Confirmed Speakers & abstracts
Prof Ron Maughan
Chair of Programme Committee
Ron Maughan obtained his BSc (Physiology) and PhD from the University of Aberdeen, and was based in the Medical School there for almost 25 years before moving to England. He is now Visiting Professor in the School of Medicine at St Andrews University.
He spent much of his career trying to understand the physiological responses to exercise and the nature of fatigue, but has included many digressions along the way.
He chairs the Nutrition Working Group of the Medical Commission of the International Olympic Committee. He is a director of the IOC Diploma programs in Sports Nutrition, Sports Medicine, Sports Physical Therapies, Mental Health in Elite Sport and Drugs in Sport.
Prof Asker Jeukendrup
Professor Asker Jeukendrup is one of the world’s leading sports nutritionists and exercise physiologist who spent most of his career as a professor at the University of Birmingham (UK) (sports sciences). He is currently director of his own performance consulting business “Mysportscience”, and co-founder and CEO of a Nutrition Planning software business (fuelthecore.com) as well as a (visiting) professor at Loughborough University. Asker is also Performance Manager Nutrition for the Dutch Olympic team and Head performance Nutrition for the Jumbo Visma Pro cycling team, The Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre, Red Bull Salzburg and PSV Eindhoven. He is also associated with FC Barcelona and teaches the FC Barcelona Advanced Sports Nutrition course. In his academic career Dr Jeukendrup authored 10 books and over 200 research papers and book chapters. In addition to this he worked with Olympic and World champions, Tour de France cyclists, Champions league football teams, and other elite athletes but he also worked extensively with recreational athletes. His mission, regardless of the level, is to use science to help athletes achieve their goals. Asker practices what he preaches and is competing in Ironman distance triathlons as well as other endurance events. To date he completed 21 Ironman races including 6 time the Ironman world Championship in Hawaii. www.mysportscience.com (twitter @jeukendrup).
Prof Brendan Egan
Brendan Egan, PhD is an Associate Professor of Sport and Exercise Physiology, and currently Head of School for the School of Health and Human Performance at Dublin City University. His current research investigates skeletal muscle function and adaptation across the life course, with special interest in the synergy between nutrition and exercise interventions ranging from athletes to older adults. His research group performs human trials involving both acute and chronic interventions for outcomes around performance (physical and cognitive), recovery and adaptation, and have employed a wide range of experimental designs that have been complimented by molecular analysis tools include transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics. Nutrients recently and presently under investigation include caffeine, creatine, omega-3 fatty acids, resveratrol, leucine, protein hydrolysates, beetroot juice, and exogenous ketones.
As a practitioner, Brendan has worked predominantly with athletes in endurance sports including the Irish Paratriathlon team, and teams in field-based team sports including Dublin hurling, Dublin camogie, the Republic of Ireland men’s football team, and presently, the Republic of Ireland women’s football team.
Prof Craig Sale
Programme Committee
Craig is an experienced research leader, responsible for coordinating research activity relating to exercise and nutrition interventions in the Institute of Sport at Manchester Metropolitan University. In his previous role he was responsible for coordinating the research activity of staff across Nottingham Trent University as the Co-Lead of the NTU Health & Wellbeing Strategic Research Theme and of over 50 staff in the School of Science and Technology in his role as the Director of the Sport, Health and Performance Enhancement (SHAPE) Research Centre. He was also the REF Unit of Assessment Coordinator for UoA C24 since 2009, wherein he oversaw a significant upturn in the Units REF related performance and its sector position. Prior to NTU, Craig was a Senior Scientist and then Deputy Capability Group Leader of the Human Protection and Performance Enhancement Group at QinetiQ Ltd, where he was partly responsible for the activity of around 20-30 scientists conducting defence and security work for the Ministry of Defence and other commercial entities. Among other things, Craig is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and a Section Editor for the European Journal of Sports Sciences.
Dr Danielle Adams Norenberg
Danielle is an ex-international swimmer with over 15 years’ experience as a Sport Psychologist having supported multiple medallists at Rio 2016, Tokyo 2021. She is Head of Psychology for the UK Sports Institute, lead psychologist for British Triathlon and The English National Ballet, and TeamGB HQ psychologist for Paris 2024. Danielle holds BSc in Sport Science (NMSU), MSc in Performance Psychology (University of Edinburgh) and PhD in Sport Psychology (Brunel University) and has a research portfolio in attention mechanisms of elite sports performers, psychological priming, and pressure training. In her work, she facilitates the creation of high-performance environments that support psychological growth in people for them to perform at their optimal when it matters most.
