Rate My Professor David Dunstan

Professor David Dunstan is Chair of Lifestyle and Diabetes at Deakin University and Head of the Baker–Deakin Department of Lifestyle and Diabetes. He also heads the Physical Activity laboratory at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute and serves as co-lead of the Obesity and Cardiometabolic Disease Program. His research examines the health risks associated with prolonged sedentary behaviour and the benefits of sit less, move more approaches in clinical, workplace and community settings, integrating epidemiology, mechanistic physiology, pragmatic trials and implementation science.

Over more than 28 years, Professor Dunstan has contributed to establishing sedentary behaviour as an independent risk factor for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature mortality, with findings incorporated into guidelines from the World Health Organization, the American Diabetes Association and the Australian Government. He has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed publications and holds a Scopus H-index of 98. He has been a Chief Investigator on numerous nationally and internationally funded studies and was recognised as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher from 2018 to 2022. His honours include an NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship, an ARC Future Fellowship and the Australian Institute of Policy and Science Young Tall Poppy Science Award. He currently serves as President of the Asia-Pacific Society for Physical Activity and has contributed to position statements such as the 2016 Physical Activity/Exercise and Diabetes Position Statement of the American Diabetes Association.