Keynote speakers
Keynote: High Altitude Physiology
Dr. Cynthia Beall
University of Utah, USA
Prof. Beall is a biological anthropologist at Case Western Reserve University whose research focuses on human evolution adaptation to high-altitude hypoxia, particularly the different patterns of adaptation exhibited by Andean, Tibetan and East African highlanders. Her current research deals with the genetics of adaptive traits and evidence for natural selection among ethnic Tibetans. Honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, and receipt of the Raymond Pearl Award and the Franz Boas Distinguished Achievement Award from the Human Biology Society. Professor Beall is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Keynote: Environmental Physiology
Dr. Nisha Charkoudian
US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, USA
Dr. Nisha Charkoudian earned her Ph.D. in Cardiovascular Physiology in 1999 from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She completed postdoctoral training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and joined the Mayo Clinic faculty in the Department of Physiology & Biomedical Engineering in 2003. In 2011, Dr. Charkoudian joined the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) in Natick, MA as a Research Physiologist. She became Chief of the Thermal & Mountain Division (TMMD) in 2022.
Dr. Charkoudian’s main areas of research focus are the integrative physiological responses to environmental extremes of heat and high altitude, including the evaluation of sex as a biological variable in these processes. She has evaluated the influences of heat, exercise and hydration on sympathetic neural responses, cardiovascular regulation and exercise performance. She lists over 170 peer-reviewed publications in the physiology and biomedical literature. She is a Fellow of the American Physiological Society and of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Keynote: Cardiopulmonary Physiology
Dr. David Poole
Kansas State University, USA
Prof. Poole is a University Distinguished Professor and the Coffman Chair for Distinguished University Teaching Scholars and the Elizabeth Chapin Burke Chair in Health and Human Sciences at Kansas State University. In collaboration with Dr. Tim Musch, their research focusses on understanding the fundamental processes controlling skeletal muscle oxygen delivery and use during exercise. Using animal models from the mouse, rat, dog, horse to elephant and human they have unveiled the dynamics of blood-tissue oxygen transport during exercise. Their original data-based capillary function model has driven a paradigm shift in understanding microvascular function, identifying novel targets for pharmacological and behavioral interventions.
Prof. Poole was the American Physiological Society’s (APS) 2018 Adolph Distinguished Lecturer, the America College of Sport Medicine’s 2021 Wolffe Memorial Lecturer and presented the 2022 Historical Lecture at Experimental Biology in Philadelphia. He was the past Chair of the Environmental & Exercise Physiology section of APS and serves as Deputy Editor-in-Chief (U.S.) for Experimental Physiology. In 2024, he also won the Higuchi Dolph Simons Award which is Kansas’ top academic honor
