The 2024 Saltin International Graduate Course in Exercise & Clinical Physiology
Physiology of Exercise and Health
August 18th - 22nd, 2024 at Sandbjerg Estate, Denmark
The Saltin International Graduate Course is a three and a half-day residential PhD course that brings together 40 PhD-students and more than 20 faculty from universities in Canada and Denmark. The course focuses on exercise and clinical physiology, integrating foundational knowledge with frontier research directions from basic science and applied approaches.
The 2024 course is a “joint venture” between three Danish universities (University of Southern Denmark, Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen) and several universities in Canada, including the University of British Columbia Vancouver and the University of Ottawa.
Registration and Program:
Enrollment is closed. The course is fully seated
NB!: Canadian students please visit this link to register for the PhD Course: UBC KIN Saltin 2024 Registration
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The course will be a combination of faculty plenary lectures, student research presentations, discussion groups, and various informal faculty-student interactions that provide diverse learning modules for students. The program will cover 38 hours and is compiled of both generic and thematic lectures with 2 to 4 presentations within a given theme. Student participants will be given research pitch training and must provide short presentations of their projects during the course. In addition, they shall prepare a poster, outlining their research. The course is structured to form a foundational component of graduate study credits at Canadian universities and for 3.7 ECTS credits at Danish Universities.
Course objectives
To provide an innovative learning experience for graduate students through exposure to and interaction with an extensive group of internationally recognized scholars and student peers.
To gain exposure to diverse research perspectives and experimental approaches to enrich student learning.
To facilitate interactive discussion on cutting edge topics, explore approaches to stimulate creativity and novelty in research design and enhance research study impact.
To gain experience in formulating and communicating research proposals.
To foster the formation of research networks between scientists and institutions for the exploration of future academic research initiatives.
To participate in discussions on career paths and trajectories.
To gain experience presenting research to peers and scholars.
Course outcomes
Graduate students will have the unique opportunity to view leading presentations and discussions with scholars in the field of exercise physiology over a four-day period. Topics covered will include basic metabolic and endocrine research, through to clinical research and implementation.
Students will be exposed to state-of-the-art experimental approaches that may be implemented in their own research to enhance novelty and impact. The opportunity exists to connect with peers at national and international levels.
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International Perspective
Canada and Scandinavia have strong cultural and business links, with Canada being one of the strongest growing export markets for Danish companies. The Canadian and Danish Trade Commissions have built extensive networks for knowledge exchange based on a shared value system with a continuing commitment to fruitful collaboration on many global issues including industry, culture, and the arctic. Canada shares a 3,000 km maritime border with Denmark (Greenland) as well as rich historic and cultural links between the Inuit populations on both sides of the border. Universities across Canada and Denmark are committed to the ideal of academic scholarship and to the development of an international perspective to broaden and enrich the educational quality and expand research innovation.
As part of university missions, students are encouraged to participate in international exchanges and internships, courses, and field schools. These opportunities foster appreciation of other perspectives, cultures, and exposure to new expertise as a part of excellence in university education. Equity, diversity, and responsibility to society are values upon which the mission of Canadian and Danish Universities is founded. International collaborations between Canada and Denmark have been active for close to a century and have developed an intellectual depth and high rates of research discovery. Notably, a rich tradition of scientific collaboration exists in the fields of physiology and exercise.
After receiving the Nobel Prize in 1920 for his work on the function of capillaries, August Krogh took an interest in the work of Frederick Banting and Charles Best on the glucose-lowering peptide insulin. On a trip to North America in 1922 August and his wife Marie who was diabetic, visited Banting’s lab at the University of Toronto. Upon return to Denmark Krogh was instrumental in the nomination of Banting & Macleod for the Nobel Prize in 1923. Krogh obtained a license for the protocol for insulin purification and began production upon his return to Copenhagen. Together with the Danish physician H. C. Hagedorn, Krogh then founded the Nordic Insulin Laboratory and the Nordisk Insulin Foundation which today constitute the company Novo Nordisk and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
In 1909, Johannes Lindhard was appointed in the Faculty of Medicine to lead the study of Gymnastics as an academic discipline, and in 1917 the laboratory for the Theory of Gymnastics (the Copenhagen School) was formed in the Faculty of Science. Krogh and Lindhard pioneered research on the physiology of exercise with precise measurement of ventilation, heart rate and cardiac output and elucidated the mechanisms regulating these responses. Over 2–3 decades, they firmly established the field of exercise physiology and mentored the next generation of prolific researchers in the field of human integrative physiology, namely Erik Hohwü-Christensen, Erling Asmussen and Marius Nielsen referred to as the ‘three musketeers’. Following in their footsteps, the Swedish physiologist Bengt Saltin conducted research in exercise physiology at the August Krogh Institute, beginning with foundational work on oxygen uptake, extending to muscle bioenergetics and biochemistry, and the role of the circulation in the limits of exercise. Bengt was Director of The Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre that continued the legacy of the University of Copenhagen as a leading centre in the field internationally. Amongst many accomplishments, Saltin was awarded the August Krogh Prize, The Novo Nordisk Prize, and the International Olympic Prize. Bengt was a strong proponent of international collaboration. He was awarded 12 honorary doctorates- 3 from Canadian universities stemming from a rich history of research collaboration (>75 publications) with Canadian scientists. Bengt Saltin was an organizing member of the first International Graduate Courses held in Canada in 2010 and 2011, and owing to the positive review of these courses, he encouraged their continuation.
The Saltin International Graduate Course in Clinical and Exercise Physiologyextends the strong scientific lineage between Denmark and Canada. In the field of Exercise Physiology, both countries rank in the top tier internationally for scientific impact per capita. In the previous courses held in Canada and Denmark, faculty and students from 20 universities were represented
