Professor-Student Partnership Engage in Study to Change the Way We Treat Obesity

"This study has helped me take steps toward achieving my goal because it gave me hands-on experience with multiple aspects of conducting research, from study design, to data collection, to presentation of our study to reviewing other studies and more."

Dr. Hunter Paris, an assistant professor of sports medicine at Seaver College, is known for his groundbreaking studies in physiology. When it came time for him to select a student partner for his latest research project, "High Altitude and Obesity," Paris didn't hesitate to bring senior Akin Akinwumi onboard.

"I first interacted with Akin in the classroom," Paris recalls. "During this time he demonstrated many of the attributes we value most in the laboratory: curiosity, integrity, and a willingness to make mistakes. We invited him into the laboratory and were blessed that he accepted!"

Standing at an imposing 6' 7", Akinwumi is attending Pepperdine on an athletic scholarship to play volleyball. In high school, he earned a top honor in CIF-SS Division 3 volleyball, and in 2021, he garnered Mountain Pacific Sports Federation All-Academic honors. He plans to graduate in the spring of 2022 with a bachelors in sports medicine.

Akinwumi says he was intrigued by the materials Dr. Paris presented and was excited to participate in the study. "I never really considered doing research as an undergraduate student, but after the semester, Dr. Paris asked if I wanted to join him in his study. I realized it was a great opportunity that I was lucky to have and I gratefully accepted it."

The program involves a novel method of helping people maintain a healthy body weight by increasing caloric expenditure and lowering appetite. Volunteers are asked to exercise for thirty minutes at sea level and then recover from exercise while breathing air equivalent to being at a high altitude. "We suspect that the high altitude environment will promote additional calories burned and influence the hormones connected with hunger" Paris explains.

Akimwumi's responsibilities include ensuring participant safety, overseeing data collection on metabolism and oxygen consumption, processing plasma samples, and analyzing results.

"Additionally, he will help author our results for hopeful publication," Paris says. "He's also been involved in the dissemination of our findings to audiences outside the laboratory. His fingerprints are, therefore, spread throughout this study and his presence has been critical to progression and completion."

Akinwumi says his experience in the lab has been invaluable to his future career goals. "I hope to become an orthopedic doctor but I also want to be heavily involved in research in the field," he expresses. "This study has helped me take steps toward achieving my goal because it gave me hands-on experience with multiple aspects of conducting research, from study design, to data collection, to presentation of our study to reviewing other studies and more. Pepperdine has made a transformative impact on my life through the people I have been exposed to, but specifically, through the people that have mentored, coached, and taught me."