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2002 Women in Physiology Committee Report
The Women in Physiology Committee has actively pursued
new and diverse activities to fulfill its charge to mentor young scientists
and provide incentives to them to present their work at APS meetings. APS
Council approved a proposal from the Women in Physiology Committee to
establish a Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award named after former APS
President Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen. The award recognizes Schmidt-Nielsen, the
first woman President of the Society and a distinguished physiologist who
has made significant contributions in her field. The award honors a member
of the APS, of either gender, who is judged to have made significant
contributions to physiological research and demonstrated dedication and
commitment to excellence in training of young physiologists. The award will
carry a $1,000 cash prize and a commemorative plaque to be presented at the
Experimental Biology meeting. The awardee will present a lecture on
mentoring at a luncheon held during the EB meeting from 11:30 am to 12:30
pm.
The Women in Physiology Committee is very pleased that
the APS Mentoring Program is available to both female and male young
scientists. This program is designed to provide advice, encouragement,
support and networking opportunities for young scientists who are currently
in training or have just started a new position in academe or industry. The
APS Education Office has completely revised the APS Mentoring Program
website, which is interactive and has many sources of information for young
scientists at the formative stages of their careers as well as for senior
physiologist mentors in the program. To assist APS Education Office in the
matching of mentor and mentee, Women in Physiology committee members will
review requests for a mentor and make recommendations on the pairing of
mentor and mentee. The goal of the Women in Physiology Committee is to match
mentor-mentees as soon as possible, thus, enhancing the value of the mentor-mentee
relationship. This approach should also provide encouragement to mentor-mentees
to meet directly at the Fall APS conferences and EB meeting. Student members
of the APS should be encouraged to visit the APS Mentoring Program website
and to join this program. We noted that requests for mentors are submitted
year round from students of both genders. The Committee also highly commends
Marsha Matyas and Melinda Lowy for their exceptional efforts in redesigning
the website. Society members are encouraged to participate in the program as
either mentor or mentee; applications are available from the Society’s
Education Officer, Marsha Matyas, and on the program website at http://www.the-aps.org/education/mentoringprogram.
The Women in Physiology once again planned and
co-sponsored a workshop with ASPET Women in Pharmacology at EB ‘03 on
“Presentation Skills.” Two representatives from the Women in Physiology
Committee (Carole Liedtke and Sinya Benyajati) and one from the Committee on
Women in Pharmacology (Joan Lakoski) served as co-organizers. The workshop
was designed to provide training for mentors and mentees of both genders on
best practices for oral and poster presentations, interviewing skills and
sharing science with the public. An audience of over 250 young and more
senior scientists were able to gain valuable insight on the basics of
presentation skills through oral presentations, case studies and a handout
distributed at the session. Plans are underway to make the slides used by
the panelists as well as the handout material available on the APS and ASPET
websites. The Women in Physiology Committee has already taken the lead in
planning and co-sponsoring a workshop with the ASPET Committee on Women in
Pharmacology at EB ‘04 on “Life After the PhD: Finding a Postdoctoral
Fellowship.”
The committee has the pleasure of serving as the review
panel for the Caroline tum Suden/Frances Hellebrandt Professional
Opportunity Awards. These awards provide monetary ($500) prizes and
complimentary registration for 36 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows
(of either gender) who give presentations at the EB meeting. The committee
critically reviews abstracts submitted to EB and a supporting letter from
the applicant in its selection process. Society members are strongly
encouraged to remind their trainees of this opportunity.
As committee chair, Liedtke serves as the APS
representative to the selection committee for this FASEB Excellence in
Science Award. This prestigious award carries a $10,000 cash prize
(supported by Eli Lily) and the opportunity to present a plenary talk at a
FASEB-sponsored meeting. For EB ‘03, the recipient was Joan Sietz,
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute,
Yale University, an ASBMB member. The committee encourages all APS members
to identify potential candidates for this prestigious award and, as one
small step in this direction, to nominate women to give Distinguished
Lectures organized by the various sections of APS. Less than 10% of the
Distinguished Lecturers since 1995 have been women.
One of the charges to the Women in Physiology Committee
is to encourage women to be active members of the APS. Serving on APS
committees and APS Section Steering Committees are two avenues for
fulfilling this leadership function. The committee is delighted that this
year Helen Raybould joins two women currently serving on APS Council, Kim
Barrett and Virginia Miller. Former Chair of the Women in Physiology
Committee, Susan M. Barman, and current Chair, Carole M. Liedtke, published
an update of the history of APS in the February, 2002 issue of The
Physiologist. The article entitled “Growing Participation of Women in
Physiology: 1987-2002” focused on the increasing role of women in the
activities and governance of the APS. We are particularly grateful for the
invaluable assistance of Linda Allen, Linda Dresser, Melinda Lowy and
Margaret Reich for helping gather data for the article.
At its summer meeting, APS Council approved a motion to
develop a set of core competencies, which all postdoctoral and graduate
student trainees should learn. The Chairs of the Education, Women in
Physiology, and Career Opportunities Committees and three representatives of
the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology formed a task force
to prepare a draft of the Professional Skills. The draft has been reviewed
by members of the Education, Women in Physiology, and Career Opportunities
Committees and presented to the Task Force for concluding discussion and
revision. The work of this committee was considerably eased by the excellent
assistance from the APS Education Office, in particular Lowy and Matyas.
Carole M. Liedtke, Chair
Council Actions
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Council accepted the report of the Women in
Physiology Committee.
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Council approved the funding for a lunch and lecture
by the Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Awardee at
EB 2004.
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