Dr Enette Larson-Meyer
Dr Enette Larson-Meyer is currently a Professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise at Virginia Tech, where she directs the Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism Lab. Her research focuses on how nutrition influences the health and performance of active individuals at all stages of the lifecycle and at all levels of performance. Recent research interests include healthy weight gain in athletes and military personnel, and the importance of iodine and vitamin D status in exercise performance, disease prevention and general wellness. Enette has authored over 100 scientific articles, is the author of “Plant-Based Sports Nutrition. Expert Fueling Strategies for Training, Recovery, and Performance” (Human Kinetics, 2020) and has served on several International Olympic Committee consensus panels. She serves as an Associate Editor for Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise and the Science and Medicine of Football. Earlier in her career, Enette completed an internship at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (Colorado Springs) and served as a collegiate sports dietitian. Her personal interests include trail running, flat water kayaking and Irish-Step dancing. She is the proud mother of three college students, two of whom play/played D2 soccer at U.S. Universities.
Prof Graeme Close
Programme Committee
Graeme is currently a Professor of Human Physiology at Liverpool John Moores University where is also the Head of The Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences. From an applied perspective, Graeme is the Head of Performance Nutrition to The DP World Tour Golf and High Performance Consultant to England Rugby and Everton FC. He is a fellow of both The European College of Sport Science (ECSS) and The British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES). Academically, Graeme’s research is focussed upon muscle damage and repair with a specific interest in Vitamin D and most recently cannabidiol (CBD). Graeme has published over 200 research publications and regularly delivers keynote conference presentations in sport nutrition throughout the world.
Dr Hans Geyer
Until 2023 Hans Geyer was the deputy head of the WADA accredited doping control laboratory in Cologne, Germany. He was also secretary of the Centre for Preventive Doping Research at the German Sport University Cologne and director of the Cologne Athlete Passport Manging Unit (Cologne APMU). Since 1983 he works especially in the fields of development of new methods for the detection doping substances, steroid profiling and the analyses of nutritional supplements for doping substances.
Dr Holly Neill
Dr Holly Neill is the Science Officer at Yakult UK and Ireland where she communicates the latest research on the gut microbiota, probiotics, and health. Holly holds a PhD in nutrition and has experience managing and conducting human trials across a range of topics including vitamin D, polyphenols, B-vitamins and cardiovascular health in both healthy populations and ileostomy patients. Before transitioning to industry, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher and has presented her published research internationally.
Prof James Morton
James is a Professor of Exercise Metabolism at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU), where he has authored over 200 research publications related to sports physiology and nutrition. James has also worked in a number of performance support related roles across both high performance sport and industry. From 2010-2015, he was the performance nutritionist to Liverpool FC before taking up the position of Nutrition and Physical Performance Lead for Team Sky between 2015 and 2019. In this role, he was responsible for the performance nutrition strategy for 5 consecutive Tour de France wins. James is also the Director of Performance Solutions for Science in Sport (SiS) where he leads the Performance Solutions programme that encompasses the strategic delivery of bespoke performance solutions and innovation for SiS and their elite partners. James also advises INEOS Sport, where he has led the creation and delivery of the INEOS X programme that aims to share knowledge and best practice on performance support across the INEOS Sport portfolio. He is also a Performance Mentor for the FA Premier League.
Dr Kathryn Ackerman (Online)
Kathryn (Kate) Ackerman, MD, MPH, FACSM is the Founder and Director of the Wu Tsai Female Athlete Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is also the Founder and Director of the Biennial International Female Athlete Conference. She earned her BA from Cornell University, her MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, her MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and completed her residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her sports medicine fellowship at Harvard’s Boston Children’s Hospital, an endocrinology fellowship at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and an endocrine research fellowship at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Ackerman served as the Team Physician for the 2024 Olympic Rowing Team in Paris, is chair of the US Rowing medical committee, a member of the World Rowing medical commission, and co-chair of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s Women’s Health Task Force. Her research focuses on the female athlete health and the various aspects of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). She has authored/co-authored over 150 articles and book chapters related to sports medicine, endocrinology, rowing, bone health, and female athletes, including position statements with the International Olympic Committee. In 2020, she became a member of the national leadership council for the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a $220mill initiative to improve health and performance globally. Dr. Ackerman is leading the Alliance’s focus on scientific advancements for women.
