A Charles Sturt University (CSU) PhD student has won two awards for his research presentations at the recent national Sports Medicine Australia conference in Canberra.

Mr Craig McNulty, a student at the CSU School of Human Movement Studies in Bathurst, delivered presentations about his research into how working muscles use oxygen.

The title of his co-authored paper is 'Influence of increment magnitude to VO2 kinetics, time to steady state and muscle oxygenation'.

Mr McNulty was selected as one of 31 for a pre-judging presentation session on Thursday 16 October and won the John Sutton Award for Best New Investigator for Exercise and Sports Science with a financial award of $2 000. He was then selected to compete for the best five presentations of the conference in the Asics Best of the Best session, and was awarded $3 000 to support future international presentations.

"My research so far is based around the current theories and processing methods that surround oxygen uptake kinetics, or rather how the working muscle uses oxygen, specifically in steady-state exercise – that is, set pace cycling, running etc," Mr McNulty said.

"This area has been under investigation for a bit over a century now, yet the processing methods have never been properly validated. Recent evidence against this method from research after the late 1980s has been seen in published papers here and there, which have led us to the conclusion that current methods may in fact not be accurate.

"My study set out to examine the current methods in processing, as well as incorporate a completely new method, which our data has led us to conclude is a far more accurate processing method. A number of other findings were also discovered in our data, involving blood oxygenation / de-oxygenation, as well as muscle motor unit recruitment (activation of working muscle)."

Mr McNulty said the real world significance of this work, now and in the future, is to pave the way for a better assessment and diagnosis tool for both athletes and patients.

"As for the awards, as a novice researcher the entire process from Abstract entry to the conference, to the final awards judging, was extremely educational and inspiring," Mr McNulty said.

"From both ends of the spectrum, having the opportunity to listen to the presentations of some of the top academics in their field, as well as being a young researcher on the podium, was a surreal experience.

"I was looking forward to leaving the conference a little more knowledgeable, but having taken home this award on top of that has shown me a side of academic appreciation that is given to young researchers, not just those with already distinguished careers.

"The award itself is a fantastic push forward. It is very stimulating to know that there are many others, both well-known or new to research, who showed a great interest in what I have spent my last couple of years working on."

Professor Robert Robergs, the Research Professor in Exercise Science at the CSU School of Human Movement Studies, who is Mr McNulty's supervisor and a co-author of the study, said this was an outstanding result for the young CSU researcher.