The Road Traveled
His career from athlete to educator evolved while earning his PhD in Biomechanics from the University of Maryland. There, as a graduate student and instructor, his research included conceptualizing an innovative tennis racquet that featured a unique handle grip designed specifically to combat tennis elbow. Between 1972 and 1975, as an Associate Professor at the University of Texas, Odessa, he developed a resistance system for sprinters, as well as a pneumatic javelin launcher that enabled him and his colleagues to study the aerodynamics and ballistics of competition javelins. The javelin design used at world class field events today are based on this research.
However, it was not until employment as a full tenured Professor at the University of Alberta in 1977, that Juris’ research began in earnest for what was to become the Xiser stepping machine. The first prototype followed soon thereafter, and in 1980 Xiser Industries was founded. Although the US patent for the stepper was not filed until 1983, it is this patent that sparked the development of every stepping machine found in gyms around the world, and for every portable stepper that has ever glanced the market. Due to flimsy patent laws, Juris would not see any of the profit or recognition as the originator of what quickly became one of the most popular and effective forms of indoor cardiovascular fitness equipment. Unable to compete with corporate money and the sudden influx of stepping machines from various manufacturers, he turned his energy and focus into creating a stepper for home use and travel that is inarguably the most durable, lightweight, and compact of any in production today.
Additional Achievements and Research
1966 – 68, Coached high school basketball team to Quebec Provincial Championship.
1965, 1966 & 1968, Coached high school track team to Quebec Provincial Championship.
1973 – 75, Director, Research Center for Leisure and Sports, University of Texas.
1973 – 76, Director, Biomechanics Research for all Athletic Events, Montreal Olympic Games.
1973 – Present, Consultant to elite athletes using Biomechanics Research Methods to help coaches and athletes improve performance and safety conditions.
1975 – 81, Full Professor, University of Alberta; developed the first Biomechanics PhD program in Canada.
1975 – 78, President, Third International Symposium of Biomechanics in Swimming.
1976 & 1980, Director and Coordinator of Biomechanics Research at the Olympic Games.
1976 – 78, President, International Symposium of Science in Athletics.
1977 – 78, President, International Symposium of Biomechanics Cinematography & Science in Gymnastics
1980, NASA, Representative for Biomechanics; Committee Member for Motion Picture and Video Systems in a Space Environment; set guidelines for motion requirements on the Space Shuttle and other carry on space vehicles.
1980, Founded Xiser Industries.
1981 – 87, Director, Research Center for Sports, San Diego, California.
1982, Visiting Professor to seven Universities in Africa, sponsored by Department of State.
1985, Visiting Professor, University of Stuttgart, Germany.
1987 – 90, Department Head of Sports Sciences at Colorado State University, Ft. Collins; responsible for elevating their undergraduate program’s national ranking to number one and more than doubling their student enrollment.
Consultant, International Amateur Athletic Federation, London, England; biomechanics of athletics.
Consultant, Royal Dutch Athletic Federation; sports injuries and the elite athlete.
Consultant, United States Olympic Committee.
Consultant, Ektelon Corporation, San Diego, California; racquets and racquetballs and their stress on joints of elite athletes.
Consultant, US Track Coaches Association; track performance and safety standards in coaching and performance.
Consultant, Coaching Association of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; biomechanics of elite performance and performance safety.
Consultant, Federation of Canadian Archers, Inc; biomechanical factors of archery and bow/arrow behavior.
Consultant, Commonwealth Games Foundation, Edmonton, Canada; biomechanics of elite performance and injury prevention.
Consultant, American Athletic Equipment Division, Jefferson, Iowa.
Consultant, Accles & Pollack Ltd., Oldbury, England; athletic equipment.
Consultant, Photo-Sonics Inc., Burbank, California; development of biomechanical instrumentation.
Consultant, Instrumentation Marketing Corp., Burbank, California; development of high speed videography for biomechanics.
Consultant, South African Sports Association for the Physically Disabled; biomechanics of performance safety.
Penned 17 books on Biomechanics.
Published 34 research articles in national and international journals.
Presented 68 research papers at national and international conferences.
Other patents pending beneath the Xiser Industries umbrella include biomechanically correct walking shoes, four variable resistance cardiovascular machines, and a solar sea water desalination process and apparatus.