Rate My Professor Jim Cotter

University of Otago

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5.04/23/2026

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About Jim

Professor Jim Cotter is a Professor in the School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Otago. He obtained his BSc in Physiology in 1987, BPhEd with Distinction in 1988, and MPhEd with Distinction in 1992, all from the University of Otago. He completed his PhD in Environmental Physiology at the University of Wollongong in 1998. Cotter's career includes a lectureship at the University of Wollongong in 1997 and three years as a Research Scientist in the Australian Defence Science & Technology Organisation from 1998 to 2001, investigating human tolerance and adaptation under adverse ergonomic and environmental conditions. He joined the University of Otago as a Lecturer from 2001 to 2006 before advancing to his current professorial position.

Cotter researches and teaches in exercise and environmental physiology in health and performance contexts. His academic interests encompass the importance of exercise stressors for health- and performance-related fitness adaptations, particularly the separate and interactive roles and dose-response relations of stresses such as heat, hypoxia, and hypohydration; the extent to which environmental stressors can supplement or replace exercise conditioning; and thermoregulatory, cerebrovascular, and cardiovascular control and tolerance under heat, hydrative, or orthostatic stress, along with strategies to reduce physiological strain. Techniques in his projects include measurements of body temperature, sweat rate and composition, whole-body, brain, and limb perfusion, blood volume and composition, respiratory function, perceived status, work performance, blood glucose, and plasma concentrations of cytokines, fluid-regulatory and stress hormones, and oxidative stress markers. Funding has come from Lottery Health NZ, IOC Medical Commission, ITU, FINA, NZ Academy of Sport, SPARC, Otago Medical Research Foundation, NZ Rugby Union, Otago University, and industry. Key publications include Maximizing cellular adaptation to endurance exercise in skeletal muscle (Cell Metabolism, 2018, with Hawley et al.); Heat and dehydration additively enhance cardiovascular outcomes following orthostatically-stressful calisthenics exercise (Frontiers in Physiology, 2017, with Akerman et al.); Independent and interactive effects of incremental heat strain, orthostatic stress, and mild hypohydration on cerebral perfusion (American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative & Comparative Physiology, 2018, with Lucas et al.); Similar metabolic response to lower- versus upper-body interval exercise or endurance exercise (Metabolism, 2017, with Francois et al.); and Influence of menstrual phase and arid vs. humid heat stress on autonomic and behavioural thermoregulation during exercise in trained but unacclimated women (Journal of Physiology, 2017, with Lei et al.). He teaches SPEX102 Principles of Exercise for Health and Performance, SPEX203 Exercise Physiology, and SPEX303 Exercise Energetics and Physiology.