He has been a tenured professor in the Department of Exercise Science and Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health since 2006.
[2][3] A 2005 New York Times article described Blair as "one of the nation's leading experts on the health benefits of exercise".
[4] Blair's awards include the American Heart Association's Population Science Research Prize, the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Bloomberg Manulife Prize from McGill University.
[5][6][7] In 2015, Blair came under scrutiny after the New York Times reported that he had received $3.5 million in research grants from the Coca-Cola Company since 2008.
$500,000 of this money was used by Blair to help establish the Global Energy Balance Network (GEBN), a non-profit organization which was criticized for attempting to downplay the contribution of soft drink consumption to obesity.