Claude Bouchard, PhD, is the executive director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a campus of the Louisiana State University System, and holds the George A. Bray Jr. chair in nutrition. He was director of the Physical Activity Sciences Laboratory at Laval University, Quebec City, Canada, for over 20 years. Dr. Bouchard 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.
For four decades, his research has dealt with the role of physical activity, and the lack thereof, on physiology, metabolism, and indicators of health, taking into account genetic uniqueness. He has performed research on the contributions of gene sequence variation and the benefits to be expected from regular activity in terms of changes in cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors.
Dr. Bouchard has served as program leader for four consensus conferences and symposia pertaining to various aspects of physical activity and health. He has published more than 850 scientific papers and has edited four books and several monographs dealing with physical activity and health.
Dr. Bouchard is former president of the Canadian Society for Applied Physiology and the North American Association for the Study of Obesity. He is president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity (2002-2006), a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Cooper Research Institute for the last decade.
Steven N. Blair, PED, is the president and CEO of the Cooper Institute and is one of the world s most eminent epidemiologists in the area of physical activity and health. Dr. Blair has three honorary doctorates, a 1994 doctor honoris causa from the Free University of Brussels; a 1996 doctor of health science, from Lander University; and a 2002 doctor of science honoris causa, from the University of Bristol, UK. He also is a Benjamin Meaker Fellow at the University of Bristol.
For nearly 40 years, he has researched and done public health work in the areas of physical activity and health. He has published more than 350 scientific articles, including one on fitness and mortality that has been cited over 1,100 times.
He is past president of the American College of Sports Medicine and a fellow in many organizations. He has received numerous honors, including the ACSM Honor Award. He was the senior scientific editor of the Surgeon General s Report on Physical Activity and Health.
William Haskell, PhD, is emeritus professor of medicine at Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford School of Medicine. He holds an honorary MD degree from Linkoping University in Sweden.
For 40 years, his research has investigated the relationships between physical activity and health. He has been involved at the national and international levels in the development of physical activity and fitness guidelines and recommendations for physical activity in health promotion and disease prevention.
Dr. Haskell has served as principal investigator on major NIH-funded research projects demonstrating the health benefits of physical activity. For 11 years, he was a member of the planning committee and faculty for the CDC-sponsored research course on physical activity and public health. From 1968 to 1970, he was program director for the President s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
He is past president of the American College of Sports Medicine and founder and past president of the American College of Sports Medicine Foundation. He is a fellow with the Exercise and Rehabilitation Council, American Heart Association, and American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation.
