IPS President's 2000 Annual Meeting Report

The fifth annual meeting of the Iowa Physiological Society (IPS) was held on April 21st and 22nd at the Hotel Fort Des Moines in Des Moines, Iowa in conjunction with a meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science (IAS). The meeting is held jointly with both organizations in order to provide greater opportunities for scientific discussion, collaboration and camaraderie. Additionally, because of the membership structure of these two organizations, this concurrent meeting allows for teachers and researchers at various educational levels (high school through university) to elaborate on the diversity of Iowa research (anthropology through zoology) and contemplate and coordinate like research concerns, efforts and programs (evolution through murine genetics). As expected, our organizations have prospered scientifically in this joint effort.

Twelve posters were presented at this year’s meeting ranging in topic from “VEGF receptor expression” to “sympathetic neuronal actions of angiotensin” and “clinical use of enalaprilat in resuscitation.” Abstracts were made available on the IPS web site prior to the meeting (The Iowa Physiological Society). Previewing sessions of all posters were held on both days of the meeting with designated attendance times of each poster author in order to stimulate discussion. With a manageable sixty-three attendees at the formal section program on Saturday, April 22, authors were allowed ten minutes to present their research and the ensuing discussion was often lively and informative. Over the last few years, we find this presentation approach to be very helpful in communicating the research findings and facilitating discussion.

Through a generous Lectureship Award from the American Physiological Society, our meeting highlight was the Key-Note presentation by Dr. Curt Sigmund, Associate Professor from the Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa in Iowa City where he is also the Director of the University’s Transgenic Animal Facility. Dr. Sigmund presented his state-of-the-art lecture to an audience of seventy-four on “Genetics and Physiology in Mice: A Perfect Marriage,” in which he touched upon the basics and the complexities in the development of transgenic and knock-out animal models used in his research program’s investigation of such cardiovascular problems as blood-pressure control by the renin-angiotensin system. Only a few days prior to our chapter meeting, Dr. Sigmund delivered the 2000 Bowditch Lecture at the American Physiological Society Meeting in San Diego, California.

Separate business meetings of the IPS and the Physiology Section of the IAS were held on Saturday, April 22 (the IPS President also serves as Chair of the IAS Physiology Section) prior to the joint IPS/IAS poster session. Committee reports were heard and elections for the new IPS president-elect were chosen and the election for the treasurer position was held. The new President of the Iowa Physiological Society is Piper Wall, Ph.D., DVM (Staff Scientist, Surgical Education Dept., Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines, IA 50309); her e-mail address is wallp0@ihs.org. Our treasurer is Mark Chapleau, Ph.D. (Internal Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242); his e-mail is mark-chapleau@uiowa.edu. Our president-elect is Thomas J. Schmidt, Ph.D. (Professor, Physiology and Biophysics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242); his e-mail is thomas-schmidt@uiowa.edu.

The sixth annual meeting of the IPS will again be held in conjunction with the 113^th Annual Meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science and will take place April 20-21, 2001 at the Hotel Ft. Des Moines (http://www.hotelfortdm.com/) in Des Moines, IA. Our Scientific Sessions will be merged with those for the 34^th Annual Meeting of the Academy’s Physiology Section. There will be opportunity for both oral and poster papers. Further details will be available in late 2000 and early 2001 on our chapter web site (http://www.the-aps.org/chapters/iowa/).