Uniformed Services University Recognizes Renown DoD Nutritionist by Renaming Human Performance Lab in her Honor

Newswise — Bethesda, Md. — Dr. Patricia Deuster dedicated her 40-year career to the military and optimizing performance for the warfighter. Now, the Human Performance Lab (HPL) at the Uniformed Services University (USU) is dedicated to her. USU renamed the lab in her honor, and commemorated her service and the lab’s renaming with a ceremony Sept. 25. 

Deuster, who will soon be retiring, came to the HPL in 1982. It was designed to research factors that influence, enhance and/or counteract human health and operational performance. Over the years, it expanded its pillars to include education, leadership, and operational support. The HPL – now the Patricia A. Deuster Human Performance Lab – is fully equipped to study thermal and exercise stress, as well as the genetics associated with performance. Researchers in the lab have focused on a variety of issues within this scope, such as heat-related injuries like exertional rhabdomyolysis, dietary supplements, musculoskeletal injury prevention, spiritual performance, and nutrition environment. 

“This has been one of the most amazing experiences because building a team is everything,” Deuster said. “It’s been an amazing journey.” 

Throughout her career, Deuster made many contributions to the military, studying the role of physical activity, health and nutrition, and stress reactivity in health and disease as a function of gender, ethnicity, and body weight. She published more than 270 peer-reviewed papers on these topics, as well as on nutrition, human physiology, and human performance. As her career progressed, she became a leader and influencer of performance policy influencing the DoD and its initiatives. Among her many contributions to the military, Deuster developed Operation Supplement Safety (OPSS),which provides evidence-based information on the safe use of dietary supplements. She was also instrumental in advocating for the Warrior Heat- and Exertion-Related Events Collaborative (WHEC), dedicated to evidence-based care of exertional illness.  

Deuster was also a driving force in standing up USU’s Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP), which was established in 2007. She served as the inaugural director for more than a decade. In 2012, CHAMP was designated as a “Department of Defense Center of Excellence.” The Center has been a widely sought after resource for educational products, operational guidelines and health policies, focused primarily on maximizing deployability and expediting warfighters’ return to duty, as well as optimizing resilience and performance for military families. Her efforts have earned her numerous accolades, notably the Special Operations Medical Researcher Award, the Order of Military Medical Merit, and Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine. Most recently, she received the 2021 Military Health System Research Symposium Distinguished Service Award.

Deuster’s colleagues decided it would be fitting to name the HPL in her honor as she embarks on her retirement, as a token of gratitude for her decades of service, which have undoubtedly made a lasting impression on the Military Health System.

“Dr. Deuster has been the model of a researcher educator at USU, who has upheld the highest standards of ethical character,” said Dr. Fran O’Connor, professor of Military and Emergency Medicine at USU and CHAMP’s medical director. “Importantly, she has been the consummate team player and leader that has developed incredible talent through unparalleled mentorship of junior researchers and clinicians.  Those she has taught and mentored represent her true legacy.”

Stacey Zeno, director of USU Centers and Large Programs, shared similar sentiments, having managed the HPL from 2006 to 2016. 

“She is always teaching and mentoring her staff and students,” Zeno said. “She has left a lasting impression and inspired the next generation of human performance leaders.” 

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About the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences: The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, founded by an act of Congress in 1972, is the nation’s federal health sciences university and the academic heart of the Military Health System. USU students are primarily active-duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service who receive specialized education in tropical and infectious diseases, TBI and PTSD, disaster response and humanitarian assistance, global health, and acute trauma care. USU also has graduate programs in oral biology, biomedical sciences and public health committed to excellence in research. The University’s research program covers a wide range of areas important to both the military and public health. For more information about USU and its programs, visit www.usuhs.edu.