Robert M. Malina, PhD, FACSM, is a professor emeritus in the department of kinesiology and health at the University of Texas at Austin, and he is also an adjunct professor in the department of health management and systems sciences at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky.
Malina has two earned doctoral degrees, first in physical education (1963) and second in anthropology (1968). He also has been the recipient of five honorary doctoral degrees from universities in Belgium, Poland, and Portugal.
As a researcher, Malina has largely focused on the biological growth and maturation of children and adolescents with an emphasis on performance, youth sports and young athletes, and the potential influences of physical activity and training for sport. His work has also considered the anthropometric correlates of physique and body composition in female athletes at the university level. In addition, he has done research related to growth and nutrition among Indigenous populations in Oaxaca, Mexico, between 1968 and 1978, and he did a follow-up study of two communities in 2000. His work in Latin America also included collaborative efforts with colleagues at the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama between 1972 and 1974. To date, he has contributed more than 550 papers to peer-reviewed journals.
Malina has also served as editor in chief of the American Journal of Human Biology, editor of the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, and section editor for growth and development for Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews and Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport.
Malina is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. He received the Citation Award from the organization in 1997 and the Honor Award in 2013. He is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Human Biology Association, the AAHPERD Research Consortium, and the National Academy of Kinesiology (formerly called the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education).
