{"605782":{"#nid":"605782","#data":{"type":"news","title":"From Play, Exercise, Fitness to Diet, Drugs, Doctors","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBy Mallory Rosten, Student Communications Assistant, College of Sciences\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.biosci.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E Professor Emeritus Phillip Sparling has published his first book of creative nonfiction. \u0026ldquo;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sneakers-Closet-Other-Essays-Reflections\/dp\/1981998349?tag=uuid10-20\u0022\u003EThe Sneakers in the Closet and Other Essays\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026rdquo; explores the intersection of sports, health, and life. It\u0026rsquo;s a collection of 24 stories (and a few poems), compiled and re-edited, from newspaper columns Sparling wrote over several years.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn the eponymous first essay, Sparling reminisces on a childhood full of sports and physical activity. As a kid, he was constantly on the move, taking detours from bicycling \u0026nbsp;to school to climb trees or scale a wall. He can measure the phases of his youth by sports: four square and kickball in elementary school; neighborhood pickup games of football, basketball, and baseball through junior high school; and then cross-country and track in high school. .\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EMaybe that\u0026rsquo;s why Sparling dedicated his research to unraveling connections between fitness and health. His early research focused on investigating relationships among endurance training, resistance training, energy balance, body composition, and cardiovascular health. In the mid-1990s, his research shifted to understanding physical activity and eating patterns as modifiable health behaviors.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESparling joined Georgia Tech in 1979 as an assistant professor in what was then the Department of Physical Education. When he retired almost 30 years later, it had become the School of Applied Physiology, which \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/biosci.gatech.edu\/about\/about-school\u0022\u003Emerged with the School of Biology\u003C\/a\u003E to form the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.biosci.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Biological Sciences\u003C\/a\u003E in summer 2016. During his last decade at Tech, Sparling taught a large lecture \u0026ldquo;Personal Health\u0026rdquo; course and the graduate-level courses \u0026ldquo;Exercise Physiology\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Physical Activity and Health.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn retirement, Sparling broadened his writing to include narrative nonfiction.\u0026nbsp; \u0026ldquo;It allows more creativity than scientific and technical writing,\u0026rdquo; Sparling says. He began publishing essays in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.bigcanoenews.com\/\u0022\u003ESmoke Signals\u003C\/a\u003E, the local paper of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.bigcanoe.com\/\u0022\u003EBig Canoe\u003C\/a\u003E, a mountain community about one hour north of Atlanta. His editor and friends encouraged him to publish the essays in a book. In \u0026ldquo;The Sneakers in the Closet and Other Essays,\u0026rdquo; he reflects on various topics \u0026ndash; from play, exercise, and fitness to diet, drugs, and doctors.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;My aim is to engage and educate by sharing stories, including personal reflections on growing up, finding a career and growing older,\u0026rdquo; Sparling says, \u0026ldquo;and to show how role models shape our health and well-being.\u0026rdquo; He hopes that people who read his stories walk away \u0026ldquo;better informed, empowered, and thankful.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe book\u0026rsquo;s proceeds go to the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.legacies.chhs.colostate.edu\/gay-israel.aspx\u0022\u003ERichard Gay Israel Health and Exercise Science Scholarship\u003C\/a\u003E at Colorado State University.\u0026nbsp; Sparling describes his late colleague, Richard Gay Israel, as \u0026ldquo;salt-of-the-earth and a natural leader.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAt Georgia Tech, Sparling expanded the study of health and exercise by establishing and directing the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/pwp.gatech.edu\/exercisephysiology\/\u0022\u003EExercise Physiology Laboratory\u003C\/a\u003E, developing \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/biosci.gatech.edu\/graduate\/phd-applied-physiology\u0022\u003Ethe Ph.D. program in applied physiology\u003C\/a\u003E, and advocating for the integration of behavioral science with biomedical science. For a decade, he served as chair of Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/researchintegrity.gatech.edu\/irb\u0022\u003EInstitutional Review Board\u003C\/a\u003E for the protection of human subjects in research.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESparling also had sabbatical experiences as a senior scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a Fulbright Scholar at University of Cape Town Medical School, in South Africa. In addition, Sparling was a leader in professional societies, including the American College of Sports Medicine and the Society of Behavioral Medicine.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u0026ldquo;I\u0026#39;m proud to have spent my career at Georgia Tech \u0026ndash; a top-notch institution with excellent students, staff, and faculty,\u0026rdquo; Sparling says.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to writing and reading, Sparling gardens and hikes with his wife, Phyllis, in the Georgia foothills where they live. They enjoy travel at home and abroad. And he continues to write columns to nudge folks to healthier ways and a fuller life.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Professor Emeritus Phil Sparling\u0027s newspaper columns are now a book of essays"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EProfessor Emeritus Phil Sparling\u0026#39;s first book of creative nonfiction explores the intersection of\u0026nbsp;sports, health, and life.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Professor Emeritus Phil Sparling\u0027s neswspaper columns are now a book of essays"}],"uid":"34651","created_gmt":"2018-05-03 13:30:51","changed_gmt":"2018-05-04 15:12:04","author":"mrosten3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2018-05-07T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2018-05-07T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"605783":{"id":"605783","type":"image","title":"The Sneakers in the Closet and Other Essays","body":null,"created":"1525354314","gmt_created":"2018-05-03 13:31:54","changed":"1525354314","gmt_changed":"2018-05-03 13:31:54","alt":"","file":{"fid":"231011","name":"sparling book.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sparling%20book.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sparling%20book.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":119726,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/sparling%20book.JPG?itok=KG7gXA5m"}},"605784":{"id":"605784","type":"image","title":"Phil Sparling and his wife, Phyllis","body":null,"created":"1525354781","gmt_created":"2018-05-03 13:39:41","changed":"1525438302","gmt_changed":"2018-05-04 12:51:42","alt":"","file":{"fid":"231014","name":"sparling.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sparling.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sparling.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":317388,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/sparling.jpg?itok=vNe6dUA5"}}},"media_ids":["605783","605784"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1275","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"categories":[{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"4896","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"177847","name":"creative nonfiction"},{"id":"1302","name":"book"},{"id":"7877","name":"Professor Emeritus"},{"id":"177848","name":"phil sparling"},{"id":"166882","name":"School of Biological Sciences"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA. Maureen Rouhi, Ph.D.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDirector of Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nCollege of Sciences\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["maureen.rouhi@cos.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}