Rate My Professor Ozan Atalağ

Ozan Atalağ is Chair and Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Exercise Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo in the College of Natural and Health Sciences. He joined the university in 2016 and received tenure in 2021. Atalağ earned his Ph.D. in 2012. Prior to UH Hilo, he served as an assistant professor at Girne American University in northern Cyprus for four years, where he developed the coaching education program in the physical education department. His professional background includes roles as a strength and conditioning coach and personal trainer for professional athletes in windsurfing, soccer, and tennis during his doctoral studies. He began his teaching career as a teaching assistant in graduate school, integrating kinesiological concepts from his athletic and coaching experiences.

Atalağ's primary research area examines the effects of various exercise modalities and forms on human health and performance. He directs the department's Resistance Training Lab, where students lead research projects, including analyses of long-haul travel impacts on physiological markers for UH Hilo's women's volleyball team and investigations into post-activation potentiation. Notable publications include "Post-activation potentiation effects of Back Squat and Barbell Hip Thrust exercise on vertical jump and sprinting performance" (Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 2020), "Is complex training superior to drop jumps or back squats for eliciting a post activation potentiation enhancement response?" (Journal of Physical Education and Sport, 2021), "Side-to-side asymmetry in lower limb strength and hamstring-quadriceps strength ratio among collegiate American football players" (Journal of Physical Therapy Science, 2019), "Anthropometrical determinants of deadlift variant performance" (2019), and "Kinanthropometric attributes of young male combat sports athletes" (2013). As chair of UH Hilo's second-largest department, he oversees rapid program expansion, teaches core courses, provides hands-on research opportunities for students, and serves on departmental and university-wide committees. His graduates contribute to the local community as trainers, coaches, military personnel, firefighters, physical therapists, and occupational therapists.