Hirofumi Tanaka

Hirofumi Tanaka is a Professor and the Director of the Cardiovascular Aging Research Laboratory and the program coordinator for the Exercise Physiology program at the University of Texas at Austin. He received a B.A. in physical education/martial arts at the International Budo (Martial Arts) University in Japan, a M.S. in human bioenergetics from Ball State University, and a Ph.D. in applied physiology from the University of Tennessee. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Tanaka's research interests revolve around vascular aging that manifests as the stiffening (hardening) of large elastic artery and vascular endothelial dysfunction. A variety of topics that encompass the physiological mechanism that mediate vascular aging, sequel or consequences of aging-related vascular dysfunction such as cognitive and cerebrovascular dysfunction, and lifestyle modifications that prevent and reverse vascular dysfunction with aging are being investigated in his research laboratory. Masters athletes or aging competitive athletes are often used as the model of successful aging. The experimental approaches are highly translational ranging from mechanistic studies in animal models to human clinical investigations to community-based studies in minority health in cardiovascular disease. He is currently involved in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study, the Jackson Heart Study, and the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study on Latinos. In more recent years, he is conducting global health research focusing on unique and exotic populations in the world including long neck Karen women in Thailand and female pearl divers in Japan.