Dr. Mark Tremblay
Senior Scientist
Email

EDUCATION, CREDENTIALS, ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

  • MSc and PhD, Department of Community Health, University of Toronto
  • Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology – Clinical Exercise Physiologist
  • Full Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
  • Faculty appointment in Ph.D. Program in Population Health, University of Ottawa
  • Senior Research Scientist, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute
  • Honorary Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • Adjunct Professor, Department of Health Sciences, Carleton University
  • Fellow of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology
  • Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences
  • Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine
  • President and Chair, Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance
  • President and Chair, Outdoor Play Canada
  • Chair, Sedentary Behaviour Research Network

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Tremblay is a Senior Scientist with the Healthy Active Living and Obesity (HALO) Research Group at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute and Professor of Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, President of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance, Founder of the Sedentary Behaviour Research Network, President of Outdoor Play Canada, and Adjunct/Visiting/Honorary Professor at six other universities on four continents. Dr. Tremblay has published >700 scientific papers and book chapters in the areas of childhood obesity, physical activity measurement, exercise physiology, sedentary physiology, outdoor play and health surveillance. According to Scopus, his h-index is 113 and his published research has been cited >56,000 times, consistently placing him on the Clarivate list of highly cited researchers (top 1% in the world). Dr. Tremblay received an honorary doctorate from Nipissing University, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, the King Charles III Coronation Medal, the Lawson Foundation 60th Anniversary Award, the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Honour Award and John Sutton Memorial Lecturer Award, the Victor Marchessault Advocacy Award from the Canadian Pediatric Society, the Vic Neufeld Mentorship Award in Global Health Research from the Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research, the International Network of Time-Use Epidemiologists Laureate Award, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Senior Researcher Trailblazer Award in Population and Public Health Research, and the Obesity Canada Distinguished Lecturer Award for his leadership contributions to healthy active living in Canada and around the world. Dr. Tremblay’s most productive work has resulted from his 37-year marriage to his wife Helen, yielding four wonderful children.

RESEARCH, CLINICAL, PROFESSIONAL AND SCHOLARLY FOCUS AND SERVICE

  • Current research and teaching interests include: i) pediatric exercise science ii) outdoor play and health iii) physical activity, fitness and health measurement iv) sedentary behaviour v) health surveillance vi) healthy active living knowledge translation and mobilization.

    • President of the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance
    • Founder and Chair of the Sedentary Behaviour Research Network (SBRN)
    • President and Cofounder of Outdoor Play Canada
    • Member, ParticipACTION Research Advisory Group
    • Member of the CIHR College of Reviewers
    • Reviewer for many scholarly journals, granting agencies, and promotion applications
    • Ranked 73 in Canada by Research.com in the 2025 Ranking of Best Scientists in the field of Medicine; also recognized with the Medicine Leader Award for 2025
    • Journal of Physical Activity and Health 2024 Article of the Year: Best Commentary for E-Y Lee E-Y and MS Tremblay – “Unmasking the political power of physical activity research: Harnessing the ‘apolitical-ness’ as a catalyst for addressing the challenges of our time”
    • Recognized as a Highly Ranked Scholar by ScholarGPS, 2023-2025 – top 0.05% of all scholars worldwide overall and for medicine, pediatrics and physical activity, both lifetime and last five years
    • Recognized by Scilit as 2024 top cited scholar
    • Awarded the King Charles III’s Coronation Medal in recognition of “significant contribution to Canada that brings credit to Canada”
    • Appointed Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2024-2026
    • Recognized by Clarivate on the list of Highly Cited Researchers 2018-2025 (This is a list of the elite group recognized for exceptional research influence, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™)
    • Recognized as a “World Expert” by Expertscape based on PubMed-based algorithms that place me in the top 0.1% of scholars writing about Leisure Activities over the past 10 years, 2021
    • Honorary Advisor to the Universal Scientific Education and Research Network, 2021+
    • Canadian Institutes of Health Research Trailblazer Award in Population and Public Health Research (Senior Career Researcher), 2022
    • Recognized as a “World Expert” by Expertscape based on PubMed-based algorithms that place me in the top 0.1% of scholars writing about Body Weights and Measures over the past 10 years, 2022
    • Recognized as a “World Expert” by Expertscape based on PubMed-based algorithms that place me in the top 1.0% of scholars writing about Obesity over the past 10 years, 2022

