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Massey University is funding a Doctoral Scholarship named after Olympic athletics legend Peter Snell.
The Peter Snell Doctoral Scholarship in Public Health and Exercise Science is aimed at people doing research that will benefit New Zealanders' health and wellbeing, the university said.
It will include payment of doctoral fees and a stipend.
"The idea behind this scholarship is to develop research capability at the interface between exercise science and public health," Dr Steve Stannard of the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health said.
The basic premise is to learn how best to use science in combating the nation's expanding waistlines.
Areas which could be explored include the relationships between body fat distribution, physical fitness, and the risk of cardiovascular disease or type-two diabetes.
Dr Snell is an Associate Professor with a close association with the university.
In May, Massey awarded him an honorary doctorate for his research into human health and fitness in the United States.
Dr Stannard said one of the benefits of the scholarship was the potential to spend time in Dr Snell's own laboratory at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre.
Dr Snell is researching in Texas the interaction between physical activity, body composition and health status.
Dr Snell won three Olympic gold medals - one in 1960 at Rome and two at the 1964 Tokyo Games - and two golds at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth.
He broke multiple world records, one of which - for the mile on a grass track - still stands.
- NZPA
