For two years, the Cold Plunge Research Institute Symposium was an invitation-only gathering of scientists, clinicians, and practitioners. This June, that changes. The 3rd Annual CPRI Symposium opens its doors to the public for the first time, making it the most accessible gathering on cold water immersion science ever organized in the United States. If you have been following the growing body of research on ice baths, cold plunges, and deliberate cold exposure, this is the event to put on your calendar.
The symposium runs June 26 through 28, 2026, at the Marriott Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona. Tickets are $1,277 per person for full two-day access. Public registration is capped at 80 participants, and the event has historically sold out. On-site ice baths will be available for registered attendees, and an optional tour of the Morozko Forge production studio in west Phoenix is included for those who want to see how professional-grade ice bath equipment is manufactured.
What Is the Cold Plunge Research Institute?
The Cold Plunge Research Institute was founded by Morozko Forge, the Phoenix-based manufacturer best known for producing ice baths that make their own ice using refrigeration and filtration systems. CPRI was created to fill a gap in the cold water immersion space: while practitioners, athletes, and biohackers have been evangelizing cold plunging for years, the science underpinning specific protocols, contraindications, and long-term outcomes has moved more slowly.
The institute’s annual symposium is not a trade show or a product expo. There are no vendor booths selling supplements or cold plunge units. The format is built around roundtable discussions, plenary presentations, and peer-to-peer knowledge exchange between people who are conducting research, treating patients, or managing their own health outcomes using cold water immersion.
The 2025 edition drew first responders, oncologists, military veterans, competitive athletes, and functional medicine practitioners. Presentations ranged from the use of ice baths to support testosterone recovery in firefighters with occupational injuries to the potential of cold water immersion as an adjunct therapy for cancer patients using naturopathic protocols. Video recordings from the 2025 event are available on the Morozko YouTube channel for anyone wanting a preview of the format and depth of discussion.
The 2026 Speaker Lineup
The keynote speakers for CPRI 2026 reflect the symposium’s dual focus on metabolic science and clinical practice.
Benjamin Bikman, PhD will deliver one of the keynote addresses. Bikman is a Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at Brigham Young University and one of the most prominent researchers working on insulin resistance. His book Why We Get Sick traces the metabolic origins of most chronic diseases back to impaired insulin signaling, and he has been vocal about his own ice bath practice, crediting regular cold immersion with improvements in testosterone and sleep quality. His talk at CPRI 2026 is expected to address the intersection of cold exposure and metabolic health, a topic he has explored in podcast appearances but has not previously presented at an academic symposium setting.
Nasha Winters, ND is the second keynote speaker. Winters is a naturopathic oncologist who survived stage 4 ovarian cancer at age 19 by abandoning conventional treatment in favor of radical dietary and lifestyle intervention. She later formalized that approach in her books The Metabolic Approach to Cancer and Mistletoe, and now treats cancer patients using metabolic therapies that target the mitochondrial dysfunction underlying tumor growth. Her presence at CPRI represents one of the first serious engagements between the cold plunge community and oncology, a relationship that is still being mapped by researchers studying how cold exposure affects inflammation, hormones, and cellular metabolism in cancer populations.
Thomas Seager, PhD will chair the symposium. Seager is an Associate Professor of Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University, CEO of Morozko Forge, and the author of Uncommon Cold and Uncommon Testosterone, two of the most scientifically rigorous books written on cold water immersion to date. He has personal experience using daily ice bath practice to reduce his prostate-specific antigen levels from a concerning 7 ng/mL to below 2 ng/mL.
The supporting speaker roster adds clinical and field-level depth to the academic keynotes:
- Paul Reynolds, PhD, a BYU Professor of Biology specializing in glycation, will present on how blood glucose spikes impair red blood cell function and cardiovascular health, with implications for cold therapy protocols.
- Holly Wyatt, MD, an obesity medicine physician and researcher at the University of Alabama Birmingham, will address weight management strategies for patients transitioning off GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic, drawing on potential synergies with cold exposure and metabolic activation.
- Kevin Fontaine, PhD, the Antoine Lavoisier Endowed Professor of Energetics and Healthy Lifestyle at the UAB School of Public Health, is currently leading a research program studying whether cold water immersion can reverse Type 2 diabetes. CPRI 2026 will be one of the first public presentations of this work.
- Sean Smiley, a California Fire Captain, will share his documented experience using cold plunge to restore testosterone after a training injury and manage the mental health consequences that followed.
