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2002 Porter Physiology Development Committee Report
During the EB meeting the Porter Physiology Development Committee hosted
a reception for travel fellows and their mentors and past and current Porter
Fellows with the goal of building stronger connections between minority
students and the larger community of APS scientists, especially minority
scientists. The reception was very successful with approximately 100 people
in attendance. Importantly, the reception continued for more than two hours
as participants interacted and networked with one another. The Porter
Committee requested continued funding of this event.
The Committee served as the review panel for the APS Minority Travel
Fellowship Awards. Forty-seven travel fellows were funded to attend EB 2002.
Fourteen additional travel fellowships were awarded for the two APS
conferences.
Chairs of the Minority Affairs Committees of FASEB societies met at EB
2001 to discuss ways in which the committees could work to increase the
participation and visibility of minority scientists at EB meetings. To this
end a joint symposium was proposed entitled, “Genomics: A Unified Approach
to Solving Diverse Problems in Health and Disease,” that was held at EB 2002
supported by FASEB/MARC program. The symposium was an outstanding success
and drew a very diverse audience that exceeded the capacity of the room.
The annual meeting of the Porter Physiology Development Committee was
also held during EB 2002. The following agenda items were discussed at the
meeting: implementation of action items approved by APS Council last year,
the impact of the approved increase in stipend level ($15,000 to $18,000)
and allowing fellowship supplements from other sources, possible revision of
the application process and application deadlines, generating new sources of
revenue to support committee goals, and review of fellowship applications.
As of March 31, 2002, the Porter Physiology Development Committee Fund
had funds available of $142,147. During 2001, the fund received
contributions of $14,500 from Merck, $62,805 from the William Townsend
Porter Foundation, $40,000 from APS, $1,610 in private contributions, and
$6,204 in interest income.
A goal of the Porter Committee has been to increase the applicant pool.
To this end the Committee last year recommended and received approval for an
increase in stipend level and the lifting of the restriction preventing
supplementation of the stipend from other sources. These changes were
recommended so that the Porter Fellowship would be more inline with NIH
guidelines for pre-doctoral fellowship awards, thereby making the Porter
fellowship more attractive.
The Committee noted a significant increase in the number applications
received. The number of new applications from the January ‘02 deadline rose
from four to nine. However, these changes have also reduced the total number
of Porter awards available, and, presently, funds are not sufficient to fund
all meritorious applications. In addition, given the NIH recommendation of
an increase in predoctoral stipends to $26,573 by 2006, the number of Porter
fellowships available will decline if the Porter stipend level is to keep
pace with these changes. Thus, there is an urgent need to raise additional
funds to support Committee goals.
Presently, there are two application deadlines for Porter Fellowships,
January 15 and June 15. The January 15 deadline primarily serves renewal
applications and applications from predoctoral students currently in their
programs. The June 15 deadline serves predoctoral students who have an
unanticipated need or incoming predoctoral students for the fall. This year,
the Committee received more new fellowship applications in June than in
previous years. Given the funding available (enough for eight-nine
fellowships), several meritorious applications were not approved because of
limited funding. The decision was made to defer some funding decisions so
that there would be sufficient funds available for awards for the June 2002
applicant pool. Similarly, the designation of the Merck and Ison-Franklin
fellows was also deferred to include the June awardees. In the future, the
Committee may need to reconsider the Porter Fellowship application deadlines
in an attempt to alleviate this problem.
The Porter Physiology Development Committee reviewed four renewal
applications and nine new applications from the January 15, 2002 application
deadline. All of the renewal applicants were awarded second year
fellowships. Three new fellowships were awarded; decisions for three were
deferred until the June cycle, and the remaining three were not approved.
Deferred applicants were informed that their applications would be reviewed
with the June applications. Deferred applicants were also invited to
revise/update their applications prior to the June 15 deadline.
The new 2001 Porter Physiology Development Fellows are Rashad Belin,
third year PhD student, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University
of Illinois at Chicago; mentor: P. de Tombe; Becky Marquez, fourth year PhD
student, Department of Physiology, Cornell University; mentor: Susan Suarez;
Nivalda Rodrigues-Pinguet, fourth year PhD student, Division of Biomedical
Sciences, University of California, Riverside, and Department of Biology,
California Institute for Technology; mentor: Henry Lester. The renewing
Porter Fellows are Maurice Williams, fourth year PhD student, Department of
Integrative Physiology, University of North Texas Health Science Center at
Forth Worth; mentor: Patricia A Gwirtz; Carmen Padro, fourth year PhD
student, Department of Physiology, University of Puerto Rico; mentor: Miguel
Rivera; Wendy Brisbon, third year PhD student, Department of Anatomy and
Physiology, Meharry Medical College; mentor: John T. Clark; Jorge
Gonzalez-Perez, second year PhD student, Department of Pharmacology,
University of Puerto Rico; mentor: M. Crespo.
Final reports were received from Marcelo Febo-Vega, PhD expected 2002,
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Puerto Rico School of
Medicine, mentor: Annabell Segarra; Annelyn Torres-Reveron, PhD candidate,
Department of Physiology, Ponce School of Medicine; mentor: Gregory Quirk;
Sonia Houston, PhD completed, Department of Physiology, University of
Missouri-Columbia; mentor: Virginia Huxely; Lisa Hernandez, PhD candidate,
Department of Physiology, University of California-Davis; mentor: Saul
Schaefer.
The progress reports from the 2001-2002 Porter Fellows clearly attest to
the Fellows’ high level of achievement. The Committee expresses great pride
in the role the Society has played in the development of these outstanding
young scientists and its continued support of this goal.
Pamela J. Gunter-Smith, Co-Chair
Council Actions
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Council accepted the report of the Porter Physiology
Development Committee.
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Council endorsed the idea of providing additional funding
pending receipt of matching funds from the Porter Foundation.
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Council approved the idea of using APS members local to the
New Orleans area to be judges at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference
for Minority Students.
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Council approved funding for a reception for current and
former Porter Fellows and Minority Travel Fellows at EB 2003.
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