Media Releases

U of T experts to discuss human performance in extreme environments

November 26, 2013

TORONTO, ON – From the frozen lakes of Siberia to the arid deserts of Afghanistan, sol­diers, ath­letes and emer­gency crews often push their bod­ies to the lim­it in some of the most extreme envi­ron­ments on Earth.

Join experts from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to on Decem­ber 3 to bet­ter under­stand how the body per­forms and adapts to such chal­lenges at the Fac­ul­ty of Kine­si­ol­o­gy and Phys­i­cal Education’s sixth, FREE pub­lic sym­po­sium, “Extreme Envi­ron­ments, Extra­or­di­nary Feats: How Far Can We Push Our­selves?”

This event will fea­ture guest speak­er, ultra-marathon­er and extreme ath­lete Ray Zahab who will share his epic expe­ri­ences push­ing his body to its lim­it. Pro­fes­sor Mar­ius Locke and Dean Ira Jacobs will explore how mus­cles, cells and the body’s phys­i­o­log­i­cal sys­tems adapt to extreme con­di­tions and envi­ron­ments, includ­ing those expe­ri­enced in mil­i­tary oper­a­tional sce­nar­ios. Pro­fes­sor Judith Ander­sen, of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Mis­sis­sauga, will address the impact of extreme phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal stress on indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing emer­gency response per­son­nel.

Human phys­i­ol­o­gist, pro­fes­sor and CTV sport sci­ence ana­lyst Pro­fes­sor Greg Wells will mod­er­ate the dis­cus­sion.

Reser­va­tions are required. Light refresh­ments will be served. Vis­it Eventbrite to reg­is­ter.

EVENT DETAILS:

When:    Tues­day, Decem­ber 3, 6:00 p.m.

Where:   Isabel Bad­er The­atre, 93 Charles Street West (Map: http://goo.gl/maps/aDR6A)

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 For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact:

Valerie Ian­covich
Act­ing Direc­tor, PR & Com­mu­ni­ca­tions
Fac­ul­ty of Kine­si­ol­o­gy & Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tion
Tel: 416–946-3713
valerie.iancovich@utoronto.ca