Kent Named UMass Distinguished Professor
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Jane Kent has been named a Distinguished Professor of Kinesiology by the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The title Distinguished Professor is conferred on select, highly accomplished faculty who have already achieved the rank of professor and who meet a demanding set of qualifications. She was one of three UMass Amherst faculty members to receive this distinction in 2023 following a vote of approval by the Board of Trustees.
“Dr. Kent has had a notable career in her field, making significant contributions to our understanding of how muscle force generating capacity might improve due to exercise in both healthy and disease states,” says Anna Maria Siega-Riz, dean of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences. “She has been an outstanding mentor to junior faculty and students and has provided invaluable leadership to the Department of Kinesiology as well as the school. I congratulate her in joining the prestigious group of UMass faculty who have obtained the title of a distinguished professor.”
Kent is viewed among her peers as one of the leading scientists in the area of age-and disease-related changes in human neuromuscular function. Her 30-plus-year body of research on muscle bioenergetics and fatigue is highly interdisciplinary in nature, and includes research conducted at several Core Facilities in the Institute for Applied Life Sciences (IALS): the Center for Human Health and Performance and the Human Magnetic Resonance Center, for which she served as founding co-director. In 2015, Kent was instrumental in bringing a huge magnetic resonance instrument to the center.
Kent’s research is in the area of human skeletal muscle function, bioenergetics and fatigue. In particular, her work examines the mechanisms of fatigue, and how these vary depending upon age, gender, chronic health status and habitual physical activity level. A related interest is an examination of the influence that fatigue has on functional capacity.
“We take a state-of-the-art, integrated approach to understanding human muscle function from the cell to the organism,” notes Kent. “The main problem we are working on now is how to minimize the loss of mobility and health that occur in old age.”
“Professor and former chair Jane Kent is a nationally and internationally recognized leader and expert in the area of human skeletal muscle function and fatigue, and how this impacts mobility in healthy older adults and those with chronic disease,” says Richard van Emmerik, Professor and Chair of the Department of Kinesiology. “Her research is unique in that she incorporates in vivo measures of neural drive, contractile function and bioenergetics to understand the ways in which older age and disease affect function, from the cellular level to the entire organism.”
He adds, “In addition to her research success, Dr. Kent has been an important leader (as graduate program director and department chair) and mentor, as well as a main driver behind various equity and diversity initiatives that continue to result in greater awareness and targeted actions to enhance diversity across all layers in the Department of Kinesiology.”
Kent, who earned her PhD from the University of Southern California in 1987, joined the faculty at UMass Amherst as an associate professor in 2000 after serving roles in academia with the University of California San Francisco and with professional sports organizations, including a stint as a sports scientist for the Challenge for America’s Cup. She served as chair of the Department of Kinesiology from 2017-2021 before stepping down to serve as a Samuel F. Conti Faculty Fellow at the university. In 2020 she was named a UMass Spotlight Scholar, and in 2022, she received the university’s ADVANCE Faculty Peer Mentoring Award.
Nationally, Kent is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the National Academy of Kinesiology and a member of the American Physiological Society. She has served on the ACSM Board of Trustees, and as co-founder and chair of the ACSM's Interest Group on Aging. She has served on numerous panels and study sections of the National Institutes of Health, in an editorial capacity for Exercise and Sports Sciences Reviews and the Journal of Applied Physiology, and has over 115 peer-reviewed journal publications to her credit.
“The respect of my peers and acknowledgement of my efforts by the university that this distinction reflects are such a tremendous honor,” says Kent. “The University of Massachusetts Amherst has been an excellent academic home for me over the past 23 years, and I look forward to continuing the exciting work that my students, colleagues and I are pursuing.”