Biography
Emerson Sebastião is an Assistant Professor in physical activity and health in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Before joining the KCH department at Illinois as a faculty, he spent 5 years at NIU. He received his Bachelor’s in Physical Education and a Master’s degree in Human Movement Sciences from the São Paulo State University – Rio Claro, Brazil and earned a PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois in 2015. His doctoral dissertation looked at physical activity, aging, health disparities, and public health with a focus on older African American women. Emerson also completed a postdoctoral training in rehabilitation sciences in the Exercise Neuroscience Research Laboratory in 2016 where he conducted research in topics related to exercise in people with multiple sclerosis. Since 2020, he serves as associate editor for the Brazilian Journal of Physical Activity and Health, and the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. Emerson’s research focuses on topics investigating factors influencing physical activity participation, health consequences of physical activity, and the effects of interventions to improve physical activity, physical and neuropsychological function, and quality of life, with a particular interest in older adults and people with multiple sclerosis.
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Health and Kinesiology
Recent Publications
Bakare, J. O., Choi, S., Aguiñaga, S., Wang, Z., & Sebastião, E. (2025). Domain-Specific Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in Older Adults With Mobility Disability Risk Residing in a Continuing Care Retirement Community: A Cross-Sectional Study. Journal of Aging Research, 2025(1), Article 7436862. https://doi.org/10.1155/jare/7436862
Choi, S., Chen, J., Sebastião, E., Aguiñaga, S., & Haegele, J. (2025). Codesigning a Home-Based Exercise Program With and for People With Visual Impairments: A Needs Assessment. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, 42(2), 173-192. https://doi.org/10.1123/apaq.2024-0045
Connors, B. R., Camic, C. L., Jagim, A. R., Hill, C. M., Sebastião, E., Chomentowski, P. J., Kowal, R. A., & de Leon, M. F. (2025). Acute Effects of a Multi-Ingredient Preworkout Supplement on Peak Torque and Muscle Excitation During an Isokinetic Fatigue Protocol. Sports, 13(11), Article 404. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports13110404
Cordeiro, J. F. C., dos Santos, A. P., Bohn, L., Sebastião, E., Marchiori, G. F., Gomide, E. B. G., Castro-Piñero, J., Florindo, A. A., Mota, J., & Machado, D. R. L. (2025). Exploring the relationship between daily sedentary time and occurrence of multimorbidity in middle-aged and older adults: results from ELSI-Brazil. Archives of Public Health, 83(1), Article 84. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13690-024-01469-0
Gu, X., Gupta, P., Liu, J., Zhou, H., Cisto, B., Khan, M. A., Mason, S., Motl, R., Sebastiao, E., & Hernandez, M. E. (2025). INTELLIGENT SQUARE STEPPING EXERCISE SYSTEM FOR COGNITIVE-MOTOR REHABILITATION IN OLDER ADULTS WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS. In Proceedings of the 2025 Design of Medical Devices Conference, DMD 2025 Article V001T03A004 (Proceedings of the 2025 Design of Medical Devices Conference, DMD 2025). American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). https://doi.org/10.1115/DMD2025-1050