October 23, 2020 | Published October 19, 2020 | Erin Bluvas
“It’s one thing to be on top; it’s another to stay on top,” exercise science professor and chair Shawn Arent says of his department’s Ph.D. program. “To be in that position really speaks volumes about the quality of faculty, quality of staff, quality of students and quality of support from leadership in the Arnold School and the university. It speaks to the type of people we have here and the culture that we’re building.”
Arent is referring to the nationwide doctoral program rankings published by the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK) last month. Released every five years since 1995, the NAK rankings are based on comprehensive information packages submitted by doctoral programs that focus on the study of physical activity. For the second five-year period in a row, the Arnold School’s Ph.D. in Exercise Science program ranked No. 1.
The whole experience really reinforced how much everyone in the department takes pride in who we are and what we do.
-Shawn Arent, professor and chair of the exercise science department
Considered one of the most important professional organizations in the field, NAK is known for its rigorous review program, which evaluates the quality of both faculty and doctoral students over a five-year period. The submission package, which typically takes months to compile, includes faculty metrics on productivity (e.g., publications, presentations), funding (particularly federal grants) and visibility (e.g., service and leadership roles) as well as student measures, such as entrance exam scores, graduate assistantship support, doctoral publications and post-graduation employment.
“The application process is a pretty big undertaking, and it was a tremendous staff effort – particularly by our administrative coordinator Barbara Reager, grants coordinator Melissa Bair and administrative assistant Cecelia Caulder,” Arent says. “The whole experience really reinforced how much everyone in the department takes pride in who we are and what we do.”
Now in its 30th year, the Department of Exercise Science first set its sights on advancing its doctoral program to the top tier back in 2000. According to then-chair Distinguished Professor Emeritus Larry Durstine, they cultivated the program by recruiting top-notch faculty and students and increasing their federal funding.
By 2005, they had earned the No. 8 spot in the rankings. By 2015, they had climbed to No.1.
We want to lead the field forward, and we’re very lucky to be in a school of public health and university that truly values what we do.
-Shawn Arent, professor and chair of the exercise science department
With the release of the 2020 rankings, the program has been assured bragging rights as the best in the nation for an entire decade. But that’s not how they see it. For the exercise science department, being at the top is more about the opportunity to lead – not an excuse to relax.
“This is a mantle we take pride in, but we work hard on this every day,” Arent says. “We want to lead the field forward, and we’re very lucky to be in a school of public health and university that truly values what we do.”
Over the years, the exercise science team has grown to become the largest of the six departments at the Arnold School. Their approximately 40 doctoral students focus on one of three specialty areas: Applied Physiology, Health Aspects of Physical Activity, or Rehabilitation Sciences. Faculty at all levels are leaders in the field (e.g., Arent, Steven Blair, Russell Pate, and Sara Wilcox are all elected fellows of NAK) and conduct research in a broad range of areas (e.g., childhood obesity, sports performance, cardiovascular health, physical activity interventions/promotion, human metabolism, physical therapy/rehabilitation).