Dr Margarita Tsiros is a Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy. As a clinician, researcher and educator with more than 20 years experience in paediatrics, she is passionate about the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. Dr Tsiros is a co-director of UniSA’s IIMPACT in Health Research Concentration (Innovation, IMPlementation And Clinical Translation in Health). She is also a member of the ARENA Research Centre (Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity). Dr Tsiros is the past Chair of the SA Paediatric Group of the Australian Physiotherapy Association and remains an active member.
Margarita’s research strives to optimise the health, development and wellbeing of children and youth. She achieves this by conducting research that works with children, families, health professionals, health services, educators and the wider community. He main research focus is on helping kids to ‘move well’ and ‘move more’. Her research spans a range of paediatric topics and conditions, but she is particularly well known for her work in childhood overweight and obesity. She is a leading expert on the impact of overweight and obesity on children’s movement, function and wellbeing, providing insight into how we can set kids up for success in physical activity. She also conducts research exploring children’s play and other strategies to improve movement skills in children, including technology-enhanced therapeutic approaches. Her research publications have examined motor skills, quality of life, balance, strength, pain, cardiorespiratory fitness, physical activity, sedentary behaviours and activity participation. She has expertise in quantitative, qualitative, systematic reviews, scoping reviews and mixed methods research.
Dr Tsiros’ research has been formally recognised through many external awards. In 2022 she was awarded a Women’s Mid-career Excellence in Research Award by Healthy Development Adelaide. In 2019, she received a ‘Best Paper’ award in paediatric research at the Australian Physiotherapy Association National Conference. In 2016, she was named an AMP Tomorrow-maker, recognising her determination to have a positive impact on the community through her research. In 2015, she was a finalist for the Team Kids Young Investigator Award and in 2014 she received a Tall Poppy Science Award, recognising her extensive work engaging with the media, policy-makers, schools and community groups to promote healthy lifestyle behaviours relevant to tackling childhood obesity.
Dr Tsiros is an experienced research degree supervisor who strives to provide high-quality supervision and mentoring to assist students with their research, career development and overall wellbeing. She is also a Research Degree Coordinator for PhD and Masters by Research students.
Margarita course coordinates the Honours Research Stream (Health Science Honours Thesis), across 6 Allied Health Programs. She is also a course coordinator for the post graduate course Allied Health Research Evidence Translation. She has also been a course coordinator for the Physiotherapy with Children and Families courses, Health Science Honours Prep course and teaches into multiple courses across the graduate and undergraduate physiotherapy programs. In 2022 she received a Commendation for Sustained Excellence in Teaching and in 2017, she received a Team Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.
Dr Tsiros qualified with a PhD, Bachelor of Physiotherapy, Graduate Certificate in Research Methods and a Bachelor of Health Science (Honours).