Rate My Professor Marc Poulin

Marc Poulin is Professor of Physiology in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, with appointments in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology and Clinical Neurosciences, as well as the Faculty of Kinesiology. He holds the Brenda Strafford Foundation Chair in Alzheimer Research and is a member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, and the O’Brien Institute of Public Health. He obtained a Bachelor of Physical and Health Education (Honours) from Laurentian University in 1986, an MA and PhD in Exercise Physiology and Respiratory Physiology and Ageing from the University of Western Ontario in 1988 and 1993, respectively, and a DPhil in Human Cerebrovascular Physiology from the University of Oxford in 2000. He is an internationally recognized leader in cerebrovascular regulation, sleep, high-altitude physiology, and the processing of biological signals. The Poulin Lab employs techniques such as transcranial Doppler ultrasound, near-infrared spectroscopy, neuroimaging, and dynamic end-tidal forcing to investigate human physiology in health, disease, and across the lifespan. Dr. Poulin leads a graduate training specialization program in Mountain Medicine and High-Altitude Physiology and serves as Co-Director of the NSERC BRAIN CREATE Interdisciplinary Training Program for New Neurotechnologies. He has supervised over 200 trainees, including more than 25 graduate students and 20 postdoctoral fellows, and has published over 120 scientific papers with approximately 7000 citations and an h-index of 46. He has received awards including the Guenter Distinguished Achievement Award for International Health in 2017 and the Watanabe Distinguished Achievement Award in 2008. Dr. Poulin serves on the scientific advisory board of the International Hypoxia Symposia and previously served as Editor for the journal Experimental Physiology from 2013 to 2017.

He holds grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. His research includes studies on healthy brain aging and dementia prevention, such as the Brain in Motion II Study examining exercise, cerebral blood flow, and cognition in older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Additional work focuses on integrative human physiology, the effects of sleep apnea on cerebrovascular function, and high-altitude acclimatization, with collaborations including projects at the ALMA Observatory in Chile and partnerships with Canadian mining companies regarding high-altitude work in South America.