By Professor Andrew Jones
Andrew M. Jones PhD DSc is Professor of Applied Physiology and Assistant Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research Quality and Impact at the University of Exeter. Andy’s research focuses on the physiological factors that limit oxygen uptake and determine exercise performance; the causes of exercise-related fatigue; and interventions – including training and nutrition – that can improve exercise tolerance. His lab uses a variety of invasive and non-invasive techniques to assess the integrated response of the respiratory, cardiovascular and muscle metabolic systems to different types of exercise. Andy has published more than 360 research articles, and these have received more than 50K citations. He is a Fellow of the Physiological Society, President-Elect of the European College of Sport Science, Editor-in-Chief of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, and a three-time REF panel member for UoA24. As a former elite runner, Andy is motivated to apply his research to help athletes enhance their performance, and he has served as a consultant to UK/England Athletics for 25 years.
We spoke to Andrew as part of our 150 voices of physiology series, about his career, his hopes for the future of physiology and his 2026 GL Brown Annual Public Prize Lecture.
My route to a career as a physiologist started on the athletics track at Chepstow comprehensive school. My P.E. teachers recognised some latent talent for middle-distance running and encouraged me to take it further. This gradually led to an obsession for understanding the physiological limitations to exercise, the adaptations that occur with training, and the nutritional and environmental factors that can influence performance. My natural academic pathway was therefore a degree in sports science; a PhD in exercise physiology and a postdoc in respiratory medicine followed.
Now, as Professor of Applied Physiology at the University of Exeter, I investigate limitations to the supply and utilisation of oxygen during exercise and the consequent effects on fatigue development and exercise tolerance. Because my research focuses on endurance exercise, I am especially interested in all things related to oxygen uptake (VO2), including: the determinants of VO2 max (the highest possible rate of O2 uptake); efficiency during submaximal exercise; metabolic thresholds (which determine whether or not a steady-state VO2 can be achieved); and VO2 kinetics (the speed with which the aerobic system can increase its activity following the start of exercise).
While my own running fell somewhat by the wayside (at least at the elite level), I have continued to be fascinated by the physiological factors that determine performance and have had the honour, alongside my research and teaching, to advise some of the best athletes on the planet on how they might further improve. I am particularly proud to have worked with former world marathon record holders, Paula Radcliffe and Eliud Kipchoge (the latter as part of Nike’s innovative ‘Breaking 2’ project). Working with top athletes remains a source of inspiration and I find my research and applied work to be entirely symbiotic. Despite advances in many other scientific fields, physiology remains the main factor that explains sports performance.
My first experience of the Physiological Society occurred in the early 1990s when my PhD supervisor took me and others to a symposium on human physiology in London. There were many top names, whose papers I’d read, in attendance and I found the cut-and-thrust of debate on the latest findings in respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic, and neuromuscular physiology to be intoxicating. I continue to appreciate the Society’s extensive scientific meeting programme and its support for young scientists, and the prestigious The Journal of Physiology remains the gold standard in terms of our lab’s publishing goals.
I am delighted to be named as the Society’s GL Brown Annual Public Prize Lecturer for 2026 and to have the opportunity to speak about the physiological underpinnings to breaking barriers in endurance sport. In addition to the (successful) quest to break the 2 hour barrier in the men’s marathon, I shall speculate on the potential for, and the rather different physiological challenges of, a women’s sub-4-minute mile. Unlike the marathon, which is supported almost entirely by oxidative metabolism, high-intensity middle-distance events also require a significant energy contribution from non-oxidative metabolism – and that is both more difficult for physiologists to measure and for athletes to develop.
The future for physiology is very bright indeed. Physiology is the science of life and what is more important than that? We are all interested in living our best lives for as long as possible – and our physiology is the key to health and physical function at all stages of our journey. While I intend to remain principally focused on the superlative physiology of elite athletes, understanding ‘normal’ human physiology provides the yardstick to enable medical treatments for pathophysiological conditions. Physiology represents the ultimate integrator of the biological sciences, and I believe its position on the frontiers of health and medicine will be even more widely appreciated in the future. My career in physiology has been deeply rewarding and has provided me with opportunities and experiences I would never have dreamt of when I started running round the school track all those years ago. I’ve learnt that, if you find something you love to study, your job never feels like work.