Trainee and Early Career Mentorship Program
The Research and Career Development Network Mentorship Program, developed by the IOC Research Centres, represents a multidisciplinary pool of researchers available to provide career mentorship to trainees and early career investigators. The purpose of the mentorship program is to support mentees with discussions related to career pathways, collaboration, communication, leadership, networking, resource identification, current research approaches, and knowledge translation.
Mentorship program participation is voluntary and does not replace current research supervision/mentorship within home Centres or graduate training/postdoctoral program requirements. The recommended duration for the arrangement is a minimum of one year, with a recommended time commitment of 6 meetings per year. Mentors and mentees agree to keep information or discussions shared through the mentoring relationship confidential.
See below for the list of mentors.
The overarching goals of the trainee and early career mentorship program are:
Enhance trainee & ECR exposure
Enhance trainee and/or ECR exposure to international career mentorship, professional development, networking opportunities, and diverse career paths.
Guidance & professional expertise
Offer guidance and professional expertise to trainees and/or ECRs within the IOC Research Centres Network and beyond.
Training & collaboration
Offer cross-cultural training and collaboration in injury and illness prevention research across the IOC Research Centres.
Apply to be a mentor
Profiles of researchers who volunteer to be mentors, and their contact information, will be made available online for potential mentees. Applications, along with a headshot to be used on the mentorship program registry, can be submitted below. Interested trainees and early career investigators will contact potential mentors that have volunteered to be part of the mentorship program directly. Mentors will be provided with materials to assist in setting some initial goals with your mentee.
Mentors
François Bieuzen
Director; Department of Sports Sciences, Institut National du Sport du Québec, ReFORM
François Bieuzen is an Associate Professor at Université Laval and Université de Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada) and the Director of the Sport Sciences Department at the Institut National du Sport du Québec (https://www.insquebec.org/), a national Olympic and Paralympic training centre. He started his career at the Institut National du Sport, de l'Expertise et de la Performance (INSEP) in France and joined the INS Québec in 2016.
As a performance scientist for elite athletes, he specialises in applied exercise physiology. He holds a PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of Toulon, France. His research interests include training load monitoring, recovery strategies, sleep and injury prevention in elite athletes. François has served as performance team leader and senior physiologist for numerous national teams in France and Canada, and was a member of the Canadian Boxing Team for Tokyo 2020 and the Canadian Short Track Speed Skating Team for Beijing 2022.
Marco Cardinale
Prof.; Department of Research and Scientific Support/Aspetar
Professor Marco Cardinale is the Executive Director of Research and Scientific Support in Aspetar, the Qatar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital and a Honorary Academic and Senior Lecturer at UCL. Before joining Aspetar he was the Head of Sports Physiology and Research of Aspire Academy in Doha (Qatar). He also led the Sports Science activities for the preparation of Team GB at the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic Games. He has been an advisor to various companies (e.g. Polar Electro, Medisport and Technogym), government agencies, professional sport organisations and national governing bodies in 4 countries before moving to Qatar. Professor Cardinale has been an invited speaker in scientific conferences and coaching clinics in 21 countries and has been an ad-hoc reviewer for numerous scientific journals and various research councils.
Carolyn Emery
Professor and Chair; Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, University of Calgary
Carolyn Emery PT PhD is a physiotherapist and injury epidemiologist. A Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary; she holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Concussion and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and Royal Society of Canada. Carolyn Chairs the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre (Canadian International Olympic Committee Research Centre for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health). She is a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, O’Brien Institute for Public Health, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health. The focus of Carolyn’s research program is injury and concussion prevention in youth sport, with a focus also on rehabilitation and parasport; aimed to reduce the public health burden of injuries and concussions and their long-term consequences. Carolyn aims to keep youth participating in the sports they love.
Email
caemery@ucalgary.ca
Matt Jordan
Assistant Professor; Kinesiology/Sport Medicine Centre, University of Calgary
Dr. Matt Jordan co-leads the Integrative Neuromuscular Sport Performance Lab in Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of Calgary, and he is a researcher in the University of Calgary Sport Medicine Centre and Department of Medical Science. He holds a Master of Science in Exercise and Neuromuscular Physiology, and a PhD in Medical Science. He studies neuromuscular adaptations to strength training with a special focus on whole body muscle mechanics, neuromuscular control, and knee injury rehabilitation. Working at the interface between practice and science, Matt is a specialist in player health and performance. He has consulted with elite athletes over six Olympic Winter Games, and professional sport teams in the NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLB. He is a frequent presenter at international conferences in the areas of injury prevention, rehabilitation, athlete monitoring, training program design for elite athletes, and strength and power testing methodologies.
Email
mjordan@ucalgary.ca
Joanne Kemp
NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow, Associate Professor, La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University
Associate Professor Joanne Kemp is a NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow at the Latrobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre and is the academic director of the Latrobe University clinical trials platform. She is also a Sport & Exercise Physiotherapist of 30 years’ experience and editor at the British Journal of Sports Medicine. She has >140 publications and >$13 million research funding. She has a particular interest in interventions that can slow the progression and reduce the symptoms associated with hip pain and hip osteoarthritis.
