BENGT SALTIN

Professor Bengt Saltin is a world leading human physiologist. As a medical doctor he has devoted his life to researching the effects of physical exercise on health and performance. No single scientist in modern times has covered more or has such a significant impact on discovering the nature of human function. He has published over 500 papers covering vast areas of physiology. He coined and proved the term ‘humans were meant to move’ from the level of gene expression to heart and muscle function. His famous ‘bed rest’ study transformed medical practice on how people recover from heart attacks, general surgery, or injury. He proved the importance and limits of the heart in athletes and cardiac patients, described and explained the genetic basis for why world-class marathoners and sprinters run so fast. He provided the scientific basis for determining if an athlete is using performance-enhancing drugs. Most importantly, his emphasis on gene-environment interaction has extended our fundamental scientific knowledge of human physiology by clarifying the importance of the environment for optimizing gene expression. He is now exploring the ways how inactivity causes diabetes. Bengt Saltin has extended the scientific lineage of the Nobel laureate August Krogh by acting as Director of the Copenhagen Muscle Research Centre, the leading human physiology institute in the world. He has served as Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, directed multiple national and international governmental health and medical organizations, and currently serves on the scientific board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). He has received the highest international honours in his field. In 2002, he was awarded the IOC Prize, an Olympic Gold Medal, for having made the greatest contribution to our understanding of exercise for health and performance. By consensus of his peers, at the last World Scientific Congress in Athens in 2004, he was introduced for his keynote address as the “Aristotle of Human Physiology”