Photo: UBCO

It took nine years, but it was worth it in the end.

Ryan Hoiland has been climbing mountains in pursuit of academic excellence for the past 9 years as he worked towards his PhD from UBCO's School of Health and Exercise Sciences.

Not only did he accomplish his goal but he also earned the Governor General’s Gold Medal awarded for top academic achievement along the way.

The award presented annually to the graduate student with the highest academic achievement. Hoiland has been at UBC Okanagan for nine years, earning three degrees: Bachelor of Human Kinetics, Master of Science, and finally his PhD.

Hoiland’s goal has been to research and understand how the human body adapts to low oxygen levels.

“When people experience low oxygen—either at high-altitude or perhaps through illness— the brain works to increase the amount of blood it receives to maintain a stable supply of oxygen. Failure to do so can end in catastrophic consequences and neurological injury,” he explains.

Hoiland has studied at high-altitude labs in Peru, California and Nepal and became hooked on the field after working with Professor Phil Ainslie as part of an international research team near Mt. Everest Base Camp.

“After that, I was hooked,” says Hoiland of the experience that satisfied his innate sense of curiosity.

Much of Hoiland’s PhD work investigated high-altitude natives, like the Sherpa, who have lived in this low oxygen environment over thousands of years to determine if they possess unique evolutionary adaptations.

“Despite similarly low-oxygen levels in the blood, the Sherpa, who have lived at high-altitude for more than 25,000 years, had a lower oxygen supply to the brain,” he says. “This suggests that their brains may have evolved to be more resistant to low oxygen levels. Future investigation into how and why these differences exist may provide us valuable information that will help us better understand how the brain responds to low oxygen levels in certain clinical populations.”

Hoiland’s research could have practical applications for medicine—especially people living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). An earlier PhD study demonstrated that oxygen therapy in COPD patients may reduce the risk of dementia by improving the health of blood vessels in the brain.

“This particular aspect of brain and neurovascular function is extremely important, with impaired neurovascular function implicated in the development and progression of diseases such as dementia,” says Hoiland. “This improvement in oxygen supply to the brain and neurovascular function might provide a physiological link between oxygen therapy and a reduced risk of certain brain diseases for people with COPD."

Ainslie, the Canadian Research Chair in Cerebral Vascular Physiology, describes Hoiland as an exceptionally enthusiastic and driven researcher.

“I have been working in the field of cerebral vascular physiology for more than 15 years and cannot express how impressive Ryan was as a doctoral student,” says Ainslie.

“Overall, out of the last 40 doctoral students I have supervised or co-supervised, Ryan has proven to be the best all-around at research and has continued to improve his abilities at an astounding rate.”