UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Mary Jane De Souza, professor of kinesiology and physiology at Penn State, is the recipient of the 2018 Citation Award from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).
The ACSM Citation Award recognizes career achievement for outstanding research contributions to advancing science. De Souza received the award on June 1 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the ACSM national meeting.
“I am most delighted to receive such recognition for my research contributions,” De Souza said. “It is a huge honor to be recognized in this way and I a humbled to be a recipient of this prestigious award. It is rewarding for me to be acknowledged in this way, and for my research contributions over the past thirty years to be held in such high esteem.”
De Souza has been a faculty member at Penn State since 2008. Her research focus is on the complex interplay between metabolic, reproductive and skeletal physiology in exercising women. Specifically, she has investigated interactions between exercise and diet on the regulation of the female reproductive system and bone turnover.
Over the years, she has conducted interventional studies using an array of drug therapies, hormonal modulations, and lifestyle interventions that targeted translational outcomes while exploring underlying physiological mechanisms and she had published more than 100 research papers and books chapters in medical journals.
Additionally, De Souza has extended her influence on the study of women’s health by mentoring multiple post-doctoral scholars, graduate students and undergraduates in her laboratory.
Her contributions to sports medicine and exercise science include: educating and training the next generation of scholars in women’s health research, and translating research findings on the interactions of exercise and diet on the regulation of the reproductive system and skeletal system in girls and women into clinical practice.
For more information on the ACSM, its awards and its annual meeting, visit acsm.org.