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Crystal Ball Series

The study of human variability became a passion

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 76, pages 631–636 (2022)Cite this article

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Before I developed a passion for the investigation of the complex network of factors contributing to human variability in physiology and metabolism, individual differences observed in the research I was involved in were considered noise that could not be made to disappear. My path from this early prejudice against human variation to my subsequent passion for research on the complex, multifactorial paths at the origin of human variability was a decade long journey. It started at Université Laval (Québec City, Canada) with undergraduate studies in education (with a major in physical education), followed by a Master of Science in exercise science at the University of Oregon where I began to develop a true interest for science. At 23 years of age, it became clear that research and the scientific paradigms were in my future. Unfortunately, I had not yet been able to come to a firm conclusion regarding the area of biology that I wanted to focus on for my career. This led me to Cologne, Germany, where I spent 1.5 years at the Institut für Kreislaufforschung und Sportmedizin of the Deutsche Sporthochschule with Prof. Wildor Hollmann, my first mentor. I was exposed to observational and experimental research on exercise and cardiovascular and respiratory physiology, and I gained experience in the planning and conduct of human experimental studies. I also launched my first research project which dealt with physical working capacity and cardiovascular physiology in children and adolescents from 8 to 18 years of age. Thereafter I returned to my alma mater (Université Laval) where I was offered a teaching position with the assurance that I would be able to leave with financial support to pursue a doctoral program of my choosing after 3 years. I became deeply involved in the implementation of a new program of studies, the construction of a new building, the creation of a new laboratory focused on the biology of exercise, and early research projects such that these 3 years became 9 years in the end.

This delay turned out to be a blessing in disguise. If I had started a doctoral program immediately after my postgraduate work in Cologne, I would have focused on cardiovascular physiology. Several years later, I would have opted for endocrinology and adaptation to exercise. However, after 9 years, when the time came to define my field of study, select a mentor and an institution, I had reached the conclusion that I could probably make more of a contribution if I was focusing on genetics and human variability. It was truly the right choice for me as was the choice of Prof. Robert M. Malina (Department of Anthropology), my second mentor, and the doctoral program in human physical growth and population genetics at the University of Texas at Austin. This was followed by a year with P. Arto Demirjian at the Centre de Recherche sur la Croissance, Université de Montreal, where I was exposed to a longitudinal study on the growth and development of children. I obtained my PhD in 1977 and returned to a research and teaching position at Université Laval. I was a late bloomer, and it took me almost 15 years to complete my journey in higher education systems across three countries and five institutions. I owe a great deal of gratitude to my two primary mentors, Prof. Wildor Hollmann and Prof. Robert Malina. They played critical roles in the transformation of my interest in exercise science into a passion for the study of the foundation of human variability in adaptive processes.

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Fig. 1: Response patterns to dietary and exercise interventions in pairs of MZ twins.
Fig. 2: Familial aggregation of the age and sex-adjusted VO2max changes with the exercise program in the sample of families of European descent.

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  • 13 August 2021

    The title Crystal Ball Series was inserted.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to colleagues, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, technicians, and research associates who have contributed to my research over decades. I would also like to recognize the contributions of twins, family members, and other participants who volunteered for our studies. My research over the last 50 years has been primarily funded by the Medical Research Council of Canada, the National Institutes of Health of the USA, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Fonds pour la Recherche en Santé du Québec, and the Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et la Recherche du Québec. I also owe a great deal of gratitude to Université Laval and Pennington Biomedical Research Center, the institutions where I was encouraged to pursue my interest in science.

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  1. Boyd Professor & John W. Barton Sr. Chair in Genetics and Nutrition, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University System, Baton Rouge, LA, 70808, USA

    Claude Bouchard

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Correspondence to Claude Bouchard.

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Bouchard, C. The study of human variability became a passion. Eur J Clin Nutr 76, 631–636 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-021-00871-z

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