Honorary Members

Professor Lees enjoyed a long career in the Sports Science at Liverpool John Moores University specialising in biomechanics. He was appointed Head of Department in 1992, Professor of Sports Biomechanics in 1995, and Deputy Director of the Research Institute of Sports Biomechanics and Exercise Science in 1999. He has been Emeritus Professor of Sports Biomechanics since 2011. He is currently involved in supporting current staff and students in the Research Institute and has a role as Associate Editor for the International Journal of Racket Sports Science. He has contributed to 15 books, and published over 120 peer review journal papers.

Professor Lees, along with Professor Tom Reilly, was one of the instigators of the World Racket Sports Science Congress movement. This grew out of a wider movement in the 1980’s (World Congresses of Science and Sport) which aimed to provide an outlet for the ever increasing interest and research in the Sports Sciences. The first of these Congresses was in 1987 and focussed on football. This was so successful that other sports were invited to make their contribution and in 1993 the first ever World Racket Sports Science Congress was held in Liverpool, UK organised by Professors Lees and Reilly. An important requirement of the Congress was to ensure that research contributions were made available to other researchers and so the tradition of ‘edited proceedings’ began with the publication in 1995 of the book titled ‘Science and Racket Sports’. This was repeated every 4 years and resulted in World Congress 2 (Liverpool, UK, 1997), World Congress 3 (Paris, France, 2003), World Congress 4 (Madrid, Spain, 2006), World Congress 5 (Suzhou, China, 2015), World Congress 6 (Bangkok, Thailand, 2018). It is an honour to be associated with WRSSC 7 after almost 30 years of the World Racket Sports Science Congress Congresses. That the movement is going from strength to strength is a reflection of the tremendous growth and interest in the application of science to racket sports, and the commitment and dedication of the organisers of the Congresses.

Professor Engebretsen is currently the Professor Emeritus of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Oslo University Clinic and stepped down Dec 31 2024 as Head of Medical Sciences in the International Olympic Committee.

Professor Engebretsen has published over 600 international articles and book chapters, with a citation index (H-index) of 144. He is among the world's most productive in clinical, epidemiological and basic science research in the areas of general sports medicine, knee ligaments, cartilage and prevention of sports injuries and illnesses.

He has received research grants and awards from many agencies and associations, including the National Institutes of Health, the Norwegian Council for Research in Science and Humanities, the Norwegian Ministry of Health, the American Orthopedic Society of Sports Medicine (AOSSM) and the International Olympic Committee. He and his group have won several research awards around the world, and he was inducted into the AOSSM Hall of Fame in July 2015 and became an ESSKA Honorary member in 2016 and ISAKOS Honorary member in 2017 and EFFORT Honorary member in 2022. He received the Nordic Prize in Medicine in 2016.

Engebretsen is involved with three research groups: Knee ligaments together with May Arna Risberg in Oslo and Robert Laprade in Vail, Colorado, now in Minnesota, the Oslo Sports Trauma Research Center co-chaired with professor Roald Bahr and emphasizing prevention of injuries and diseases in sports, and the Oslo Cartilage Group, which encompasses research from the cell to rehab after surgery, involving molecular biologists, pathologists, radiologists, physiotherapists and orthopedic surgeons. The Engebretsen group were just awarded 12 million Nor Kroner for OA research.