Research Committee

Marty Hoffman, MD

RESEARCH COMMITTEE DIRECTOR

Dr. Marty Hoffman is Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of California Davis, Chief of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the VA Northern California Health Care System, former Director of Research for the Western States Endurance Run (2006-16), former team physician for the US Biathlon Association (1988-95), and Chief Medical Officer for the Ultra Medical Team. He has published over 140 original scientific publications mostly related to applied exercise physiology with focus on human locomotion, human performance and exercise-associated hyponatremia. His clinical work has involved cardiac rehabilitation, musculoskeletal medicine and sports medicine. He has been a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine since 1989 and serves on multiple editorial boards. He has been a competitive cross-country skier or distance runner for most of his life, and still enjoys exploring his own limits…..though at a much slower pace than in the past.

Ricardo Costa, PhD, Registered Dietitian, Registered Sports Dietitian

Dr. Ricardo Costa is an academic, researcher, consultant and practitioner in sports dietetics and extremes physiology, based in the Department of Nutrition & Dietetics at Monash University, Australia. His publication outputs, in exploratory field and laboratory controlled intervention research, includes focus on the nutritional and hydration status in ultra-endurance running, physiological responses to ultra-endurance in the heat, impact of endurance exercise on the immune system and nutritional counter-measures, and the impact of endurance exercise (with and without heat-stress) on gut health including prevention and management strategies. As a sports dietetic practitioner, he has provided nutritional support in a variety of sports (i.e., teams, aquatic, combat, endurance, ultra-endurance, adventure and expedition) ranging from junior development to veteran athletes, and from recreational to world championship and Olympic athletes. Before entering a career in academics he was a professional trialthlete/duathlete competing on the World and European circuit between 1994-2003.

Rémy Hurdiel, PhD

For nearly 10 years, Dr. Rémy Hurdiel, a Doctor in Sports Sciences (Researcher for the Sports Health Society Research Sector – Littoral Côte d’Opale University), has been examining preparation for sleep management for ultra endurance sportspeople, in solo navigation, ultra marathons and other sporting challenges such as rowing and nautical expeditions. He intervened in races such as the Pôle France solo sailing race, the Route du Rhum and the Solitaire du Figaro. For several years he has also been helping amateur ultra-marathoners, notably on the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc® trail race. He works closely alongside American research teams with the aim of setting up procedures for sleep management based on mathematical predictions. A world-class level sailor himself (6th in the world in J80 in 2015), and at 38 he is first and foremost a lover of wide open spaces and outdoor sports.

Grégoire Millet, PhD

Dr. Grégoire Millet is Professor of Exercise Physiology at ISSUL (Institute of Sport Sciences) in Lausanne, the “Olympic Capital”. He has published 200 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals and over 40 book chapters. He is the Chief Editor of “Frontiers in Exercise Physiology” and is regularly invited to conferences world-wide. Grégoire is the author of several books on endurance or altitude training. His main research topics are: (1) physiological responses to exercise in hypoxia; (2) optimization of interval-training; (3) mechanical / physiological coupling in sport locomotion; (4) analysis of fatigue (neuromuscular and heart rate variability); (5) ultra-endurance. In the first part of his life, he had been a professional triathlete (French Champion) and was coaching elite triathletes successively in the French, UK or Hong Kong teams. Grégoire attended several Olympic Games. He has also participated in ultra-endurance events in different sports (Vasaloppet; Embrun or Hawaii Ironman). At the age of 50, he finished 2nd in the “Tor des Geants” in Italy.

Guillaume Millet, PhD

Dr. Guillaume Millet is a Professor in the Human Performance Laboratory and the Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary (Canada) where he leads a research group on neuromuscular fatigue (www.ucalgary.ca/nmfl). Guillaume graduated from the University of Franche-Comte (France) in 1997 and has held associate-professor and professor positions at the universities of Burgundy and Saint-Etienne (France). He also obtained a four-year full-time research contract in the French National Institute for Medical Research (Hypoxia-Pathophysiology Laboratory in Grenoble) in 2009-2013. He moved to the University of Calgary in September 2013. His general research area investigates the physiological, neurophysiological and biomechanical factors associated with fatigue, both in extreme exercise (ultra-endurance, hypoxia) and patients (neuromuscular diseases, cancer). Guillaume has published 5 books and about 170 papers in international journals with peer review. He has supervised over 45 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students and he served as an external reviewer for more than 50 PhD candidates. Guillaume has been an invited speaker in countries such as Brazil, the United States, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Austria, UK, Australia, Norway, Italy, Denmark and Turkey. Guillaume has practiced various endurance sports in competition (e.g. ultra-trail running, cross-country skiing or adventure races) for over 30 years. Among other results, he placed 3 times in the top-6 at the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc®. He is also a consultant for Salomon®.

David Oxborough, PhD

Dr. David Oxborough is a Clinical Cardiac Sonographer and Reader in Cardiovascular Physiology at Liverpool John Moores University. He is an active member of the British Society of Echocardiography being lead author on professional guidelines for the use of echocardiography in the athlete whilst contributing to numerous others. He is also the Past-Chair of the Consortium for Accrediting Sonographic Education in the UK and acts as a lead accreditor for ultrasound education programs nationwide. As an academic and researcher, David has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers on echocardiography and its applications in Clinical and Exercise Cardiology. He has continuously worked in the imaging-based assessment of sudden cardiac death syndromes and pre-participation screening environment and has screened over 7000 athletes. He has continued to study the impact of endurance exercise on the heart and has traveled to endurance and ultra-endurance events across the globe to gain further insight into the acute cardiac effects of prolonged strenuous exercise and subsequent chronic adaptation. His work continues to explore this unique group of athletes aiming to answer the question as to whether too much exercise can be deleterious.

Pierre Sallet, PhD

Dr. Pierre Sallet has a PhD in Sports Science. For more than 7 years he served as a physiologist for a variety of professional teams in football, basketball, cycling and individual disciplines at an elite level, such as marathon running and triathlon. He was a former national level athlete (30.53 mins for 10km) and is an internationally recognized expert on the battle against doping. He is President of the Athletes For Transparency (AFT) association with aim to preserve sports ethics, and he also promotes healthy trail running practice as a founding member of the International Trail Running Association (ITRA). He is also founder of NOVALIMIT, a company that specializes in innovation for the sports industry, but what drives this 43-year old sportsman is his passion for sports and science!

Kristin Stuempfle, PhD

Dr. Kristin Stuempfle is Associate Provost for Academic Assessment, Dean of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computer Science, and Professor of Health Sciences at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA. She has been a fellow in the American College of Sports Medicine since 2004. Her research interests include examining the physiological challenges of ultra-endurance running. More specifically, she is interested in hyponatremia, gastrointestinal distress, and the food and fluid needs of ultra-runners.