Stuart McGill is Distinguished Professor Emeritus (after 32 years at the University of Waterloo, Canada) who authored over 240 scientific journal papers, 4 books, and mentored over 40 graduate students during this scientific journey. Investigations in the laboratory, training centre and back pain experimental research clinic probed back injury and pain mechanisms, rehabilitation approaches, and performance training. As a consultant, he has provided expertise on low back injury to various government agencies, many corporations and legal firms and hundreds of professional/international athletes and teams worldwide. He is regularly referred special patient cases from the international medical community for opinion. Many of the athlete clients have returned set records and win international competitions in many sports.

His contributions are summarized in his books: Back Mechanic, written for the lay public with pain (also in 20 languages); Low Back Disorders, third edition (2016), written for clinicians; Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance, 2017, written for coaches and athletes; Gift of Injury (2018), a manual for rehabilitating the back-injured strength athlete.

His work has been recognized with many awards included the Order of Canada (2020) for international leadership in back pain issues.