Debbie Palmer
Dr; UKCCIIS University of Edinburgh
Senior lecturer in research methods and epidemiology. Debbie is a three-time Winter Olympian (short track speed skating) and dual International (Ice Hockey). She worked as an exercise physiologist before completing her PhD in injury epidemiology, working in injury/illness prevention for over 16 years. Her research includes epidemiology, risk/prevention of injury/illness in elite, youth, recreational cohorts, longer-term consequences of sport-related injury, and current/retired athlete health. She worked with UK Sport, English/Scottish sports Institutes, Arthritis Research UK, the Rugby Football Union, Scottish Rugby Union, Scottish FA, Enduro World Series mtb'ing, International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Olympians Association. Current research projects include World Rugby studies in women's injury prevention, tackle height law change evaluation, and long-term IOC Olympian Health Cohort. Debbie is co-founder of the Arthritis Significant Ankle Ligament Injury (SALI) UK Cohort. She is Co-Director for the Edinburgh-Bath UK Collaborating Centre on Injury/Illness Prevention in Sport (UKCCIIS), IOC Research Centre.
Thomas Romeas
Head of research and innovation; Department of Sports Sciences, Institut National du Sport du Québec, ReFORM
Thomas Romeas serves as an adjunct professor at Université de Montréal and leads the Research and Innovation Department at the Institut national du sport du Québec (https://www.insquebec.org/), a national Olympic and Paralympic training center. As a performance scientist, Thomas specializes in skill acquisition, cognition, vision, and psychology. His primary focus lies in skill assessment and training, perceptual-motor abilities, cognitive psychology, mental performance, concussions, and the application of extended reality and eye tracking technologies. He provides consultation and collaborates with elite athletes and professional, Olympic, and Paralympic sports organizations to optimize human performance. Thomas actively engages in research endeavors to drive innovation, inform his professional practice, and advance knowledge, particularly in high-performance sports. After obtaining his Ph.D. in Vision Neurosciences from the School of Optometry at Université de Montréal, Thomas further developed his expertise by completing a post-doctoral fellowship with the École de technologie supérieure and CF Montréal Academy.
Ebonie Rio
Senior Clinical Research Fellow, La Trobe Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, Victorian Institute of Sport, Australian Institute of Sport
Ebonie is a Sports Physiotherapist, Deputy Manager of Physiotherapy, Chair of Research Council (Victorian Institute of Sport) and Senior Clinical Research Fellow (The Australian Ballet / La Trobe University). Her clinical career includes; Paris Olympics 2024, London Paralympics 2012, Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010, Singapore Youth Olympics 2012 and 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games as well as 2022 Birmingham com games. Ebonie is a passionate research and publishes in areas including tendinopathy, neuroscience and musculoskeletal health.
Email
e.rio@latrobe.edu.au
Cédric Schwartz
Mr; Faculty of Medicine, LAM - Motion Lab, University of Liège
Cédric Schwartz is a biomedical engineer. He performed his PhD at Telecom Bretagne (France) on the topic of the morpho-functional analysis of the upper limb and a post doctoral at Aalborg University (Denmark) on the topic of the musculoskeletal modelisation of the knee. He then joined the University of Liège to develop the Motion Lab. His research topics concern biomechanics related to sport (including prevention and performance). As a member of the Center for Sport Performance of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (Belgium), he is in charge of the biomechanical evaluation of the high level athletes of the Federation.
Sean Williams
Reader; Centre for Health, Injury and Illness Prevention in Sport, University of Bath, UK Collaborating Centre on Injury & Illness Prevention in Sport
Sean Williams is a Reader in Applied Statistics and Research Methods at the University of Bath. His research interests include sports injury prevention, training load monitoring, heart rate variability, and growth and maturation. He also has expertise in conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. His current research projects are in collaboration with the Premier League, Rugby Football Union, England and Wales Cricket Board, Scottish Football Association, and Podium Analytics. Sean is a statistics consultant for the Journal of Physiology.
Magdalena Wojtowicz
Clinical Neuropsychologist & Associate Professor; Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, ReFORM
Dr. Wojtowicz is a Clinical Neuropsychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at York University in Toronto, Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Dalhousie University and completed a CPA-accredited Clinical Neuropsychology residency (Vancouver Coastal Health Authority). She was a Post-Doctoral fellow and subsequent Staff Scientist in the Department of Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and the Red Sox Foundation Home Base Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has an established research program examining sport-related concussion, athlete mental health, and elite athlete performance. Her research is focused on improving identification practices, training environments, as well as injury recovery in high performance athletes by leveraging neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and clinical psychological approaches. She also works in a clinical and research capacity with professional (i.e., NHL, PWHL) and high-performance athletes at the Canadian Sport Institute of Ontario and National Institute of Sport of Quebec.
Email
magdawoj@yorku.ca