Dr. Puterman is a health psychologist and assistant professor in the School of Kinesiology, in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Physiology from McGill University and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Concordia University. He earned his Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of British Columbia and completed his post-doctorate training at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Puterman’s research investigates how habitual physical activity moderates the effects of stress on common health indicators like body mass index, and on more novel precursors of disease, including immune cell aging.
His current work examines the effects of single bouts of exercise of varying intensities, durations, and modalities on psychological and biological responses to acute psychosocial stressors manipulated in the lab or experienced on a daily basis. He is also investigating the associations between movement behaviours (i.e. physical activity, sedentariness, and sleep patterns) and markers of biological (i.e. cellular aging, omic profiling) and socioemotional health in children with and without obesity across the socioeconomic gradient. He is developing a program of research to investigate whether a long-term exercise intervention can “reprogram” Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) reactivity to daily and laboratory acute stressors in adults suffering from PTSD and whether these changes affect the gut microbiome, previously shown to be altered in those suffering from PTSD.
