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Professor David Nieman Receives the Prestigious American College of Sports Medicine Citation Award

June 21, 2013. Internationally renowned researcher and Appalachian State University professor Dr. David C. Neiman has been honored by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) with the prestigious Citation Award for his extensive work in health and exercise sciences. He received the award at the ACSM annual meeting in Indianapolis, Ind. on May 31.

imgres-1The annual award is selectively granted to “an individual or group who has made significant and important contributions to sports medicine and/or the exercise sciences,” according to ACSM. Among those contributions are research and scholarship, clinical care, and/or administrative or educational services in sports medicine or exercise science. 

Nieman is an accomplished researcher and pioneer in the research area of exercise immunology. He helped establish that regular moderate exercise lowers upper respiratory tract infection rates while improving immunosurveillance, and that heavy exertion increased infection rates while causing immune dysfunction. His current research is focused on nutritional countermeasures to exercise-induced immune dysfunction.

“Dr. Neiman not only is an excellent research scientist, but also translates his basic science findings effectively through both written and oral communications to the lay public and allied health professionals,” said Janet Walberg Rankin, president of ACSM and a professor and associate dean at Virginia Tech. 

Nieman teaches in Appalachian’s Department of Health, Leisure and Exercise Science in the College of Health Sciences, and has received nearly $7 million in grants to complete his work in immunology and exercise. He has published more than 260 peer-reviewed publications in journals and books, making him one of the most cited ACSM researchers, according to Rankin.

Neiman directs Appalachian’s Human Performance Lab at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis. He served as the vice president of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) from 2009-2011, and was the past president of Southeast American College of Sports Medicine (SEACSM). He currently sits on nine journal editorial boards and during his 30-year ACSM membership he authored or co-authored nine books on health, exercise physiology and nutrition.