Prof Kirsty Elliott-Sale
Kirsty completed her undergraduate degree and PhD [Exercise Physiology] at Liverpool John Moores University. Her PhD examined the effects of female reproductive hormones on muscle strength and since then her work has primarily focused on female athletes. She worked as a Lecturer at Brunel University and the University of Brighton, before undertaking a four-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at Kings College London. She worked at Nottingham Trent University from 12 years, before joining the Institute of Sport at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2022 as a Professor of Female Endocrinology and Exercise Physiology. In addition to her research on female athletes, which includes the menstrual cycle, hormonal contraceptives, the Female Athlete Triad and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, her work in recent years has involved designing and implementing exercise interventions during and following pregnancy in a variety of populations including servicewomen (i.e., military personnel), athletes, and women with obesity. She have co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, expert statements, and editorials on/for sportswomen. In addition, she works with many organisations such as the English Institute of Sport, the Football Association, The Australian Institute of Sport, The European Club Association, and The Wu Tsai Performance Alliance and is part of several special interest groups and advisory boards related to female athletes.
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Dr Lewis James
Lewis is currently Senior Lecturer in Nutrition in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University and a member of the National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine, East Midlands. Lewis’s research examines the role of nutrition in sports performance, metabolism and energy balance, where he has published >75 papers. Specifically, most of his current research focusses water and electrolytes balance for exercise performance and health, with additional work focussing on nutrition to support exercise in the heat and nutritional effects on appetite regulation and energy balance. Lewis has a keen interest in applied sports nutrition and over the years has provided nutrition consultancy to professional/elite athletes, particularly combat sports athletes and endurance athletes, with much of this athlete focussed work now centred around optimising water and electrolyte intakes. Lewis serves as Associate Editor for the International Journal of Sport nutrition and Exercise Metabolism.
Prof Louise Burke
Louise is a sports dietitian with 40 years of experience in the education and counselling of elite athletes. She worked at the Australian Institute of Sport for thirty years, first as Head of Sports Nutrition and then as Chief of Nutrition Strategy. She was the team dietitian for the Australian Olympic Teams for the 1996-2012 Summer Olympic Games. Her publications include over 350 papers in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters, and the authorship or editorship of several textbooks on sports nutrition. She is an editor of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. Louise was a founding member of the Executive of Sports Dietitians Australia and is a Director of the IOC Diploma in Sports Nutrition. She was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2009 for her contribution to sports nutrition. Louise was appointed as Chair in Sports Nutrition in the Mary MacKillop Institute of Health Research at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne in 2014 and took up this position in a full-time capacity in 2020.
Prof Luc van Loon
Luc van Loon is a Professor of Physiology of Exercise at the Department of Human Biology at Maastricht University Medical Centre. Luc has an international research standing in the area of skeletal muscle metabolism. Current research in his laboratory focuses on the skeletal muscle adaptive response to exercise, and the impact of nutritional and pharmacological interventions to modulate muscle metabolism in health and disease. The main research interests of his laboratory include muscle metabolism, sports nutrition, clinical nutrition, adaptation to endurance and resistance type exercise, and the use of physical activity and/or nutritional interventions to improve health in chronic metabolic disease and aging. The latter are investigated on a whole-body, tissue, and cellular level, with skeletal muscle as the main tissue of interest.
Dr Marcus Hannon (Online)
is a Sport & Exercise Nutrition registered (SENr) performance nutritionist and is currently the Lead Performance Nutritionist for the Qatar Football Association. Previously, Marcus has worked with a range of youth and adult athletes across a variety of sports including football (previously Aston Villa FC and Everton FC), rugby (previously Northampton Saints and Ulster Rugby) and professional boxing (Carl Frampton). Marcus completed his PhD at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) investigating the energy requirements of Premier League academy footballers and is still actively involved in applied sports science and nutrition research.
Peter Res
Peter Res is a performance nutritionist and triathlon coach. His career spans roles in elite cycling (Rabobank Cycling Teams), football (Ajax Amsterdam), and various Olympic disciplines, including judo, badminton, field hockey, and water polo. Alongside his practical work, Peter has conducted research in exercise physiology and protein metabolism under Prof. Luc van Loon at Maastricht University. Currently, he supports the Dutch Olympic team (TeamNL) and is actively developing a platform focused on sustainable performance nutrition.