 

RECENT GRADUATE STUDENTS, SUPERVISION AND TRAINING

  • Brianna Nasrallah (Carleton University) – MSc HSTP Program Supervisor (2024-2026)
  • Iryna Demchenko (Carleton University) – PhD Supervisor (2023-2026)
  • Maeghan James (University of Ottawa) – Postdoctoral Fellow Supervisor (2023-2025)
  • Sabrina Duncan (Carleton University) – PhD Supervisor (2023-2026)
  • Diego Augusto Santos Silva (University of Florinopolis, Brazil) – Visiting Professor Supervisor (2022-2023)
  • Markus Duncan (University of Ottawa) – Postdoctoral Fellow Supervisor (2022-2024)
  • Emily Stone (Carleton University) – MSc HSTP Program (2022-2024)
  • Emily Pope (Carleton University) – MSc HSTP Program (2022-2024)
  • Jade Alcantara (Carleton University) – MSc HSTP Program (2021-2023)
  • Myranda Hawthorne (Carleton University) – MSc HSTP Program (2021-2023)
  • Katy Cameron (Carleton University) – MSc HSTP Program (2021-2023)
  • Nick Seguin (Carleton University) – MSc (2020-2022)
  • Nicholas Corey Kuzik (University of Ottawa) – Post-doctoral Fellow Supervisor (2020-2024)
  • Scott Rollo (University of Ottawa) – Post-doctoral Fellow Supervisor (2019-2022)
  • Evan Turner (Carleton University) – M.Sc. Supervisor (2018-2020)
  • Michelle Guerrero (University of Ottawa) – Post-doctoral Fellow Supervisor (2018-2020)
  • Christine Delisle-Nystrom (Karolinska Institute, Sweden) – Post-doctoral Fellow Supervisor (2018)
  • Jeremy Walsh (University of Ottawa) – Post-doctoral Fellow Supervisor (2017-2018)
  • Eun-Young Lee (University of Ottawa) – Post-doctoral Fellow Supervisor (2017-2018)
  • Diego Augusto Santos Silva (University of Florinopolis, Brazil) – Visiting Professor Supervisor (2017-2018)
  • Brian Timmons (McMaster University) – Visiting Professor Supervisor (2017-2018)
  • Silvia Gonzalez (University of Ottawa) – Ph.D. Supervisor (2017-2021)
  • Taru Manyanga (University of Ottawa) – Ph.D. Supervisor (2015-2019)
  • Salomé Aubert (University of Ottawa) – Ph.D. Supervisor (2015-2019)
  • Justin Lang (University of Ottawa) – Ph.D. Supervisor (2013-2017)

 

MEMBERSHIPS

  • Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance (Founder)
  • African Physical Activity Network
  • American College of Sports Medicine (Fellow)
  • Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (Fellow)
  • Canadian Association for Global Health
  • Canadian Public Health Association
  • Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (Fellow)
  • International Network of Time-Use Epidemiologists
  • International Physical Literacy Association
  • International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA)
  • International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH)
  • International Society of Global Health
  • ISPAH Sedentary Behaviour Council
  • North American Society for Pediatric Exercise Medicine
  • Obesity Canada
  • Outdoor Play Canada (Founding Member)
  • Physical and Health Education Canada
  • PLaTO-Net (Play, Learning and Teaching Outdoors – Network)(Founding Member)
  • Sedentary Behaviour Research Network (Founder)
  • Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (Honorary Advisor)