Korey Stringer Institute

In August 2001, Korey Stringer, a Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman, passed away from exertional heat stroke. During Korey’s five-year tenure in the NFL, he earned pro-bowl honors. Since the time of Korey’s death, his wife, Kelci, worked tirelessly to develop an exertional heat stroke prevention institute to honor her husband’s legacy. To that end, she joined forces with exertional heat stroke expert Douglas Casa, Ph.D, ATC at the University of Connecticut to make this dream a reality and the institute came to fruition in April 2010. The Korey Stringer Institute is housed at UConn's College of Agriculture Health, and Natural Resources where internationally recognized faculty from the Department of Kinesiology and external partners conduct cutting-edge research and harness preeminent expertise in the areas of heat and hydration, injury prevention, and strength and conditioning to make a difference for athletes, laborers, and warfighters everywhere. In October of 2025, the opening of a second KSI lab at the University of North Florida was announced. The new lab will be housed at Hicks Hall, where the lab will support student and faculty research at UNF and work with athletes, military and laborers in Jacksonville and Northeast Florida.