Congratulations to Dr Nicola Sewry on her appointment as full-time Lecturer at UP’s Sport, Exercise Medicine and Lifestyle Institute (SEMLI), effective 1 June 2021.

Dr Sewry was appointed as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at SEMLI in 2018, and in 2020 began a Senior Post-doctoral Fellowship at SEMLI. During this time she managed the SAFER International Million+ Athlete Program (IMAP), a research programme involving multiple local and international collaborators and partners, more than 40 local and international community-based mass participation endurance events and over 4.5 million race participants. This research focuses on quantifying the extent of medical encounters and the risk factors associated with medical encounters during mass community-based endurance sport events, with the aim of making these events safer for all participants. Dr Sewry has been instrumental in driving this research, and her contribution to the management of the research process, collaborators and outputs (including publications, student supervision, and conference presentations), has been exemplary. She is also a member of the IOC Consensus core group on “Acute Respiratory Illness in the Athlete” that is chaired by Prof Schwellnus, Director of SEMLI. She is an invaluable member of the SEMLI team and we wish her success in her permanent position, where she will continue to provide leadership and support to the SEMLI research programmes.

Dr Sewry completed a joint PhD (Med) in Exercise Science through the University of Cape Town and Vrije University Amsterdam whilst on the NRF Desmond Tutu Doctoral Training Program. Her PhD research focused on South African youth rugby injuries and the implementation of an exercise program in attempt to lower the risk of such injuries. Nicola’s previous research has been in the field of rugby performance analysis and rugby injury epidemiology.  She is a qualified Biokineticist (BSc(Med)(Hons) Exercise Science(Biokinetics) with Distinction from UCT (2012), and BSc majoring in Human Kinetics and Ergonomics and Biochemistry, Rhodes University (2011)), and a Strength and Conditioning Coach with over 5 years’ experience working with populations from chronic disease rehabilitation to elite athletes.