Standardized citation list shows two Kinesiology professors ranked among best in world

Two School of Kinesiology professors are listed as among the best in the world by the standardized citation list, published by the Public Library of Science. Peter Hastie, the Wayne T. Smith Distinguished Professor of physical education, and Bruce Gladden, the Humana-Germany-Sherman Distinguished Professor and the director of the Muscle Physiology Lab, are both on the list.

Hastie is listed at No. 5 internationally in the sport science – physical education field and No. 1 in the United States for the same field. He earned those rankings in both 2021 year-only rankings as well as in all-time rankings. This puts Hastie in the top 2% in the world for his field.

Hastie is a professor in the school’s physical education pedagogy. The focus of his research is sport education. It is a curriculum and instructional model developed and researched in the late 1990s. The theory behind the sport education model is creating seasons of sports, whereby students are members of of small teams that remain together for the entire unit. It also focuses on student-centered instruction rather than teacher-centered instruction. The teaching of sport in schools has a history of marginalizing and alienating many student groups. This current model has been enacted in many school settings, allowing teachers to further develop their own sport seasons.

Several district schools are now using the sport education model in significant components of their physical education curriculum. Also, students who have graduated from Auburn University are incorporating the model in their work. A number of students who have participated in the school-based instruction have used the model in their internships, further disseminating the model and increasing its adoption for the presentation of quality physical education.

As one of the premier researchers in the field of physical education, he has published numerous textbooks. Two of his most popular include Complete Guide to Sport Education, and Student-Designed Games, Strategies for Promoting Creativity, Cooperation, and Skill Development.

Gladden is in the top 10 of active sport science physiologists in the United States. Gladden’s two major tracks of research interests within the overall area of bioenergetics and regulation of metabolism during exercise include the role of lactate in metabolism and how the energy systems make the transition from resting to exercise conditions.

Gladden directs the Muscle Physiology Lab, which has a 25-year history in the School of Kinesiology. Its overall emphasis is the regulation of metabolism during exercise. Studies are typically interpreted in the context of human physiology and biochemistry. The primary experimental model has been isolated, blood-perfused canine muscle. However, studies on humans have been done in this lab, as well.

The Public Library of Science, or PLOS, created a “publicly available database of 100,000 top scientists that provides standardized information on citations, h-index, coauthorship-adjusted hm-index, citations to papers in different authorship positions, and a composite indicator.”