Professor Receives Scholarly Contribution Award

July 30, 2015

Dr. Jiabei Zhang, Professor in Special (Adapted) Physical Education at the Department of Human Performance and Health Education, received a Scholarly Contribution Award in the 2015 Annual Summer Conference of National Consortium for Physical Education for Individuals with Disabilities. The award was presented in recognition of his distinguished record of productivity in refereed journals of national and international significance. 

Since he has been employed at Western Michigan University, he has authored 46 research articles and 52 research abstracts in professional journals. He has given 88 presentations at professional conferences around the world. His publications and presentations have systematically been directed toward specific questions that help advance knowledge in physical education for individuals with disabilities, especially a series of his research articles focusing on the quantitative estimation of the need for additional special (adapted) physical education teachers, which have been extensively cited in federal grant proposals by special (adapted) physical education professionals.

In addition, he has been active in grant writing. Over paste ten years, he has received $2.3 million federal grants from the US Department of Education. These grants have been used to prepare qualified special (adapted) physical education teachers, create the first online master’s degree program in special (adapted) physical education in the world, and develop the integrated sport activity program for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Dr. Zhang does deserve to receive this Scholarly Contribution award!