Since my time at Montana but especially since I started the center, my research interests have included nutritional strategies during ultra-endurance work/competition, muscle metabolism during and after exercise, the use of stable isotope tracers for the measure of water turnover and energy expenditure, and issues surrounding heat stress during arduous work.  

Our research facility (Montana WPEM) is well equipped and dedicated to the unique study of arduous work physiology and the metabolic demands placed on the skeletal muscle as it interacts with changing environments.  Over the last several years, my research has been widely recognized by several agencies within DOD.  I have had an excellent collaboration with the US Army Research Institute for Environmental Medicine (USARIEM).  However, I have also worked closely with the Air Force Research Laboratories, the Office of Naval Research, US Special Operations Command, US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, and DARPA.  

The focus of these projects have ranged from understanding the skeletal muscle interaction with environmental stress during exercise and recovery, the implications of high-altitude operations, heat stress injury risk profiling and reduction and understanding the limits of human work during ultra-endurance events.  However, I have worked most closely with the US Forest Service and the world of the wildland firefighter.  This is the research model and study population that I am most proud of because it has required the development of an extensive level of trust and communication.  I have been chasing fire crews and collaborating with the world of wildland fire for the last 25 years.