Canadian Physiologist Tapped to Chair Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- John Xavier Wilson, Ph.D., professor of physiology and pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, has been named chair of the Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences in the School of Public Health and Health Professions at the University at Buffalo, effective January 1, 2005.

Wilson conducts research into the action and biochemistry of antioxidant nutrients and drugs, including Vitamin C. His work has been funded since 1983, and has resulted in more than 90 articles in scholarly journals, with several additional articles pending publication.

A native of Toronto, Wilson earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Toronto, and in 1982 received a doctorate in comparative physiology and pharmacology from that institution. Following his doctoral work, he spent a year as a postdoctoral scientist in the Endocrinology and Reproductive Branch of the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Md.

Wilson was an assistant professor of physiology at the University of Saskatchewan for two years before accepting a similar position at the University of Western Ontario in 1985. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1990 and in 1999 attained the rank of professor. He also earned a certificate in management from the Canadian Institute of Management.

He has held numerous administrative posts within the university, as well as in the external scientific community, including president of the Southern Ontario Neuroscience Association, co-founder of the Oxidative Stress Consortium, chair of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program Selection Panel and editor of Physiology Canada. He has been a reviewer for more than two dozen journals, including FASEB Journal, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Neuroscience, and Journal of Nutrition.