January 25, 2015 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu
The Office of the VP for Research recognizes only a handful of faculty members with the Breakthrough Star award each year. Faculty are nominated and selected by peers for this award based on their early career achievements. They exceed expectations in their fields, demonstrate exceptional potential and make outstanding contributions to research and scholarship.
Arnold School Breakthrough Star award recipient Xuemei Sui excels in all areas of the selection criteria. Although she joined the Department of Exercise Science as a research associate in 2007 with just one publication, Sui has since authored or co-authored nearly 130 peer-reviewed publications in less than eight years. These publications include 16 first-author and 36 student-led papers under her direct supervision. In addition to being highly productive in her scholarship contributions during this time period, she also earned a doctoral degree in exercise science in 2012.
Throughout her brief tenure at the Arnold School thus far, Sui has proven to be successful in obtaining external funding as well. With support from agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Sui develops highly competitive grant proposals that focus on the associations between physical activity, exercise, cardiorespiratory fitness, obesity and chronic diseases. Through her research initiatives and collaborative projects, she is building an international reputation for her expertise in the field of physical activity.
Her mentor, Professor Steven Blair, Departments of Exercise Science and Epidemiology & Biostatistics, enthusiastically nominated Sui for this award. “Dr. Sui is off to an outstanding start of what I predict will be a great career,” says Blair. “I consider her a superstar in the making, and we are very fortunate to have her at USC.”
Sui and the five other 2015 Breakthrough Star award recipients will be featured in a special supplement of Breakthrough magazine and honored at the Breakthrough Awards Dinner in the spring.