$25,000 donation to support collaborations, travel and other research expenses

Dr. Steven Blair, professor in the Arnold School’s Department of Exercise Science, has donated $25,000 to support research on physical inactivity as a public health problem.

Blair said he expects to donate at least another $25,000 to the Blair Physical Activity Fund this year based on proceeds from his book royalties, speaking fees, and consultations.

“I consider inactivity to be the greatest modifiable public health threat of the 21st Century in the United States and other industrialized countries,” said Blair, adding that the fund will support collaborations with researchers on the issue.

It also can be used to support staff travel to scientific meetings, graduate assistantships and other research expenses.

Blair is an internationally recognized authority on exercise and its health benefits. He was among a team of University of South Carolina researchers who reported that seniors who get a regular dose of physical activity live longer than unfit adults, regardless of their body fat.

Those findings were reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, conducted between 1979 and 2001, is the first to examine the link among fitness, body fat and death in older Americans.

Blair was a PE instructor at USC in the 1960s before joining the Cooper Institute in Dallas. He was a researcher, then president and CEO of the nonprofit research and education center recognized as a leader in exercise science.

During his 22-year tenure at Cooper, Blair did extensive research using the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study that examines the impact that diet, physical activity, and other lifestyle factors have on mortality.

Blair rejoined the USC faculty last fall where he currently has joint appointments in the Department of Exercise Science and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

He has published over 360 papers and chapters in the scientific literature, and was the senior scientific editor for the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health.

He also is the author, editor or coeditor of several books, including Fitness After 50, Active Living Every Day, and Physical Activity and Health. His recent gift is part of a record 58 per cent increase in private giving during the first six months of fiscal year 2007–08.

The university received $50 million in gifts and pledges from slightly more than 27,000 donors from July 1 through Dec. 31, 2007. That compares with $31.6 million received from 14,539 donors during the same period in 2006.