Marco Cardinale

Professor Marco Cardinale is the Executive Director of Research and Scientific Support in Aspetar, the Qatar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital and an Honorary Associate Professor at UCL.

Before joining Aspetar, he was the Head of Sports Physiology and Research of Aspire Academy in Doha (Qatar). He also led the Sports Science activities for the preparation of Team GB at the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010, and London 2012 Olympic Games.

A former handball coach, he has been involved in coach education in various countries in strength and conditioning and exercise physiology. A widely published and cited author in the scientific literature on various aspects of human performance, he has also patented an innovative exercise device of a vibratory biofeedback system which received research awards from NEStech and the Design Council.

Professor Cardinale holds two honorary academic appointments one at University College London (UCL) in the Division of Surgical and Interventional Medicine and in the Department of Computer Science and one at the University of Plymouth.

He has been an advisor to various companies (e.g. Polar Electro, Medisport and Technogym), government agencies (e.g. the European Space Agency) and professional sport organizations and national governing bodies in four countries before moving to Qatar.

Professor Cardinale has been an invited speaker in scientific conferences and coaching clinics in 21 countries and has been an ad-hoc reviewer for over 15 scientific journals and various research councils. He was a member of the Research Excellence Framework panel in the unit of assessment 26 (Sports related studies) in the REF 2014. In 2011 he was awarded the honour of "Cavaliere dello sport pontino" by the Italian Olympic Committee for his services to international sports. In 2017, he obtained the national Habilitation to Full Professor by the Italian Ministry of Education in 06/N2 Science of Sport and Physical Activity.

Professor Cardinale holds a B.Sc. from ISEF in Italy, an M.Sc. from the US Sports Academy in the USA and a PhD from Semmelweis University in Hungary.