The prize recognises the best research paper presented and defended at the conference from a scientist early in their career (up to 2 years post PhD).
Tamara, who was one of over 600 young researchers partaking in the competition, has won for her work titled: “Motor unit behaviour adjustments differ during intermittent and sustained isometric knee extension tasks to failure”.
Her work investigates how our central nervous system works to preserve muscle performance as our muscles are fatiguing. Understanding this is important to improve muscle performance in athletic populations, as well as in clinical populations where fatigue is a prevalent symptom.
Her supervisor Dr Jakob Skarabot explained: “In winning this award, Tamara has shown rigorous experimental design, great presenting skills, and the ability to defend her work in response to questioning from a scientific committee.
“This award is a sign that Loughborough has outstanding environment, infrastructure and the research team in place to perform world-leading work in the area of neuromuscular physiology and rehabilitation.”
After receiving the award, Tamara said: “I feel incredibly honoured and, of course, very happy to have won the YIA at this year’s ECSS.
“Having the opportunity to present this project on the international sport science stage was a great privilege and receiving such recognition for it from the community gives me great motivation to continue working on my research in this field.
On her future plans, Tamara continued: “As a second-year doctoral researcher I am currently focusing on my PhD research, which is looking into mechanisms contributing to persistent weakness of knee muscles in individuals after anterior cruciate ligament rupture and reconstruction.
“Alongside my PhD, Dr Škarabot and I also continue to work on the project presented at the ECSS congress as we hope to publish this work in near future.”
To find out more about Tamara’s research, visit her profile on the SSEHS International Women's Day 2023 website. More information about the Young Investigator Award can be found on the ECSS website here.