KINGSTON, R.I. – May 22, 2026 – University of Rhode Island Associate Professor Alessandra Adami received a Mid-career Research Achievement Award from the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Assembly of the American Thoracic Society.
A professor in the College of Health Sciences’ Department of Kinesiology since 2018, Adami leads the Integrative Human Physiology laboratory.
“Receiving this award from a panel of experts is certainly an honor and a source of motivation to continue my work,” said Adami. “The award also recognizes my decade of service to the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Assembly and to the American Thoracic Society, which provided early funding to establish my research agenda at URI and made it possible for students to train in my lab.”
The focus of Adami’s research is to understand why people with chronic lung diseases develop muscle dysfunction, preventing them from exercising and doing some of their favorite activities.
“Our goal is to find the cause of muscle impairment to develop better rehabilitation and exercise therapies to improve the quality of life of these patients,” said Adami.
Adami spent a sabbatical in Melbourne, Australia in spring 2025, where she trained under Anne Holland, professor of physiotherapy and head of the respiratory research at Monash University. Holland supported Adami’s nomination for the mid-career award.
“I have been privileged to work alongside Dr. Adami on American Thoracic Society activities for many years and as a visiting fellow in my laboratory,” wrote Holland. “I have always been highly impressed by her exemplary research contributions to the field and her stellar professional conduct. She was a highly valued and supportive member of our team during her visit.”
Adami has received federal funding for research projects specific to respiratory disease and pulmonary rehabilitation, including a four-year award from the National Institutes of Health to quantify the longitudinal changes in locomotor muscle function and determine the epigenetic and transcriptomic differences within skeletal muscle.
For the past eight years, Adami has been heavily involved in the activities of the American Thoracic Society and the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Assembly. She has been a member of the Assembly’s planning committee since 2023 and a liaison for the organization’s Ph.D. and basic translational science working group since 2020. Adami served as a faculty member for the American Thoracic Society’s New Faculty Boot Camp at its international conference last year and has been invited to attend again this year.