University Health Researchers to Participate in 2014 SEC Symposium

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Matthew Ganio and Rodolfo Nayga Jr.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – University of Arkansas faculty whose research could lead to advancements aiming to prevent to obesity in children and adults are participating at the 2014 SEC symposium, the Southeastern Conference’s annual showcase of the academic excellence of its member institutions.

The SEC Symposium, “Prevention of Obesity: Overcoming a 21st Century Public Health Challenge,” will be held Sept. 21-23 in Atlanta. It will feature presentations from faculty and administrators from each of the 14 SEC institutions.

Matthew Ganio, an assistant professor of exercise science at the University of Arkansas, will present his research on a panel focusing on the physiology of obesity. Rodolfo Nayga, a professor of agricultural economics, will moderate a panel on the environmental influences on weight status and weight-related behaviors.

University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart, who has been appointed presidential liaison to the SECU — the academic initiative of the SEC — will provide opening remarks to kick off the symposium on Sept. 21.

“The inaugural SEC Symposium on renewal energy was a great success and provided an excellent opportunity to bring together scholars from all SEC universities,” said Torie Johnson, executive director of SECU. “We are looking forward to even more collaboration on this important topic.”

Another member of the University of Arkansas who registered to attend the conference is Marie-Rachelle Narcisse, a senior research associate in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing who will present her research, in collaboration with Nan Smith-Blair, an associate profesor of nursing, on childhood obesity in Pennsylvania during the conference’s poster exhibition.

A group of seven senior honors dietetics students in the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences will also attend the symposium, including Grace Heymsfield, an Honors College Fellow who will be representing the university as one of the SEC’s University Ambassadors.

Ganio joined the faculty of the College of Education and Health Professions in 2011 and was named director of the university’s Human Performance Laboratory in 2012. He earned a doctorate in exercise physiology from the University of Connecticut and completed his post-doctoral training at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Nayga has a faculty appointment in the University of Arkansas System’s statewide Division of Agriculture and holds the Tyson Chair in Food Policy Economics in the Bumpers College, located in Fayetteville. He is currently leading a child obesity research project funded by a $4.78 million grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The University of South Carolina is the lead institution for this year’s event, and the school’s administrators have been charged with organizing the program, which this year will critically review the body of knowledge that could guide the development and implementation of a national effort to reduce obesity.

This year’s topics range from genetics, to technology and media, to environmental influences. The symposium is divided into eight sessions of formal presentations and includes informal breakout sessions intended to foster interaction and discussion among participants.

The SEC provosts and chancellors formed the SEC Academic Consortium in 2005 — now known as SECU — as a collaborative endeavor designed to promote research, scholarship and achievement amongst the universities.

About the University of Arkansas

The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in a wide spectrum of disciplines; contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research and creative activity; and provides service to academic and professional disciplines and to society in general, all aimed at fulfilling its public land-grant mission to serve Arkansas and beyond as a partner, resource and catalyst. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research.