Dr. Gomes' Academic Path
Prof. Dr. Paulo Sergio Chagas Gomes was introduced to exercise physiology in the early 1970s as an undergraduate student in Physical Education at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (RJ, Brazil), working as a trainee at the Exercise Physiology Laboratory (LABOFISE), under the guidance of the late Emeritus Professor Maurício José Leal Rocha, M.D.
Shortly after his graduation, simultaneously with his research work at LABOFISE, he was offered a job at Universidade Gama Filho (UGF, RJ, Brazil) as a lecturer in the undergrad program in Physical Education and a member of the research team at the Exercise Physiology Laboratory headed by Dr. Edmundo Vieites Novaes, M.Sc. a 5th-degree black belt and UGF's first judo champion. The late Prof. Dr. Manoel José Gomes Tubino was the head of the undergraduate program of Physical Education.
In 1981 he moved to Canada, sponsored by a scholarship from CAPES (Ministry of Education, Brazil), to work under the guidance of two fine investigators, Professors Donald A. Bailey, Ed.D., and Dr. Robert L. Mirwald, Ph.D., at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Sask, Canada). He was then introduced to the Saskatchewan Longitudinal Growth and Development Study, a 10-year-long landmark study headed by Dr. Bailey.
After completing his M.Sc. in 1983, he started his Ph.D. program at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada), sponsored initially by CAPES and subsequently by CNPq (Ministry of Science and Technology, Brazil). Dr. Gomes worked at Dr. Yagesh Bhambhani's Faculty of Rehab Medicine Laboratory. Dr. Bhambhani, as a member of his thesis committee, was the actual mentor (not the official supervisor) of the project and was responsible for making everything possible for the study's success. Credit also goes to Professor Dr. Ross Macnab for acting as a program supervisor at the end of the program.
Right after the termination of the doctoral program, an invitation from Prof. Dr. Sérgio Miguel Zucas led Dr. Gomes to head back to Brazil and join the most prestigious Brazilian university - Universidade de São Paulo (USP, São Paulo, SP). From 1989-1993 he was part of the undergrad and grad programs of Escola de Educação Física e Esportes of USP, for two terms member of the Graduate Program Committee and once as co-chairman of the Research Committee.
In 1993, Dr. Manoel José Gomes Tubino, vice-president for academics of Universidade Gama Filho (Rio de Janeiro, RJ), invited him back to be part of the Graduate Program in Physical Education, a leading force in Brasil in exercise and sports sciences. From 1993 to 2014, Dr. Gomes was a full professor in the program and head of the Laboratory Crossbridges.
In 1998-99, during an 18-month sabbatical stay as Visiting Research Professor at the Center for Exercise Sciences (University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA), Dr. Gomes had the privilege to work with one of the prominent scientists in the field - Professor Dr. Michael L. Pollock, author of more than 300 scientific articles and four books translated into several languages. Dr. Pollock was President of the American Colle of Sports Medicine. After Dr. Pollock's passing, Dr. Gomes worked with the also internationally recognized scientist Prof. Dr. Scott Powers,
After the final closure of Universidade Gama Filho, Dr. Gomes was s Visiting Professor at the Escola de Educcaão Física e Desportos da Universidade do Estado do Ro de Janeiro (UERJ, RJ), where he helped establish the current Grad Program of Exercise and Sports Sciences. In 2015 he became a permanent professor in the program and brought back the Laboratory Crossbridges.