Faculty: University Park

Dane Aumiller
Instructor in Kinesiology
Cynthia Bartok
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Body composition assessment in children and adults, relationship between growth patterns early in life and later risk for obesity, emergence of motor control and locomotion in children, weight management in adults and sports nutrition.
Mark A. Belden
Instructor in Kinesiology
William E. Buckley
Professor of Exercise and Sport Science and Health Education
Research Interests: Health aspects of sport and athletic training with a focus in sport injury risk assessment and epidemiology; development of sport injury risk assessment models to apply to various subset athletic populations (women, disabled, senior participants); drug use in athletics; quality assessment for athletic training; and curriculum design.
John H. Challis
Professor of Kinesiology; Program Director, Graduate Program
Research Interests: Measurement and simulation modeling of the human musculo-skeletal system, with the aim of examining the role, function, and coordination of muscle in vivo. Development of improved biomechanical measurement protocols.
Eric J. Childs
Instructor in Kinesiology
Teaching Interests: Supervision of Student teachers in health and physical education; strength training and conditioning for scholastic and collegiate athletes.
David E. Conroy
Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Human Development & Family Studies
Research Interests: Achievement motivation – development in early and middle childhood, and consequences across the lifespan. For more details, please see my Kinesiology Faculty Research Form poster
Mary Jane De Souza
Professor of Kinesiology and Co-Director, Women’s Health and Exercise Laboratories
Research Interests: Women's health and Physical Activity; Endocrinology of the Female Athlete; Effects of Exercise on the Menstrual Cycle;
Female Athlete Triad (Eating disorders, amenorrhea and osteoporosis);
Eating Behaviors, Food Intake, and Exercise; Luteal Phase Defects and Amenorrhea; Bone Health and Osteoporosis in Female Athletes; and Energy Deficiency and Bone Health
Donna L. Dove
Instructor in Kinesiology
Danielle Symons Downs
Associate Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Psychosocial determinants of exercise (age, gender, race), application of theoretical models to exercise (theory of planned behavior, transtheoretical model), exercise dependence, body image.
Michael Duffey
Instructor in Kinesiology
Research Interests: To combine biomechanical analysis of the impact absorbed by the bones with other risk factor information, like diet, total physical activity and smoking, to better understand why stress fractures occur.
Michele L. Duffey
Instructor in Kinesiology and Co-Director of the Student Fitness Assessment Center
Teaching Interests: Promotion of life-long general health and fitness, disease/injury prevention, physical conditioning, jogging, strength training.
Mark S. Dyreson
Associate Professor of Kinesiology; Program Director, Undergraduate Program
Research Interests: History of sport and culture in the modern world with particular emphasis on the late nineteenth- and twentieth-century United States. Specific research concentrates on the role of sport in the creation of modern societies.
Robert B. Eckhardt
Professor of Developmental Genetics and Evolutionary Morphology
Research Interests: Interaction of genetic and environmental influences on growth and development in human populations; musculo-skeletal structures are of primary interest. Current study techniques emphasize computer imaging and analysis of two-dimensional and three-dimensional data representing anatomical structures. Particular emphasis is placed on integration of molecular and morphological perspectives on development.
Steriani Elavsky
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Physical activity, psychological function, and aging; physical activity effects on psychological well-being, mental health and quality of life outcomes in middle-aged and older adults; menopause; psychosocial determinants of physical activity behavior.
Jinger S. Gottschall
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: My research is an integrative and innovative study of legged locomotion. I combine the disciplines of cardiovascular physiology, neuromuscular physiology, and mechanical engineering in order to understand how humans and other animals walk and run. Specifically, the overall objective of my laboratory is to assess how we initiate and transition between changing environments such as downhill and uphill terrains.
George M. Graham
Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Physical education pedagogy.
Lori A Gravish
Instructor in Kinesiology
Elizabeth A. Hanley
Associate Professor Emerita of Kinesiology
Teaching Interests: Olympic games; sport and art; international folk dance (dance, music, culture, history, language).
W. Larry Kenney
Professor of Physiology and Kinesiology
Research Interests: Environmental and exercise physiology, particularly human thermoregulation, skin blood flow, and the biophysics of heat exchange.
Donna H. Korzick
Associate Professor of Physiology and Kinesiology
Research Interests: The singular and combined effects of chronic endurance exercise and senescence on the regulation of cardiovascular function (both cardiac and coronary smooth muscle) with a particular emphasis on receptor-second messenger coupling in rodents.
Lauren C. (Olmsted) Kramer
Program Director, Athletic Training Option
Research Interests: The role of hormones in understanding female ACL injuries and postural control measurements in athletes with chronic ankle instability.
R. Scott Kretchmar
Professor of Exercise and Sport Science
Research Interests: Philosophy of sport, with emphases on the ethics of fair play, the mind-body problem, and the nature of play. Both empirical and nonempirical methodologies are utilized and past research activities have ranged from basic to applied.
Sharon Krimmel
Instructor in Kinesiology; Undergraduate Advisor
Teaching Interests: Movement bioscience, pedagogy, activities, and careers in Kinesiology.
