Peter Schantz

Peter Gösta Schantz, born in 28 April 1954 in Stockholm, Sweden, graduated as doctor in medical sciences at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm in 1986, became associate professor in human movement sciences at the University of Örebro in 2005, professor in human movement sciences at Mid-Sweden University in Östersund, Jämtland, in 2008, and professor in human biology, including the multidisciplinary field of movement, health and environment, at the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH, in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2013.[1]

Professor Peter Schantz, 2010

Schantz was recruited as PhD student by his teacher professor Per-Olof Åstrand at the Karolinska Institute. He got the basic training as researcher within the field of exercise physiology, primarily studying the adaptation in human skeletal muscle with physical training and detraining. Studies of 1500 km ski touring along the Swedish mountain range (Fjällmarsch TranTre, in 1978; which he initiated, organized and participated in [2]) and 800 km sledge pulling in the arctic parts of Scandinavia (The 1982 Minnesota Lappland Expedition, organized by Concordia College, Minnesota, USA) were included in his doctoral thesis ”Plasticity of human skeletal muscle: with special reference to effects of physical training on enzyme levels of the NADH shuttles and phenotypic expression of slow and fast isoforms of myofibrillar proteins” from 1986.[3]

In 2002 he proposed that the dogma formulated by the gymnasiarch Per Henrik Ling in the 19th century, “human movements should be based on the laws of the human organism” should have the following addendum: “and be executed in forms and under conditions that comply with the ecosystem and a sustainable development.”[4] He had by that time already expanded his research interests into the multidisciplinary field of physical activity, public health and sustainable development. An initial focus on issues related to outdoor life recreation in periurban green areas is mirrored in the books The National Urban Park – An Experiment in Sustainable Development (2002), The European City and Green Space (2006), and Forests, Trees and Human Health (2011).[5] His current research focus is on exercise physiology and active transportation. [6]

Schantz was involved as expert at the Swedish National Institute of Public Health (2009–2013), and was advisor for WHO in the development of the WHO Health Economic Assessment Tool (HEAT) for cycling and walking.[7] In 2016 he was awarded the prize of Samfundet S:t Erik.