SXU Professor Recognized Among Top 100 Sports Scientists in the World
Saint Xavier University (SXU) exercise science professor Joe Eisenmann, Ph.D., has been recognized as one of the top 100 sports scientists in the world by Elsevier, an academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical and medical content.
The list comprises the world's top-cited scientists from 22 scientific fields and 176 subfields, created from publications extracted from the Scopus database with data only from researchers who have had a percentile rank in the top 2% of the nearly eight million scientists in the world. The ranking is based on a composite score derived from the number and impact of citations of published papers.
"It is a tremendous honor and humbling to be named to this list, but no one stands alone – I have been very fortunate to learn, work and collaborate with many great students, colleagues and mentors," said Eisenmann.
Eisenmann has always been attracted to movement and has had some early success in sports.
"There are a lot of people in our field who are drawn to exercise science because they enjoy and are curious about the human body and exercise and sports. Originally, I was going to be a physical education teacher and coach; however, once I took biomechanics and exercise physiology and learned more about sports science and strength and conditioning, I really became fascinated with the science of human movement and its application to health and performance, and the rest is history," said Eisenmann.
After Eisenmann completed his doctorate, he worked at a number of research-intensive universities, part of why he made the list. He's also held non-academic positions with USA Football and IMG Academy, which have strengthened his teaching abilities by helping him to bring real-world, practical issues into the classroom.
Eisenmann started at Saint Xavier in spring 2024, teaching Research Methods, Measurement and Evaluation in Health and Human Performance, and Exercise Physiology, and he also mentors graduate students through their scholarly research projects.
"My favorite thing about teaching is getting students to understand that the key concepts, principles and skills of our field are important in enhancing the lives of a broad array of people and ecosystems – whether that be in personal training and fitness, coaching, rehab science (physical or occupational therapy), athletic/sport performance, tactical and military health and performance, and more," said Eisenmann.
Within his classes, Eisenmann hopes students are able to understand the key concepts and principles but also become more confident and competent in the application of the concepts, gaining problem-solving abilities and hands-on, practical skills.
"This also relates to how I structure my courses – they involve numerous opportunities to gain hands-on, practical experience. In most classes, I will have one lab each week. For example, in exercise physiology, we will discuss the exercise response of the cardiovascular system in the classroom and then do a lab that shows and demonstrates the concepts and principles of assessing blood pressure and heart rate," said Eisenmann.
In the future, Eisenmann hopes to continue to weave the academic triumvirate – teaching, research and service. He is currently working on building a sports science initiative with the SXU Athletics program, which will result in presentations and publications. He also hopes to grow the undergraduate arm of research in exercise science and across STEM-related programs at SXU and mentor students who have the interest and aptitude for research.