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Personal profile

Biography

Dr Alan McCubbin works in the Department of Nutrition Dietetics & Food, Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University as a Senior Teaching Fellow. He is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian and Accredited Sports Dietitian, and in 2021 was awarded Fellowship of Sports Dietitians Australia for his combined research and education contributions to the profession.

Alan completed his PhD at Monash, focussing on the dietary sodium intake practices of endurance athletes, and the likely implications for health and performance during exercise. Since then he has continued work in defining the sodium requirements of endurance and ultra-endurance athletes before, during and after exercise. He has also contributed to other projects within the Sports Dietetics & Extremes Physiology team at the university, in areas including the impacts of nutrition and exercise on the gastrointestinal tract of athletes.

Alan is the course coordinator for Sports Dietitians Australia's Sports Nutrition Course, the qualification required for dietitians in Australia and New Zealand to become accredited in sports nutrition practice. He also works as a practitioner, primarily to endurance and ultra-endurance athletes, including a contracted dietitian role with Triathlon Australia's High Performance Program athletes based in Melbourne. He has regularly contibuted to several print and online media publications for cyclists, trail runners and triathlets in the past decade, and is the founder and co-host of a podcast dedicated to answering nutrition questions that runners, cyclists and triathletes commonly ask. Alan formerly competed at national and international level in sailing, and recreationally in endurance mountain biking.

Prior to Monash, Alan worked for over a decade in hospital management, including roles as General Manager of Quality and Performance at Austin Health, HARP Diabetes Coordinator at Austin Health and Melbourne GP Network, and has extensive experience in healthcare quality, safety and risk management, hospital ambulatory activity data collection and reporting, and management of hospital-based ambulatory chronic disease management programs.

Research interests

Alan's key research interests are in the physiology of water and sodium balance, and the impact this has on defining sodium and fluid requirements for optimising athlete health and performance. 

Monash teaching commitment

Alan currently works 2.5 days a week as a Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food. In this role he is a convenor for units covering nutrition, activity and health in chronic disease, and an overview of nutrients and human nutrition. 

Alan is also currently coordinating the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics & Food's implementation of the Digital Health Curriculum, being implemented across the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being

Research area keywords

  • sports nutrition
  • dietetics
  • hydration
  • sodium
  • thermoregulation
  • sports performance

Network

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