Adam W. Kiefer

Adam Kiefer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where co-directs the Simulation, Training, Analytics and Rehabilitation (STAR) Heel Performance Laboratory.

Adam’s research takes a complex systems approach to both performance enhancement and injury prevention in sport. He integrates portable technologies with artificial intelligence (AI) to improve training and clinical outcomes. His expertise in behavioral dynamics and AI provides an innovative approach to measuring, modeling and analyzing the complexity of healthy and pathological human performance in a variety of contexts. His most recent work is focused on modeling athlete phenomics and phenotypic plasticity in the context of athlete health.

Adam has published over 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals that have been cited nearly 600 times and secured over $6 million in funding to support his research. He has also presented as an invited speaker at national and international conferences, including meetings hosted by FC Barcelona, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Thomas J. Watson Research Center at IBM. Adam is a co-inventor on two sports technology patents and is the co-founder and CEO of Elipsys LLC, a sports technology company. In October of 2021, Adam was granted full membership into the Scientific Research Honor Society, Sigma Xi.

Adam earned his Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cincinnati in 2009, after which he trained as a post-doctoral research associate at Brown University until 2013. Prior to his Ph.D., Adam received a Master of Science in Movement Science from Barry University in 2005 and a Bachelor of Science in Exercise and Sport Science from the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse in 2003. Prior to his arrival at UNC in 2019, Adam served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and as the Director of Research Education in the Division of Sports Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.