University of Massachusetts Scholar Recognized for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Actigraphy

Patty Freedson, professor emerita of kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ActiGraph Digital Data Summit 2022 in Pensacola Beach, Florida. ActiGraph presented the award in recognition of her “immeasurable contributions to the field of actigraphy.” Actigraphy is a field of research that uses wearable devices to assess sleep disorders and physical activity. Dr. Freedon’s NIH-funded research focused on developing and validating methods for estimating physical activity and sedentary behavior from wearable accelerometers.

“I was honored to receive this award from Actigraph,” said Dr. Freedson. “Our university-industry partnership over 25 years was one of the most meaningful and impactful relationships I had at UMass. Our research calibrating their wearable devices to translate sensor signals into measures of physical activity has been extremely useful to their clinical trial work with the pharmaceutical industry.”

Dr. Freedson retired in 2016 after serving as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for 35 years, including 10 years in which she served as chair of the department of kinesiology. She is the founding editor of the Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour.