shaping their psychological adaptation to age-related body changes to appearance, function, and health.

Click here to read the full article.

Airway Luminal Area and the Resistive Work of Breathing During Exercise in Healthy Young Females and Males

Congratulations to Dr. Carli Peters, (Ph.D. 2021) on her published study, “Airway luminal area and the resistive work of breathing during exercise in healthy young females and males”, with Kin professor Dr. Bill Sheel, and co-authors Michael Leahy, Geoffrey Hohert, Pierre Lane, Steven Lam, Don Sin, and Don McKenzie) in the December issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, 02 Dec. 2021 https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00418.2021

Her study examines the relationship between the work of breathing (Wb) during exercise and in vivo measures of airway size in healthy females and males. It was hypothesized that the higher resistive work of breathing in females compared with males during high-intensity exercise is due to smaller airways.

Click here to read the published article.

Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Computational Neuro-Biology of Human Movement

Position title

Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Computational Neuro-Biology of Human Movement

Employment

Position within the School of Kinesiology

Employer name

School of Kinesiology

Employer email address

kin.hr@ubc.ca

Job description

The School of Kinesiology, in the Faculty of Education at The University of British Columbia (UBC), invites applications for a full-time tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the area of Computational Neuro-biology of Human Movement. The appointment is expected to begin on January 1, 2023 or as negotiated with the successful candidate.

The successful candidate must hold a PhD at the time of application in neuro-biology, neuroscience, or a closely related discipline, and demonstrate excellence or the potential for excellence in teaching, research, and scholarship. Post-doctoral training would be an asset. The successful candidate is expected to engage in basic research that supports the areas of neuromechanical, physiological and systems biology and must have advanced knowledge, research experience and a demonstrated history of publications using computational approaches for modeling neurophysiological processes and statistical signal processing of electrophysiological and/or neurobiological imaging data.

The successful candidate must have a record of research dissemination in terms of peer-reviewed articles in recognized academic journals in the field and evidence of presentations at national and international scholarly conferences. Demonstrated ability to participate in scholarly activity, to establish an original program of research supported by external competitive funding (e.g., tri-agency and partnership grants) is required. This individual will have demonstrated ability to develop and effectively teach courses at introductory and advanced levels in areas of electrophysiological and brain imaging, biosensors and technology, computational approaches in Kinesiology, neurobiological signal processing, and modeling neuro biological systems of human movement.

The successful candidate will be expected to develop and teach three courses including “Introduction to computational approaches in kinesiology – “biosensors & technology”, as well as advanced upper-level courses in areas of “Neuro-biological signal processing”, and “Modeling neuro-biological systems of human movement”, to be offered to senior undergraduate and graduate students.

They are also expected to contribute to the growth of the School through supervision of graduate students, participation in service activities within the School, Faculty, University and in the broader scholarly community. The incumbent will be encouraged to collaborate across the diverse research areas in the School and, more broadly, the University. This position will complement the School of Kinesiology’s strategic plans for interdisciplinary research excellence within the School and across faculties at UBC and play a role in generating and disseminating knowledge on the role of physical activity and health in diverse populations.

How to apply

Interested applicants are asked to send:

(i) a cover letter (please indicate if you are currently legally entitled to work in Canada),
(ii) curriculum vitae,
(iii) a five-year research plan,
(iv) a summary of teaching interests and philosophy,
(v) evidence of teaching excellence (such as course outlines and student evaluations if available),
(vi) three papers that are the most significant and relevant to your research interests,
(vii) a Diversity Statement that describes and documents how values of equity, diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and anti-oppression figure into your past, present, and future experience of teaching, research, community engagement, and your lived experience (maximum 1 page), and
(viii) names and contact details of three academic references. Letters of reference will only be requested from short-listed candidates.

The complete application file must be submitted in the format of one bookmarked PDF file, addressed to Dr. Robert Boushel, Director, School of Kinesiology, and sent electronically to kin.hr@ubc.ca by the application review start date (below). Please include this subject heading: Computational Neuro-Biology of Human Movement Position. Following the submission of the application, the applicant will receive an Equity Survey link via email. Completion of the anonymous Equity Survey is required as part of the application process.

While the search remains open until the position is filled, in order to be considered in this round of adjudication, interested individuals are asked to submit their applications by April 15, 2022, to ensure optimal consideration. Questions regarding the position and the application deadline should be directed to Dr. Robert Boushel, Director, School of Kinesiology at kin.hr@ubc.ca.

Read the full position description:
Download here.

Posting expiration date

05/25/2022