Brain health of youth football players focus of Science Cafe

Thayne Munce, PhD, will discuss "The First Down Project: A Decade of Youth Football Health & Safety Research" at the Sept. 21 Science Café.

Dr. Munce is the director of the Athletic Health and Performance Lab and an assistant scientist in the Environmental Influences on Health & Disease Group at Sanford Research with Sanford Health, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He also is an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine.

To ensure social distancing, the virtual Science Café will be offered via Facebook Live and begin at 10 a.m. Viewers do not need a Facebook account to view the livestream.

Dr. Munce’s research encompasses several areas of athletic health and performance with the goal of generating evidence-based knowledge that can inform practical applications on the playing field and in the clinic. 

A primary focus of his work is the First Down Project, which is dedicated to improving the health, safety and performance of football players through innovative, high-impact research. The seminal work of the First Down Project is a multi-year study investigating head impact exposure and brain health in youth football players.

Additionally, Dr. Munce and his team perform health, safety and performance research targeting a variety of other sports, including mixed martial arts, basketball and track and field.

Finally, as an applied sport scientist, Dr. Munce has worked with numerous youth, collegiate and professional athletes by providing elite testing services and performance consultations.

Science Cafés involve a face-to-face conversation with an expert about current science topics. Each meeting is organized around an interesting topic of conversation. Experts give a brief presentation followed by a Q&A period.