LABORATOIRE IMPACTS LABORATORY

Laboratoire d’Investigations sur les Mécanismes et Prédicteurs de liens entre Activités physiques, autres Comportements et Trajectoires de Santé

Director – Mathieu Bélanger

Mathieu Bélanger, PhD

Biography

After completing a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology (2001) and a masters degree in biology (2003) at the Université de Moncton, Mathieu obtained a PhD in epidemiology from McGill University (2009) and completed a three year complementary training program on transdisciplinary public health and population health research offered by a network of six Québec institutions and universities. He took part in additional complementary training, including the World Health Federation International Teaching Seminar on Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention in 2006 and a postdoctoral research internship with the British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group in the Department of Public Health at the University of Oxford in 2010. Throughout his academic progress, Mathieu accumulated numerous honors, including an award of excellence from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and nominations for young researcher awards from the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity and from the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation.

Since the spring of 2008, Mathieu is employed as Director of Research and Epidemiologist by the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick and the Vitalité Health Network, respectively. He also holds the titles of Full Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the Université de Moncton. In the context of his responsibilities, Mathieu assumes multiple roles which include developing health research capacity in New Brunswick, supporting health professionals involved in research, teaching doctors and medical students, and that of a researcher.

As a researcher, he has secured over 4.5 million dollars as principal investigator for research projects, participated in obtaining some 70 million dollars in supplementary funding as a principle or co-investigator in major CIHR initiatives such as Strategy for Patient Oriented Research, and is co-investigator on research projects that have amounted to over 10 million dollars. He is the author of over 100 scientific articles, 12 reports and 2 book chapters. He has delivered over 300 presentations at scientific conferences, of which over 40 were as an invited speaker and more than a quarter were at international conferences. His research results have attracted interest in the general public as mass media outlets of over 15 countries presented stories based on his research

Summary Functions

  • Full Professor, Université de Sherbrooke, Department of Family Medicine
  • Director of Research, Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick
  • Epidemiologist, Réseau de santé Vitalité

Diplomas

  • 2005-2009 Ph.D., Epidemiology, McGill University 
  • 2001-2003 M.Sc., Biology, Université de Moncton 
  • 1997-2000 B.Sc. Kin., Université de Moncton

Research Interests

  • Better understanding how, when and why participation in physical activity can be modified 
  • Better understanding interactions between health-related behaviours and chronic diseases 
  • Better understanding associations between the development of prevalent behavioural risk factors and health markers