Melvin Ramey, a respected engineering professor at the University of California, Davis, who over the years has sought to design the perfect long jump, has been named director of a new campus center on physical activity, performance and fitness.
Ramey's half-time appointment is effective Sept. 1.
According to Robert Grey, provost and executive vice chancellor, the new research and teaching center will oversee physical education courses. It will also house the campus's Adult Fitness Program -- an educational laboratory where students study the roles of exercise and nutrition in reducing cardiovascular disease.
"I expect that this center will also become the focal point for new applied research activities and outreach opportunities that deal with health and wellness issues," Grey said.
Ramey is the former chair of the civil and environmental engineering department and the current campus faculty athletics representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
"I am pleased and excited about being involved in the development of this center," Ramey said. "There are unique opportunities pertaining to health, fitness and physical activity that play to campus strengths in medicine, exercise science, nutrition, athletics and outreach."
A former assistant track coach at UC Davis, he was a competitive jumper while studying engineering at Pennsylvania State University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1960. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in civil engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 1965 and 1967, respectively. His areas of engineering expertise include concrete and steel design.
He was selected by students to receive a Magnar Ronning Award for Teaching Excellence in 1984-85. The campus advising services division gave him its Outstanding Faculty Adviser Award for 1987.
In hopes of helping athletes improve their performance, Ramey has published several articles in scientific, medical and engineering journals on his research and computer simulations of the forces and angular momentum used in the long jump. He has also studied the biomechanics of bicycling and bicycle path designs.
Ramey will continue to teach engineering in addition to directing the new center.
Grey said he will appoint a planning committee this fall to help Ramey define "the shape of the center and its relationship to academic disciplines."
Creation of the center was recommended last winter by an ad hoc campus committee evaluating UC Davis' popular exercise science academic program.
UC Davis plans to chart a new academic direction for exercise science and create a comprehensive teaching and research program to put the campus into the forefront of health promotion and disease prevention, according to Grey.
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