Dr Donna Lu
Bachelor of Human Movement (UTS), 2015
Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Honours (UTS), 2016 (First Class)
Thesis Tite: External and Internal Workloads prior to Non-Contact Injuries in Professional Soccer Players
Doctor of Philosophy (Sports Science), 2020
Thesis Title: Injuries in Professional Soccer Leagues: examining the injury epidemiology and profile of medical provision, services and infrastructure within club medical departments.
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).
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- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Award $88,000 NCP Mobility Grant in 2025
I am an Accredited Exercise Scientist and Sports Scientist researching the prevalence of injury, illness and mental health problems in high-performance environments, including sports and emergency services. The outcomes of my research support large bodies in developing medical policy to ensure a minimum standard of health and well-being provisions.
My Research Supervision
I am currently open to supervising Honours projects.
My Teaching
I am experienced at developing and teaching Exercise Science curriculum for students in for all stages of tertiary degree learning. My teaching philosophy centers on the principle of lifelong learning. I believe that education is an ongoing process that extends beyond formal education. By fostering a growth mindset, creating inclusive learning environments, experimental learning, and with value placed on formative feedback, I aim to equip my students with the skills to be self-directed learners. Through this philosophy, I aspire to instill in my students a lifelong quest for personal and professional growth and knowledge acquisition.
My teaching profile can be found here.