2006 Trainee Advisory Committee Report
This report provides summaries of Trainee Advisory
Committee activities for the past year.
National Postdoctoral Association
Several members of the TAC have memberships and are
active in the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA). In addition, APS
continues to be a Sponsoring Society member of the NPA. In March 2006, the
NPA asked APS for comments on a proposed document entitled “Recommended
Postdoctoral Practices and Policies for Professional and Disciplinary
Societies.” A draft response was written and sent to members of the TAC for
comment. Based on those comments, APS was able to send a response along with
a letter from President Doug Eaton on short notice.
TAC Trainee Survey
In 2004, the TAC conducted a Trainee Survey to
determine what each segment of APS trainees (graduate students, postdoctoral
fellows, new investigators) saw as important issues that the Society could
begin to address. The results of that survey have been directing many of the
Committee’s activities these past two years. They have been shared with the
APS Council, provided valuable input at the Strategic Planning Meeting, and
have been shared with the Education, Careers in Physiology, Women in
Physiology, and Porter Physiology Development Committees, as well as with
the APS Membership and Marketing Departments. The TAC feels it is important
to re-survey trainees every three to four years to ensure Committee efforts
are on target for trainees at the various stages of their careers. The
report on the first survey results will be published this year in The
Physiologist.
Trainee Advisory Committee Symposium, Experimental
Biology 2006
The first Trainee Symposium was co-organized by Rudy
Ortiz and Ryan Bavis and held at EB 2006. TAC member Sean Stocker was one of
the speakers at the session entitled “Transition from Postdoc to Jr.
Faculty: Surviving the Initial Years.” The session was very well attended
and the presentations received very high ratings from the participants, as
indicated by the feedback results below.
The 2007 Trainee Symposium will be titled “Multiple
Career Paths for a Physiologist: Understand Your Options and How to Get
There.” It is being organized by Erica Wehrwein, Jennifer Pluznick, and Sean
Stocker. The TAC will coordinate with the Women in Physiology and Career
Opportunities in Physiology Committees, as both of those Committees would
like to plan complimentary sessions in coming years.
Trainee Email Newsletter
The TAC sends out a trainee email newsletter to keep
all interested trainees advised of relevant APS and other news, notice of
award opportunities, postdoctoral position openings, articles of special
interest to trainees, etc. Milton Hamblin and Sean Stocker work with APS
staff to develop the content, ensure the newsletter comes out on a monthly
basis, and provide content relevant to the Committee charge. Originally the
newsletter was issued every two months, but the subcommittee decided that
the general-style newsletter was too long to be effective. They proposed
using topic newsletters to make them easier to read and prepare. The
Committee agreed, and the new topical newsletters were launched in 2006. For
the past two years, Hamblin and Stocker also have developed a special
e-newsletter issue containing a list of all relevant career sessions for
trainees at the EB meeting. Each Committee member distributed the special
list via their section listservs as well as the trainee listserv. The list
was very well received as indicated by comments and emails from trainees as
well as regular APS members.
Trainee Web Page
The Committee developed a trainee web site that
includes links to relevant materials on the APS web site, as well as
elsewhere. The site was finalized this fall and went live in January 2006.
The TAC asked for and was granted a main navigation button link from the APS
Home Page to the trainee page (http://www.the-aps.org/trainees); this means
the link is available from any page on the APS website. The TAC plans to
revise and update the website as needed to keep Trainees informed about
Society programs and trainee-relevant issues.
Web-based Professional Skills Courses
With support from the NIGMS Minority Opportunities in
Research (MORE) division the APS is developing live, web, and CD-ROM short
courses that focus on critical professional skills areas. Each course will
include a strong focus on the interaction of racial/ethnic background and
culture with the development of these skills. Students who complete the
course(s) will: improve their performance in specific professional skills
areas; increase their understanding of how these skills can impact career
opportunities and advancement in biomedicine; increase their understanding
of how diversity issues, especially cultural influences and background
experiences, can interact with the development of professional skills
targeted by the course; and increase their knowledge of resources and
materials that can further assist in their development of these key
professional skills.
Although direct oversight of the project resides with
the Education Committee, the Trainee Advisory, Career Opportunities in
Physiology, Porter Physiology Development, and Women in Physiology
Committees are actively involved in the project, particularly through the
project’s Advisory Board.
New Member Packets
The TAC is concerned about the lack of publicity on the
many trainee programs APS has for its trainee members. Toward that end, APS
staff is developing a trainee brochure outlining APS programs and
initiatives for trainees that can be used at the APS booth and as a mailing
to new or prospective members. In addition, the Committee recommended that
information about APS trainee programs and resources be sent to all new
trainee members (especially the TAC and Career Opportunities in Physiology
web sites and trainee listserv) and be made available to all prospective
trainee members.
Award for Best First-Author Publication by a
Graduate Student in APS Journals
At its fall meeting this year, the TAC plans to begin
work on a proposal for an award to recognize the best first-authored paper
in an APS journal by a graduate student.
Sections and Trainees
The TAC wants to encourage all the APS sections to
develop or expand their trainee activities. At the fall meeting, the
Committee will develop a plan to allow sections a means for sharing
information on new or existing programs, activities, and awards. Items could
be included such as the Cardiovascular Section’s Trainee Day, the Renal
Section’s best APS paper award, and the Neural Control and Autonomic
Regulation Section’s trainee session at EB. The TAC plans to initiate this
discourse by adding relevant information to the TAC website.
Trainee Representation on Committees, Sections,
Chapters
APS has made trainees a valuable part of its
organization with the establishment of the TAC and its support of this
Committee’s efforts to help trainees through programs and resources. The TAC
would like to see trainees included in more levels of Society governance to
continue that precedent. APS Sections already include their TAC
representative on the Section Steering Committees, and the Cardiovascular
Section has even initiated its own Cardiovascular Trainee Committee. The TAC
would like to see more of the committees add a trainee member to its
membership. Many of the committees have already made efforts to add a
trainee and the TAC looks forward to seeing other committees doing so as
well, if appropriate.
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