My first 20 years were devoted to investigating the effects of different types of exercise training on physical performance, body composition, and cardiorespiratory health. Since the mid-1990s, I've focused on understanding physical activity and eating patterns as modifiable health behaviors. Publications include some 70 peer-reviewed articles and three textbooks including iHealth: An Interactive Framework, now in its 5th edition (McGraw-Hill, 2024). In addition to being a professor at Georgia Tech for three decades, I was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cape Town Medical School (South Africa), a Senior Scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta), and a Visiting Research Professor in the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland (Australia). I'm an elected Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, National Academy of Kinesiology, Society of Behavioral Medicine, and Research Consortium of SHAPE America. In 2018 I published The Sneakers in the Closet and Other Essays, my first venture in narrative nonfiction.
PDFs of Selected Papers
Recommendations for physical activity in older adults. The BMJ (British Medical Journal) 2015
Energy balance: the key to a unified message on diet and physical activity. Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention 2013
The Lance Armstrong saga: a wake-up call for drug reform in sports. Current Sports Medicine Reports 2013
Sedentary behavior: emerging evidence for a new health risk. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2010
Worksite health promotion: principles, resources and challenges. Preventing Chronic Disease 2010
A new evaluation tool to obtain practice-based evidence of worksite health promotion programs. Preventing Chronic Disease 2008
Obesity on campus. Preventing Chronic Disease 2007
Are fitness programs benefiting participants' movement and mobility in daily life? Quest 2005
College physical education: an unrecognized agent of change in combating inactivity-related diseases. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 2003
Physical activity patterns in recent college alumni. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport 2002
Promoting physical activity: the new imperative for public health. Health Education Research 2000
Historical/Personal Essays
Notes on Homo Sapiens. BJSM Blog 2022.
Let's get physical: movement science at Georgia Tech. GT Alumni Magazine 2021
Legacy of nutritionist Ancel Keys. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2020
The sneakers in the closet. BJSM Blog 2018
Reflections on exercise science. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance 2016
American pioneers in distance running research. BJSM Blog 2016
