CQUniversity this week farewells Professor Kerry Mummery after 13 years of dedication to research and promotion of healthy living...

Professor Kerry Mummery will assume the role of Dean of the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta in July of this year.

"I have enjoyed my time at CQUniversity and am thankful for all the opportunities and support provided," he said.

CQUniversity farewells Professor Kerry Mummery after 13 years in the region."I wish CQUni the best in this exciting period of growth under our new Vice-Chancellor. I have already started building future links between CQUniversity and the University of Alberta and will be happy to host any Australian colleagues in their quest to experience a true Canadian winter."

LINK HERE for ‘Heading home is cold comfort'

Prior to his departure, Professor Mummery will be giving his 'Final Lecture' at CQUniversity to reflect on the research and scholarly activities that he has been involved with. The lecture will be staged on March 24 in building 18 from 12.30pm.

The senior academic has played an integral role in CQUniversity's research into physical activity, fitness and health and sport psychology.

He was the driving force behind the award-winning 10,000 Steps program, which now has 120,415 participants throughout Australia and internationally. [There have been over 2 billion steps logged on the 10,000 Steps website http://www.10000steps.org.au/]

He also founded the University's Population Research Laboratory in 1999. This facility now conducts annual national, state and region-wide surveys in collaboration with research, government and commercial partners.

Professor Mummery developed a reputation as a spokesperson for the fight against obesity, after his study revealed that most Queenslanders were overweight.

His recent work and current projects involve the use of information technology to promote physical activity and health.

As a special farewell gift Professor Kerry Mummery was presented with a traditional Australian Drizabone.He has recently secured a $896,000 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant for Project WALK 2.0, which investigates the internal and external validity of the latest web applications in promoting physical activity.

Professor Mummery led the bid for an $800,000 grant from Health Promotion Queensland (HPQ) to establish Gladstone as the home of a world-leading ManUp program, using web and phone-based interactions to encourage men aged from 35-54 to boost their physical activity and nutrition levels.

On top of his research leadership, he also performed a range of senior executive roles, including as an Executive Dean and Pro Vice-Chancellor.

During his time at CQUniversity, Professor Mummery taught hundreds of undergraduate students, and supervised the research and study of over 20 Honours and postgraduate students, for which he was voted one of the 'Top Ten' Lecturers at CQUniversity in Unijobs Australia's Lecturer of the Year Competition - an award which he counts as one of his most important accomplishments.