- Dean Hall, a licensed family therapist who swam the full 188-mile length of the Willamette River in Oregon, will present on what he calls biowild psychology, a therapeutic approach grounded in his belief that the ordeal cured him of chronic leukemia.
- Adam Boyd, a former SWAT officer, will discuss how cold water immersion is being introduced into occupational wellness programs for law enforcement and firefighters in the American Southwest.
- Jacob Perkins, DC, a Utah chiropractor, and Andrea Romero, DOM, a doctor of oriental medicine, will share case studies from their clinical practices using cold water immersion alongside other naturopathic modalities, including one documented case of treating a multiple sclerosis patient.
Why This Symposium Is Different
The cold plunge industry has grown rapidly over the past five years, and with that growth has come a corresponding flood of marketing claims. Equipment manufacturers cite studies selectively. Influencers recommend protocols based on personal preference rather than peer-reviewed evidence. The gap between what the research actually supports and what gets promoted online has widened considerably.
CPRI exists to close that gap. The format is adversarial in the best scientific sense: speakers are expected to make claims and defend them in front of an audience that includes credentialed critics. The 2025 symposium produced concrete outputs including research agenda priorities, a framework for evaluating cold plunge marketing claims, and a policy brief on integrating cold water immersion into first responder wellness programs.
For the 2026 edition, the organizing focus is on cold water immersion as a potential intervention for chronic illness rooted in metabolic dysfunction. The thesis, articulated by Seager and Bikman, is that the epidemic of chronic illness driving stagnant U.S. life expectancy largely originates in insulin resistance and mitochondrial dysfunction, and that cold water immersion may offer a low-cost, accessible intervention that addresses these root causes in ways that pharmaceutical approaches have failed to.
Whether that thesis holds up to the scrutiny of 80 scientists, clinicians, and informed practitioners will be one of the more interesting things to come out of Phoenix this June.
Also Worth Noting: BEYOND Biohacking 2026
Two months before CPRI opens in Phoenix, Dave Asprey’s BEYOND Biohacking Conference will convene at The Fairmont Austin in Austin, Texas from May 27 through 29. Now in its 14th year, BEYOND is the largest general biohacking event in the United States and includes a Tech Playground with over 150 interactive exhibitors, among them cold plunge therapy demonstrations alongside red light therapy, PEMF, hyperbaric oxygen, and neurofeedback stations.
Confirmed speakers include Jay Shetty, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, Harvard happiness scientist Arthur Brooks, and former U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy on mental health. Cold plunge is one component of a broader program that spans metabolic health, longevity, hormones, and performance optimization.
BEYOND is a better starting point if you are new to biohacking and want broad exposure. CPRI is the right choice if cold water immersion specifically is your focus and you want to engage with the people doing the research and clinical work behind the practice.
Practical Details for CPRI 2026
The symposium runs Friday and Saturday, June 26 and 27, 2026, from 8:30 AM MST each day. Sunday, June 28, includes a half-day session running until noon. The venue is the Marriott Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel at 100 N 1st St, Phoenix, AZ 85004.
Registration is $1,277 per person and includes full access to all sessions across both days. Public spots are capped at 80 registrants. On-site ice baths will be provided, and participants can schedule a tour of the Morozko Forge production studio at 7150 W Roosevelt St in west Phoenix.
To register, visit morozkoforge.com/event-details/cpri-2026. For media inquiries, contact [email protected].
What Attendees Should Expect
Based on 2025 attendee accounts, CPRI is not a passive conference where you sit through slide presentations and collect business cards. The roundtable format expects participation. Speakers take questions from the room, and the audience, which has historically included PhD researchers, physicians, and clinicians, does not hesitate to push back on unsupported claims.
If you are a practitioner looking to incorporate cold water immersion into patient care, a researcher evaluating potential study designs, a wellness business owner trying to understand what the evidence actually supports, or someone managing your own metabolic health and wanting to engage with people at the frontier of the science, CPRI 2026 is worth the registration cost and the trip to Phoenix.
The cold plunge research ecosystem is still young. The studies are small, the protocols vary, and the mechanisms remain only partially understood. CPRI is one of the few places where that uncertainty is treated as a scientific problem to be solved rather than a marketing obstacle to be papered over.
For background on the protocols and science that will be discussed in Phoenix, the site’s articles on cold plunge temperature targets and the inflammation research behind cold water immersion provide useful reading before the event.