R. Scott Rector, graduate research assistant at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, was the first recipient of the new Health Activity Center M. Harold Laughlin Scholarship.

Dr. Rector earned his PhD in exercise physiology from MU in 2001. His research focus examines the role of weight loss by energy restriction and aerobic training improvements. His dissertation project investigates the impact of lifestyle modification on markers of oxidative stress and antioxidant defense systems with associated changes in insulin sensitivity and risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

The scholarship, funded by an anonymous donor, established the permanently endowed fund at the University of Missouri-Columbia in honor of Dr. M. Harold Laughlin, director of the Biomedical Sciences Department at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

The recipient shall be an individual of high integrity and genuine caring for the health of humans and animals. These characteristics are those exhibited by Dr. M. Harold Laughlin.

The fund is designed to provide awards to graduate students, post doctoral fellows, medical students, interns or residents, and/or veterinary students, interns or residents who contribute outstanding research in physical inactivity and chronic disease or promote physical activity and health—focal points of the Health Activity Center at the University of Missouri.

The Health Activity Center at the University of Missouri is dedicated to education and promotion and to ending the 35 inactivity-related disorders. Faculty members of the Health Activity Center work to determine the biological basis of how physical inactivity makes the body susceptible to chronic disease and disorders such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, hypertension, physical frailty, cancer and arthritis. As companion animals have some of the same inactivity-induced disorders, comparative medicine and human-animal bonding experiments are also performed. The vision of the Center is to make a national impact by reducing the human suffering that occurs when the body weakens and becomes diseased because of physical inactivity.

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