Rate My Professor Lizzie Zheng

Dr. Lizzie Zheng, also known as Huixin Zheng, is an early-career researcher in exercise physiology currently affiliated with the University of Otago's Wellington campus. Born in Kaifeng, China, she completed a Bachelor of Clinical Medicine at Henan University, where she developed a fascination for physiology, particularly the mechanisms by which the human body maintains homeostasis, including iron metabolism. In 2017, she moved to New Zealand to pursue postgraduate studies at Massey University's School of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition. Zheng earned her PhD in 2022 under the supervision of Associate Professor Toby Mündel, Dr. Claire Badenhorst, Professor James Cotter, and Professor Narihiko Kondo. Her thesis, "Factors Influencing the Exertional Heat Stress Response in Athletic Females," investigated female-specific physiological responses to exercise-heat stress. Key findings included that post-exercise iron regulation (via IL-6 and hepcidin) is unaffected by ambient temperature or menstrual phase in iron-sufficient athletic females; a 30-minute self-paced cycling protocol demonstrates high test-retest reliability (ICC=0.90) across environmental and hormonal conditions; and ovarian hormones like estrogen contribute minimally (4%) to peak core temperature variance, with baseline core temperature and power output as primary predictors.

At the University of Otago, Dr. Zheng holds multiple roles: Scientific Officer at the Centre for Translational Research, Clinical Physiologist at WellSleep, and Research Assistant on the CREBRF Women's Study in the Department of Medicine, which examines genetic protections against diabetes in Māori and Pasifika women. Her research specializations encompass thermoregulation, menstrual cycle influences on exercise performance and iron status, cutaneous vasodilation, and post-exercise hypotension. Notable publications include "Interactive effects of exercise intensity and recovery posture on post-exercise hypotension" (2024, American Journal of Physiology), "Do E₂ and P₄ contribute to the explained variance in core temperature response for trained women during exertional heat stress when metabolic rates are very high?" (2022, European Journal of Applied Physiology), "Measurement error of self-paced exercise performance in athletic women is not affected by ovulatory status or ambient environment" (2021, Journal of Applied Physiology), "Menstrual phase and ambient temperature do not influence iron regulation in the acute exercise period" (2021), and "Differences in dry-bulb temperature do not influence moderate-duration exercise performance in warm environments when vapor pressure is equivalent" (2020, Temperature). With 60 citations across 13 publications, her contributions advance sex-specific norms in sports science and environmental physiology.