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2006 International Physiology Committee Report
The International Physiology committee met during
Experimental Biology to discuss strategies relevant to the proposed
Strategic Plan developed by the leadership of APS during the fall on 2005.
It was considered by the committee that active development of programs was
required to implement some of the goals established pertaining to growth and
diversification of APS. Among initiatives that are proposed is an increase
in membership of the International Committee by two active members to target
representation from Latin America. In addition, representation from the
leadership of both the Latin American Physiological Society and the
Federation of European Physiological Societies in the committee is
envisioned as a positive strategy to strengthen communication and foster
International participation in APS activities. Additional initiatives that
are proposed to engage and retain active international participation in APS
activities are the inclusion of their participation in section-sponsored
symposia. Ultimately, the goal of the committee is to implement an
International Committee sponsored symposium at EB. This would create a
forum in which scientific presentations from outstanding international
scientists would be an integral part of the program at EB. We think this
would encourage more active participation of our international members in
our scientific meetings. This initiative is being proposed in parallel to
establishing representation of the International Committee on the Joint
Program Committee to facilitate and increase active participation of APS
international members at meeting.
In addition to ensuring that scientific programming
increases international APS representation in future meetings, it has become
evident that we, as US-based APS, need to become ambassadors for our
visiting international members. We all can reach out to make the experience
of visiting international members and their integration during the EB
meeting a memorable experience. The goal of our committee is to develop a
mechanism that would allow pairing in a buddy system visiting international
members with US scientists based on common section affiliation. This would
maximize the experience and would provide the international member an
opportunity of experiencing the meeting from the US perspective. While some
of these initiatives need to be spearheaded by the APS leadership, some will
require the active participation of the membership at large.
A successful program developed by the International
Committee is that of the Latin American Initiative. This program provides
funds in total of $5,000 to help defray costs for up to four scientific
symposium or workshops to enhance the growth and development of physiology
in Latin American countries. This year, seven outstanding proposals were
received for consideration. Of these, four were selected and recommended for
funding. These include: 1) Centro de Estudios Científicos de Chile; Summer
School of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics Electrophysiology &
fluorescence imaging in physiology. This course was organized by Ramon
Rogelio Latorre, and Felipe Barros. 2) International symposium of
neuroendocrinology: “Neuroendocrine control of body fluid homeostasis: past,
present and future” This course was organized by Jose Antunes-Rodrigues,
Faculty of Medicine Ribeirao Preto, Department of Physiology, Ribeirao Preto,
Brazil. 3) “Molecular tools for the study of integrative physiology”
organized by Willis K. Sampson, St. Louis Univ. School of Med.
Pharmacological & Physiological Sciences, MO and Carmen Clapp, UNAM,
Juriquilla, Mexico. 4) VII International Conference on Comparative
Physiology and Biochemistry ICCPB. “Integrative Physiology meets
Biodiversity”, organized by Jose E. Bicudo, Instituto De Biociencias Rao Do
Matao, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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