Dr Philippa Jackson
Philippa is currently an Associate Professor of Biological Psychology and the Director of the Brain, Performance and Nutrition Research Centre (BPNRC), based in the Department of Psychology, Northumbria University. The BPNRC is a world leader in conducting human nutrition intervention trials to better understand the relationship between what we consume (e.g. micro/meso/macro-nutrients, whole foods, nutraceutical supplements) and brain function and behaviour. The lab specialises in cognitive and behavioural assessment to measure enhancement, and integrates techniques such as neuroimaging, measurement of tissue biomarkers and omics approaches to interrogate putative mechanisms. Philippa has a particular interest in the effects of bioactive lipids such as omega-3 fatty acids on cognition and brain health throughout the lifespan. Here her research investigates the differential effects of individual omega-3 fatty acids, and individual response to omega-3 fatty acid supplementation.
Dr Stephen Bailey
Dr Stephen Bailey is a Reader in Human and Exercise Physiology at Loughborough University. Stephen’s research focuses on exercise and nutritional interventions to improve nitric oxide production, cardiovascular health, oxidative metabolism and exercise performance. Stephen has published over 100 original research articles on these topics as well as several book chapters and review articles. He is a Fellow of the European College of Sport Science, a member of The Physiological Society, and he serves on the editorial board of two international journals and as a judge for the European Specialists Sports Nutrition Awards. Stephen has completed numerous research projects in collaboration with nutrition industry partners and elite sport organisations such as British Swimming and British Athletics.
Prof Stuart Phillips
Stuart Phillips is a full Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and a member of the School of Medicine at McMaster University. He is Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Skeletal Muscle Health. He is also the Director of the McMaster University Physical Activity Centre of Excellence. Dr. Phillips has authored more than 220 original research papers and 90 reviews. He is a 5-time nominee, and a 3-time recipient, of McMaster Student Union’s Outstanding Teaching Award. He was the inaugural recipient of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology’s Mentorship award in 2017. In 2018 and 2019, he was named to Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers list as a being in the top 1% of all cited researchers in nutrition and exercise research. Dr. Phillips is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. His work and enthusiasm for science are supported by an incredible pool of talented and industrious undergraduate, graduate students and research fellows.
Prof Sue Backhouse
Professor Sue Backhouse is the Director of Research in the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University. Over the last 20 years, her transdisciplinary research interests have focused on sport integrity and athlete welfare – with a particular focus on doping in sport. Her research programme is founded on collaboration: working with policy, practice and community partners to develop responsive research that directly address real world problems. She serves on the World Anti-Doping Agency Social Science Research Expert Advisory Group and Chairs the WADA Taskforce on Unintentional Doping. She is also a member of the BASES Integrity Advisory Group.
Dr Trent Stellingwerff
Since 2011, Dr Trent Stellingwerff serves as the Director of Performance Solutions at the Canadian Sport Institute Pacifi c (Victoria, Canada). In this role, he directs several different research projects across diff erent sport performance discipline areas, with Master’s, Phd and Post-Doctorate students involved. He is also the Sport Science, Sports Medicine & Innovation Lead for Athletics Canada – the governing body of track and field. His primary sport and research focuses are in the fi eld of physiology and nutrition interactions, as well as environmental (altitude and heat) expertise, and he also serves on Own The Podium’s (OTP) National I&R Advisory Council. Prior to 2011, Trent was a Senior Scientist in Performance Nutrition for PowerBar at the Nestle Research Center (Lausanne Switzerland). Trent has more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and authored 10-book chapters, in the areas of exercise physiology, skeletal muscle metabolism, sports nutrition and performance. In 2010 Trent was a lead author and presenter for the IOC (International Olympic Committee) Nutrition Consensus Meeting. Over the years, Trent has attended and serviced athletes and sports over 4 Olympic Games, 4 Commonwealth Games and >15 World Championships across several sports.
Zeke Stevens
Zeke Stevens currently holds the Technical New Product Development Manager role with Healthspan® the largest D2C supplement brand in the UK. Proud developers of the Healthspan® All Blacks Elite sports nutrition range. After studying in Leeds for a degree in Sport, Health, and Exercise Nutrition he has gained over 10 years’ experience within the sports nutrition industry and a passion for driving innovation supported by the latest science.
