Growth, Maturation and Physical Activity

Robert M. Malina, PhD, FACSM, earned a doctoral degree in physical education from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a doctoral degree in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. He earned honorary degrees from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and the Academy of Physical Education, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. He was a professor of kinesiology and anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin from 1967 to 1995 and then moved to a similar position in kinesiology and anthropology at Michigan State University. Dr. Malina retired from Michigan State University in the summer of 2002. He currently is a research professor at Tarleton State University at Stephenville, Texas, and a research associate at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Michigan State University.

Professor Malina served as editor in chief of the American Journal of Human Biology (1990-2002), editor of the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology (1980-1986), and section editor for growth and development for Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews (1981-1999) and Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport (1981-1993). He also serves on the editorial boards of 13 journals in the sport sciences and biological anthropology.

His primary area of interest is the biological growth and maturation of children and adolescents with a focus on performance, youth sports and young athletes, and the potential influences of physical activity and training for sport. He has also worked extensively with the anthropometric correlates of physique and body composition in female athletes at the university level. Related areas of interest are the role of physical activity in the well being of children, adolescents, and young adults and the influence of chronic undernutrition on the growth, performance, and physical activity of Latin American youth.

Claude Bouchard, PhD, FACSM, is the executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and the George A. Bray chair in nutrition. He holds a BPed from Laval University, an MSc in exercise physiology from the University of Oregon at Eugene, and a PhD in population genetics from the University of Texas at Austin. His research deals with the genetics of adaptation to exercise and to nutritional interventions as well as the genetics of obesity and its comorbidities. He has authored or coauthored several books and more than 800 scientific papers. He received the Honor Award from the Canadian Association of Sport Sciences in 1988 and 2002, a Citation Award from the American College of Sports Medicine in 1992, the Benjamin Delessert Award in nutrition in France in 1993, the Willendorf Award from the International Association for the Study of Obesity in 1994, the Sandoz Award from the Canadian Atherosclerosis Society in 1996, the Albert Creff Award in Nutrition from the National Academy of Medicine of France in 1997, the TOPS award from the North American Association for the Study of Obesity in 1998, the W. Henry Sebrell Award from the Weight Watchers Foundation in 1999, and of an honorary doctoral degree in science from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1998. He has been a foreign member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium since 1996 and was the Leon Mow visiting professor at the International Diabetes Institute in Melbourne in 1998. In 2001, he became a member of the Order of Canada as well as professor emeritus of the faculty of medicine at Laval University. Dr. Bouchard is a former president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and the president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity (2002-2006). Prior to coming to Pennington, he held the Donald B. Brown research chair on obesity at Laval University.

The late Oded Bar-Or, MD, FACSM, was a professor of pediatrics and founder and director of the Children's Exercise and Nutrition Centre at McMaster University in Haamilton, Ontario, Canada. His 35-year research and clinical career focused on the effects of physical activity and inactivity on the health, well-being, and performance of healthy children and those with disease. During his career, he served as president of the Canadian Association of Sports Sciences, vice president of the American College of Sports Medicine, and president of the International Council for Physical Fitness Research. In 2000, the University of Blaise Pascal in France awarded him an honorary doctorate degree. He also received the Honor Award of the North American Society for Pediatric Medicine in 1998 and the Citation Award of the ACSM in 1997.