Researcher Interview: Dr. Michael Brunet

1. Please briefly describe your current research. 

My current area of research is in the realm of eating disorders in the physically active and the physiological implications that follow.  

2 How did you come to be in this area of study? 

I personally battled with an eating disorder and I wanted to know more about the pathology and educate others about it.  There is a notion that all people who have eating disorders are anorexic but this simply is not the case.  It is a disease that can stem from so many different things resulting in a mindset that sometimes cannot be reversed.  I have dealt with so many athletes who battle pathological eating patterns but are scared to say anything about it in fear that they may be looked at differently or benched.  My clinical research tried to sensitize those in this realm to the prevalence and consequences in order to initiate a dialogue.  This in turn which would create a safe environment for both the physically active and coaches to discuss in an open forum without fear of repercussion.  

3. What do like best about doing research? 

I personally like conducting research because you get to see information that no one else does and you get to see it first.  In other words, when you are active in research you get to see the answers to the investigative questions before anyone else does and that makes you, even for a brief moment, the expert on the given topic.  And that is very cool! 

4. What do you dislike the most about doing research? 

The component that I dislike most about the process is time.  The amount of time that it takes to get from the initial research question to the answer and the time that it takes to publish the process.  Some investigators never get the answer that they are looking for even after a lifetime of work and this can be a big deterrent to even begin a new project.    

5. Advice for new researchers who would like to be published? 

The best advice that I can give a new researcher is to be patient and resilient.  Let truth, transparency, rigor and resilience guide your research.  Every protocol will have its issues but being persistent and staying true to the initial research question should provide the route to discovery.  Sometimes the best researchers are not the ones that are smarter, but the ones that simply won’t walk away from the project.  Look at it this way, if it were easy everyone would be doing it!