Whitley Atkins, PhD

Whitley Atkins is an Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico. She received her doctorate in Exercise Science from the University of Arkansas after completing her dissertation focused on the effects of oral contraceptive use on thermoregulation and hydration. After her graduate studies, she continued her research in thermal physiology as a post-doctoral fellow in the Thermal and Vascular Physiology Lab at the Institute for Exercise and Environmental medicine in Dallas, TX. She has done several studies focused on the physiological demands of marathon running, occupational heat stress, best cooling modalities to alleviate thermal stress and rapid cooling techniques post-exertional heat illness. The primary focus of her research is to understand the relation between biological sex and environmental physiology. Further, she has a special interest in field studies as she believes that science strongly benefits from data collected outside of a laboratory setting.