Alejandro Lucia

Professor

Alejandro Lucia is Professor of Exercise Physiology and Senior Researcher at Universidad Europea de Madrid (UEM), Spain. He holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Physiology, and previously served as Associate Professor at UEM.
His research focuses on building robust scientific evidence—through an integrative and holistic approach—on the preventive and often therapeutic effects of exercise across a wide range of conditions, including ageing. Throughout his career, he has demonstrated that individualized exercise prescription is a safe and effective strategy to improve health, well-being, and multiple physiological functions in patients with chronic and genetic diseases. He has led several innovative clinical trials in this field. His group also investigates the role of exercise in preclinical models, particularly in paediatric cancer.
He has been repeatedly recognized with major awards, including multiple Liberbank Prizes for Research in Sports Medicine (2015, 2016, 2018, 2024) and the Fundación Muy Interesante Award.
With an H-index of 88 (Scopus), over 37,500 citations, and approximately 820 peer‑reviewed publications, he is widely acknowledged for his multidisciplinary contributions to medical science. He has published in leading journals such as NEJM, The Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Lancet Healthy Longevity, JAMA, JAMA Cardiology, JAMA Internal Medicine, BMJ, Nature Medicine, Nature Reviews Immunology, Nature Reviews Cardiology, Nature Reviews Endocrinology, and Nature Communications. He emphasizes that he has earned authorship on all his publications, consistently declining honorary authorship.
He has been included in the Stanford 2023 Ranking of the top 2% of scientists worldwide in their respective fields.