Rate My Professor Nancy Rehrer

Associate Professor Nancy Rehrer serves in the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Otago, where she has contributed for over 30 years, earning a continuous service award in 2025. She obtained her BA in Environmental Biology from Duke University, MSc in Nutrition from Clemson University, and PhD in Exercise Metabolism and Nutritional Physiology from Maastricht University. Her PhD thesis, 'Limits to Fluid Availability During Exercise,' was awarded the Dutch Prize for Sports Medicine in 1991. Rehrer holds fellowship in the American College of Sports Medicine and memberships in the European College of Sport Science and the Nutrition Society (British).

Rehrer's research investigates metabolic alterations at rest and during exercise, mechanisms limiting human performance, with focus on sport performance and health in environmental contexts. Expertise encompasses substrate metabolism, gastrointestinal function, fluid and electrolyte balance during exercise. She completed research leaves at NASA's Laboratory for Human Environmental Physiology (2001), Centre for Nutrition Research in Lyon (2013), and Knight Lab, University of California San Diego (2023). As Programme Leader for the BSc Exercise and Sport Science, she coordinates SPEX303 Exercise Energetics and Physiology. She sits on editorial boards of Nutrients and International Journal of Sports Medicine, reviews for premier exercise physiology and sports nutrition journals, and contributed to expert panels on exercise-associated hyponatraemia consensus statements (2008, 2015). Key publications include 'Fluid and electrolyte balance in ultra-endurance sport' (Sports Medicine, 2001), 'Breaking prolonged sitting reduces postprandial glycemia in healthy, normal-weight adults: a randomized crossover trial' (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2013), 'Time–motion analysis of professional rugby union players during match-play' (Journal of Sports Sciences, 2007), 'Post-exercise whey protein supplementation: Effects on IGF-1, strength, and body composition in pre-menopausal women, a randomised controlled trial' (Nutrients, 2025), and 'Effects of commuter cycling on physical activity, cardiometabolic health and body composition' (European Journal of Sport Science, 2025). Her work has advanced exercise physiology and sports nutrition.