Dr Donna Lu

Dr Donna Lu is a Lecturer in Exercise Science in the School of Health Sciences specialising in sports injury epidemiology, longitudinal injury surveillance, and athlete health in high-performance environments. Her research focuses on understanding injury and illness patterns in elite sport—particularly professional football—through epidemiological methods, including the design and implementation of longitudinal surveillance systems to track health outcomes over time. She has contributed to international consensus statements on injury data reporting and has examined key factors affecting athlete wellbeing, including workload, travel, fatigue, environmental stress, and mental health. Her work extends beyond sport into occupational health, investigating fatigue, heat stress, and recovery in emergency service personnel. With a strong applied and translational focus, her research aims to inform evidence-based policy, medical standards, and injury prevention strategies across both sporting organisations and high-risk occupations.

Donna is an ESSA Accredited Exercise Scientist and an Accredited Sports Scientist (Level 1).