It's genetic! Thinking critically about genes and performance

Michael Joyner is a physician-researcher and one of the world’s leading experts on human performance and exercise physiology. Using humans as his model system, he has made major contributions to understanding muscle and skin blood flow, blood pressure regulation, and human athletic performance. His ideas about human performance are widely quoted in both the popular media and scientific publications. Mike has been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NASA and has held leadership positions with prestigious scientific journals. His research lab at Mayo Clinic has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1993. Mayo Clinic named him a Distinguished Investigator in 2010.

Mike follows and analyzes competitors in many sports. He is a 2:25 marathoner and has excelled in masters-level swimming. He is particularly interested in the physiology of world records. Mike’s interest in human performance had a dramatic beginning in 1977. He was a walk-on to the University of Arizona men’s track and cross country teams and had been considering dropping out of college. After a race, Eddie Coyle, who was a graduate student asked him to volunteer as an athlete to be studied in a physiology experiment. Mike was immediately fascinated by the lab and began volunteering there, stayed in school and has studied human athletic performance ever since.