Biography:

Stephen is a Canadian Institutes of Health Research postdoctoral fellow in the Integrative Clinical Cardiopulmonary Physiology Laboratory at the University of British Columbia – Okanagan Campus. He previously completed his Ph.D. in Medical Science and M.Sc. in Exercise Science at the University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital.

Stephen is an exercise physiologist with expertise in integrative cardiopulmonary physiology. His research focuses on cardiopulmonary hemodynamics, their relationship to exercise capacity and tolerance, and the modifying influences of sex, normal ageing, and chronic disease. Currently, Stephen is leading two main projects. The first examines how breathing impacts heart function at rest and during exercise, whether interactions work differently in women compared to men, and how healthy ageing influences those interactions. The second is investigating how impaired heart function impacts lung function and contributes to the sensation of breathlessness during exercise in adults living with heart failure, and testing whether using lower-body negative pressure during exercise can reduce breathlessness.

Current work aims to elucidate mechanisms that regulate left atrial, pulmonary vascular, and right ventricular function, and understand how heart failure impacts lung function and contributes to dyspnea on exertion.