Member Profile: Erick Mosquera
Erick was born in Ecuador where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. Later, Erick earned the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sports Nutrition Diploma and a Sports Nutrition master’s degree from Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). He is a Level 2 ISAK Anthropometrist and a UK anti-doping sports advisor. Currently, he works with athletes from the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) and LJMU in the high-performance program under the supervision of Dr Carl Langan-Evans. As a master’s student, Erick assisted in multiple research projects related to areas such as energy availability, substrate utilization, and body composition.
From his undergraduate degree years, Erick gained experience in the development of educational programs aimed at different age groups. In addition, Erick was a nutrition and dietetic intern at primary and secondary care hospitals. The experiences in the clinical area prompted him to develop as a sports nutritionist that aimed to help people prevent nontransmissible chronic diseases through nutrition and exercise. After completing his bachelor’s degree, Erick continued his education process with online courses and international conferences. Later, he began to study the IOC Sports Nutrition Diploma, which motivated him to venture to study for a postgraduate degree at LJMU.
His first work experience in sports nutrition was with CrossFit athletes. Over two years his commitment and dedication led Erick to work with various athletes from all over Ecuador. Furthermore, his learnings from his undergraduate years allowed him to create online nutrition courses for CrossFit athletes. In search of expanding his horizons of knowledge, Erick began to work with athletes from other disciplines such as soccer, cycling, triathlon, and mountaineering. Finally, when Erick arrived in Liverpool, he became part of a multidisciplinary team in the high-performance centre of LJMU.
Erick’s long-term goal is to develop the Ecuadorian Sports and Nutrition Institute for the development of athletes and sports-related practitioners. Furthermore, Erick aims to promote the willingness of new generations to develop sports-related research in Ecuador. Therefore, he is improving his skills as a researcher with the help of multiple mentors such as Dr Floris Wardenaar, Dr Jose Areta, Prof. Neil Chester, and Dr Carl Langan-Evans.
PINES Role
In 2021 Erick joined PINES as a sign of gratitude after obtaining a scholarship for the second year of the IOC Sports Nutrition Diploma. First, he joined PINES as a member and afterwards, he applied for the global representative position in Ecuador. As a representative, Erick translated to Spanish the South-African and Swedish food fact sheets. He also created the Ecuadorian food fact sheet, and now he is a member of the PINES Europe team alongside Nidia Rodriguez, Sarah Chantler, and Renata Altamirano.