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Leading-edge research with the potential to improve human health has earned national recognition for four Waterloo professors--including Kinesiology faculty members Jack Callaghan and Ken Stark, whose Canada Research Chair grants were announced on Friday, Oct. 12.
Jack Callaghan (far left), and Ken Stark (far right) with fellow Waterloo recipients Abigail Scholer, and Frank Gu.
Jack Callaghan’s research into lumbar spine function and spinal injury is influencing workplace standards, helping to prevent spinal injuries and improve treatment for people suffering from lower-back pain. His research in two labs ranges from fundamental tissue injury examining isolated spinal tissues, to field research assessing occupational exposures for police officers, assembly line workers, office workers and others. Callaghan, a professor of kinesiology in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, advances to a Tier 1 chair in Spine Biomechanics and Injury Prevention. He has held a Tier 2 chair since 2003.
Ken Stark, studies lipidomics, cell membranes that may offer better understanding of the links between diet and disease, and the ways cells communicate with one another. He likens the work to dietary forensics, with lipids telling the story of what a person eats and how that diet impacts health. “We are what we eat, and that definitely applies to lipids,” says Stark, an associate professor of kinesiology, in Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. He was awarded the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Nutritional Lipidomics.
The latest additions to the Canada Research Chairs roster were announced at the University of Toronto on Friday, Oct. 12. There are 2,000 Canada Research Chairs at institutions across the country, including 60 at the University of Waterloo and four in the Department of Kinesiology.