Centenary student chosen to present research at sports medicine conference
SHREVEPORT, LA — Centenary College senior Marco Basteris, a biology major from Houston, Texas, was recently chosen to present research at the 2023 Southeast American College of Sports Medicine Conference (ACSM) in Greenville, South Carolina. Basteris gave a presentation on research completed during Spring 2022, on the effects of cell phone use during outdoor exercise.
“I couldn't be more proud of Marco,” said Dr. Anna Leal, assistant professor of biology and kinesiology at Centenary and research advisor. “He worked with recent graduates Hannah Mitchell, Peyton McKinney, and Elizabeth Epley to run experiments and collect data last spring (all on Saturdays). Despite having limited time to prepare for his presentation, Marco was able to successfully communicate his work with the audience and received positive feedback about the study.”
The study measured subjects' emotional and physical state after green exercise with and without their cell phones.
“Dr. Leal introduced the idea, and we figured out the methods and a way to run the study,” explained Basteris. “The research process was long, but worth the end result. Since it was a pilot study, Dr. Leal is hoping to continue this study next year. We believe that if we performed this experiment with longer and more intense exercise then we could see different results.”
Leal is leading the development of Centenary’s new kinesiology major along with faculty member Dr. Xiaoxia Zhang. They hope to send Centenary students to the Southeast ACSM conference each year to present kinesiology and sport medicine research.
“The Southeast ACSM conference is planned with student attendees in mind,” explained Leal. “There were about 1,000 attendees this year from schools throughout the southeast. There are poster and oral presentations, an extremely popular quiz bowl, and a graduate school fair.”
Basteris’s experience at the conference was positive and productive.
“I was able to attend multiple symposiums about bioenergetics and biomechanical research,” said Basteris, who plans to attend PT school. “I also spoke with many graduate students getting their masters or post-doc degrees about their own research at the poster presentations, and was able to connect with many university representatives at the grad fair.”
For more information on Centenary’s new kinesiology major, visit centenary.edu/kinesiology.