Priit Kaasik is new head of Institute of Sports Sciences and Physiotherapy

At its meeting on 23 September, the council of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Physiotherapy elected Professor of Functional Morphology Priit Kaasik, who had performed the tasks of acting head of institute, as the new head of institute.

Priit Kaasik, who was elected head of Institute of Sports Sciences and Physiotherapy, said that the current priority is developing studies and research and he wishes that the institute’s work could be applied more efficiently for the good of society. “The institute’s mission states that we are the leading centre of sports sciences in the Baltic region. The keywords which impose a challenge are cooperation and competition as well as quantity and quality, in both cases there has not developed the right balance in the context of everyday work,” said Kaasik.

“We intend to do great work on improving the quality of studies—curricula need to change with times and correspond to the needs of society. For example, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Research there are plans to change the curricula in general education schools so that physical education classes would promote physical activity and enjoying physical activity instead of putting young people off from doing sports. This in turn means that we need to modernise our curricula so that our graduates know how to conduct classes this way,” explained Kaasik.

Priit Kaasik was born in 1967. He graduated from UT master’s studies in 1992 and obtained a PhD in 2004 with the doctoral dissertation “Composition and turnover of myofibrillar proteins in volume - overtrained and glucocorticoid caused myopathic skeletal muscle“. In 2004–2013 Kaasik was Head of UT Institute of Sports Biology and Physiotherapy. In 2013 Kaasik was elected Dean of UT Faculty of Sports Sciences. As of 2013 Kaasik has been Professor of Functional Morphology at UT Faculty of Sports Sciences.

Professor Kaasik is a member of the European Physiological Society, the Estonian Olympic Academy, Baltic Laboratory Animal Science Association and board of the Estonian Basketball Association.

Dean Margus Lember appointed Professor Priit Kaasik head of Institute of Sports Sciences and Physiotherapy as of 26 September 2016.