Mark L. Latash
Distinguished Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Control and coordination of multi-element systems participating in the production of voluntary movements. Equilibrium-point hypothesis of motor control. Control of posture, multi-joint reaching, finger coordination, and other motor tasks. The neurophysiological mechanisms of the production of voluntary movements. Changes in motor control and coordination with age, neurological disorder, and rehabilitation.
Nicole M. McBrier
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Skeletal muscle regeneration following injury; examining the influence of clinical therapeutic modalities and rehabilitation on the regenerative processes.
Renee M. Messina
Instructor in Kinesiology, Clinical Coordinator, Athletic Training Option
Teaching Interests: Athletic training, Emergency care.
Sayers John Miller
Assistant Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Orthopaedic injury rehabilitation including manual therapy, functional testing and outcome assessment. Dr. Miller practices as a physical therapist at the Penn State Center for Sports Medicine.
Helene Monthley
Instructor in Kinesiology
Teaching Interests: Health teaching methods and instruction for secondary students; general health information; health concerns related to secondary students; prevention and care of injuries, health related concerns in athletics.
Michael J. Morse
Instructor in Kinesiology
Teaching Interests: Bow hunting; youth summer camp operations.
Karl M. Newell
Professor of Kinesiology and Biobehavioral Health; Marie Underhill Noll Chair and Head of Department
Research Interests: Coordination, control and skill of normal and abnormal human movement across the life-span; development of coordination, acquisition of skill, information and movement dynamics, mental retardation and motor skills, drug exercise influences on movement control.
James A. Pawelczyk
Associate Professor of Physiology and Kinesiology; Interim Assistant Director of Noll Laboratory
Research Interests: Neural control of the circulation, particularly skeletal muscle blood flow, as it is affected by exercise or spaceflight.
John Pfau
Instructor in Kinesiology; Program Director, Kinesiology Physical Activity Program
Teaching Interests: Golf skills, history, meaning.
Stephen J. Piazza
Associate Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Development of computational tools for investigation of joint mechanics; computer simulation applied to the study of normal and pathological human gait; mechanical effects of surgical procedures intended to alter joint and muscle function; mechanics of total joint replacements.
David N. Proctor
Associate Professor of Kinesiology Physiology, and Medicine
Research Interests: Physiology of aging and exercise; regulation of skeletal muscle blood flow; cardiovascular responses to exercise; skeletal muscle adaptation; vascular adaptation.
Robert Ricketts
Senior Lecturer in Kinesiology
Teaching Interests: Leadership and team building; experiential learning; business aspects of fitness/wellness management.
Robert Sainburg
Associate Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Neural mechanisms underlying control of multijoint arm movements in humans. We combine both psychophysical experiments and biomechanical simulations to determine the neural processes responsible for coordinating the complex mechanics of the musculoskeletal system. Studies in patients with neurological lesions are conducted to determine the contributions of specific neural structures to control.
Megan Schuchert
Instructor in Kinesiology and Co-Director of the Student Fitness Assessment Center
Teaching Interests: General fitness and wellness courses, weight management, nutrition, jogging, walking, swimming.
Neil A. Sharkey
Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Education; Professor of Kinesiology, Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation
Research Interests: Functional aspects of the musculoskeletal system viewed from an orthopaedic perspective; normal, pathologic, and reconstructed function of bones and joints; mechanisms of injury to bone, ligament, and tendon and associated healing responses; laboratory modeling of skeletal and diarthroidal joint loading; internal biomechanical behavior of the foot and ankle, knee, hip and shoulder.
Semyon M. Slobounov
Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Cognitive and affective aspects of motor skill acquisition, psychological causes and consequences of sport injury, psychological effects of exercise, EEG and voluntary movements, computer graphic visualization of movement dynamics.
Dagmar Sternad
Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Control and coordination of rhythmic and discrete movements, dynamical modeling of movements, role of dynamical stability and structure of variability in acquisition and performance of perceptual-motor skills.
Clarence H. Stoner
Assistant Professor of Exercise and Sport Science
Teaching Interests: Racquetball; badminton, tennis, golf, squash, and Kinesiology internships.
James Sullivan
Instructor in Kinesiology
Teaching Interests:Martial arts Karate, Aikido and Kendo; fitness development and evaluation for adults, athletes and executives.
James G. Thompson
Professor Emeritus of Exercise and Sport Science
Research Interests: Ancient Greek history, including the Aegean Bronze Age through the Classical period (ca 3000-323 B.C.). Specific research has focused on physical education as an important aspect of ancient Greek education. Additional areas of interest include Minoan bull-vaulting, the Panhellenic Games of ancient Greece, and athletic interaction with politics.
Nancy I. Williams
Associate Professor of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Exercise physiology, effects of alterations in energy balance on reproductive function, neuroendocrinology, metabolism, clinical issues pertaining to women's health and reproductive status, i.e., hypothalamic amenorrhea, bone loss, breast cancer.
William T. Wright
Instructor in Kinesiology
Vladimir Zatsiorsky
Professor of Kinesiology; Director, Biomechanics Laboratory
Research Interests: Biomechanical basis of motor control, in particular biomechanics of hand and finger function and balance maintenance. Sport biomechanics. Science of training athletes, especially strength training.