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Staff Profile

Leigh Ryan

Research Assistant

Background

My name is Leigh James Ryan and I a Research Assistant on the ActivDem study being conducted by Dr. Riona McArdle. My primary research interests are in the area of sport and injury biomechanics, data science and neuro physiology. I am very curious about how various movement outcomes such as gait can unveil information about an individual's cognition and how they relate to neurodegenerative diseases such as Dementia and Parkinson's Disease.


I received a BSc. Sport Science and Health in Dublin City University (2019) and went on to work as a Biomechanics Research Assistant in the Sport Surgery Clinic, Dublin, Ireland. During my time as an undergraduate and in the Sports Surgery Clinic, I received extensive training in 3D motion capture and it's use in quantifying and understanding human movement in a sport injury context, specifically Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury. I also gained skills in computer programming languages such as MATLAB and Python.


I consider myself as a Pracademic as I also work as a Strength & Conditioning Coach for Youth Sport teams, looking to work with and coaches and players to promote Long-term Athletic Development not only towards future sporting performance, but more importantly life-long participation in sport. I recently finished an MSc. Strength & Conditioning in St. Mary's Twickenham, London.

Publications