Kinesiology doctoral student receives Auburn Distinguished Dissertation Award

Mason McIntosh, a doctoral student in Auburn University’s School of Kinesiology, was selected as one of the winners of the 2025-2026 Auburn University Graduate School Distinguished Dissertation Awards. His dissertation, “The synergistic effects of dietary nitrate and 12 weeks of resistance training on skeletal muscle and vascular function in middle-aged and older adults,” was selected by a committee for its significant contribution to the discipline and its methodological and substantive quality.

“In regard to me receiving this award, I have to give glory to God first for putting me in this position,” McIntosh said. “I am humbled to be selected by the committee to be recognized for my dissertation. It was a privilege to be able to complete this study and work with the participants who were enrolled in the study. To be recognized for a project which I am this passionate about is icing on the cake and a testament to my diligent team of mentors and lab mates whom I'm surrounded by that allowed me to complete this work.”

McIntosh is a graduate research assistant in the Nutrabolt Applied and Molecular Physiology Lab where he works under the mentorship of Professor Michael Roberts. As a researcher, he has studied nutritional and training interventions to increase muscular hypertrophy.

“Mason earned this award through incredibly hard work over more than a two-year period,” Roberts said. “From study conception to data collection to data analysis and writing, Mason performed brilliantly. Likewise, he wrote grants to secure funds for this dissertation. The findings from his study will be published in a high-end physiology journal, and that publication will be one of the landmark papers that help put our lab on the worldwide map of high-end exercise science research.”

McIntosh said he is lucky to call Roberts a mentor.

“This is something I remember to not take for granted. Working with him daily is one thing, but it's another reminder of how fortunate I am when I have traveled to conferences and I introduce myself as Dr. Mike Roberts's student, and I automatically receive reverence in response along with being told how they wish they could complete their PhD under Dr. Roberts.”

As an incoming doctoral student, McIntosh was selected for the prestigious National Institutes of Health Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement, or NIH G-RISE, Fellowship at Auburn University, which has provided a $25,833 stipend, per academic year. Roberts nominated him for that fellowship.”

He was also a recipient of the Auburn University Presidential Graduate Fellowship in the amount of $15,000 for the 2021-2022 academic year. Additionally, he received a Porter Physiology Development Fellowship ($28,300 stipend) from the American Physiological Society for his fourth year of doctoral work which provided him with funding to complete his dissertation work.

“My time at Auburn has exceeded every expectation,” McIntosh said. “I arrived to Auburn bright-eyed and bushy tailed and did not know what I did not know. My direction for research and life is much clearer. Auburn University has been a place where I've been able to foster lasting relationships and develop research skills while feeling fortunate to have the opportunity to work tirelessly en route to achieving goals I set out for myself.”

McIntosh plans to defend his dissertation in July. Following graduation, he plans to begin as a postdoctoral researcher at Arizona State University in Stavros Kavouras's Hydration Science Lab.