© The American Physiological Society - Porter Physiology Development Committee

One of the first tasks of the strategic planning group was to propose revisions to the Porter Physiology Development Committee charge. It has been more than 10 years since the committee charge has been updated, and the current charge does not reflect the committee's activities. In addition, the committee proposes adding a trainee member to the committee, particularly one of the second year Porter fellows; a second year fellow would have no conflict of interest in the selection process for the fellowship because s/he is in the final year of the fellowship. The committee proposes the following updated charge:

Porter Physiology Development Committee
(Established 1952)

This committee is composed of at least seven members of the Society, including a trainee member who is a second-year Porter Fellow at the time of the appointment. The committee has co-chairpersons. The Society's Director of Education Programs and Director of Finance are ex officio members of the Committee, without vote.

The purpose of the Porter Physiology Development Program is to stimulate and support the development of minority students engaged in graduate study in physiology. In addition, the program provides assistance in the improvement of American departments of physiology in minority-serving institutions.

Duties of the Porter Physiology Development Program Committee are to:

oversee the Porter Physiology Development program, including the definition of its objectives and selection criteria, assessment of its effectiveness, selection of awardees, oversight of the Porter Physiology Development fund, and provision of annual written reports to Council and the William Townsend Porter Foundation;

rank applications of minority students to the APS Minority Travel Fellows Program, which are collated by the Director of Education Programs;

coordinate career development activities for minority physiology students, especially Porter Fellows and Minority Travel Fellows;

monitor the status of minorities in APS and promote the participation of minority physiologists in Society activities and governance;

counsel physiology departments in American minority-serving institutions on curriculum and other improvements;

develop new programs to promote diversity in physiology; and

assist the Society in soliciting outside funds for support of the APS minority programs.

In 2006-2007, the program provided funding for nine fellows. This is a larger number than typical, thanks to additional one-time funds provided by the Porter Foundation in 2005. Fellows provided their annual progress reports to the APS in August 2007.

New and Renewal Applications: This was the second year that only one deadline was in effect for the Porter Fellowships. The number of new applications received for Porter Fellowships continues to increase. A total of 13 new and one renewal applications were submitted to the new online award application system for the January 15 deadline. The Committee again noted the increase in quality of applications being received. The stipend paid to the Porter Fellows for 2007-2008 will be $20,772, consistent with the NIH scale. This meant the Porter Fund allowed for a total of eight awards for 2007-2008. Funds were available for four new awardees and one renewal.

In March 2007, The Porter Physiology Development Committee Fund had a budget of $242,963. During 2006, the fund received the following contributions: $75,000 from the William Townsend Porter Foundation, $40,000 from the APS, $20,000 from Merck Foundation, $305 in private contributions, $9,708 from interest revenue and $6 from miscellaneous income. In April, one of the fellows informed the Education Office that he had accepted another fellowship and would be returning part of the funds from his award ($13,848). Given the remaining commitments for 2006-2007 Porter Fellows of $24,235 (as of June 4, 2007), the fund has a balance of $245,179 for new fellowships and activities, including the APS annual endowment contribution of $40,000. The Committee expresses its sincere appreciation for the continued support of both the William Townsend Porter Foundation and the APS Council that makes these fellowships possible.

As a result of the strategic planning meeting held in February, the committee plans to implement a number of enhancements to the Porter fellowship program. The goal of these enhancements is to increase the overall impact of the fellowship on the student's career and their long-term interactions with the APS. Currently, fellows’ primary interactions with the APS are: submitting their annual report, receiving their stipend payments, becoming a member if they wish to apply for a second year of funding, and receiving the biweekly minority physiologists listserv messages. There is no requirement for fellows to attend EB or present their research at an APS meeting. The fellow's annual reports serve as the only formative evaluation mechanism for the program. The fellows are asked to participate in a longitudinal survey. That is done every three to four years.

2007 Travel Awards: Eight travel fellows received funding to attend the two fall APS conferences in 2006. In January 2007, the Committee selected 33 travel fellows to attend EB 2007 in Washington, D.C. Five additional travel fellows will receive funding to attend the summer 2007 APS conference on “Sex and Gender in Cardiovascular-Renal Physiology and Pathophysiology.” Again this year, the Committee was pleased that former Porter Fellows and past Travel Fellows volunteered to be mentors for the younger Travel Fellows. Committee members noted the increase in minority physiologists as a direct result of the APS programs.

Porter Reception: For the past several years, the Committee has held a reception for Travel Fellows, their meeting mentors, and past and current Porter and Travel Fellows. This was initiated with the goal of building stronger connections between minority students and the larger community of APS scientists, especially other minority scientists. The Porter reception again this year was extremely successful with an increase in attendance; more than 60 physiologists, overall, attended the event. A number of Council members, including the APS President, Dale Benos, past President, Doug Eaton, and incoming President, Hannah Carey, were on hand to meet the students and welcome them to the meeting. Importantly, the reception continued for more than two hours as participants interacted and networked with one another. In addition a number of former Porter Fellows attended. Given the success of the reception, the Porter Committee plans to continue this event.

Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) Awards:This meeting attracts approximately 2,600 individuals, including 1,650 minority undergraduate (64%) and 280 graduate students (11%), 30 postdoctoral scientists, 750 faculty and administrators across the country and provides an opportunity to recruit students into the physiological sciences and the APS. The APS, along with more than 280 graduate institutions and professional associations, exhibited at the 2006 meeting in Anaheim, CA, promoting graduate study in physiology and the APS programs for minority students. The APS provided $2,000 for eight $250 cash awards for the most outstanding undergraduate presentations in physiology research. Twenty-five judges, including APS members, Kothapa N. Chetty, Grambling State Univ., Cary W. Cooper, Univ. of Texas Medical Branch, Scott Diamond, Univ. of Kentucky College of Medicine, Latanya Hammonds-Odie, Spelman College, Irving G. Joshua, Univ. of Louisville, Evangeline Motley-Johnson, Meharry Medical College, Nancy Pelaez, California State Univ., Fullerton, and Roy L. Sutliff, Emory Univ./Atlanta VA Medical Center, selected the winners:

The APS K-12 Minority Outreach Fellowship seeks to foster communication between minority graduate and postdoctoral students and middle/high school minority life sciences students. The program capitalizes on the relationships that the NIDDK Minority Travel Fellows Program and Porter Physiology Fellowship program builds with minority graduate and postdoctoral students and the relationships that the Frontiers in Physiology program builds with minority middle/high school teachers. Program activities include year-long outreach fellowships for senior graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to visit K-12 classrooms, help conduct teacher professional development workshops, and attend scientific meetings. The first K-12 Outreach Fellow was Mesia M. Steed, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Univ. of Louisville.

For 2007-2008, two K-12 Outreach Fellows were selected: Jessica A. Clark, Department of Surgery, Washington Univ. School of Medicine, and Clintoria Richards-Williams, Department of Physiology & Biophysics, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham. Both Clark and Richards-Williams are past Porter fellows.

2007 Porter Physiology Development Committee Report