2005 Women in Physiology Committee Report
Bodil
Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award
Seven nominations for the second Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor
and Scientist award were received by APS office and reviewed by the Women in
Physiology Committee. Christin Carter-Su of the University of Michigan was
selected as the 2005 awardee. The award carries a stipend of $1,000 plus
travel expenses to attend the IUPS/EB2005 meeting. The awardee gave a
30-minute lecture on mentoring to young physiologists and their mentors and
will wrote an article based on the lecture for publication in The
Physiologist. The lecture followed a luncheon to which were invited
Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen, the former Schmidt-Nielsen Awardee, R. Clinton Webb,
mentees of Dr. Carter-Su, awardees of the various APS award programs (tum
Suden, Minority Travel, Porter Fellows, etc.), APS Council members, other
trainees, and guests specified by the awardee.
APS/ASPET
Mentoring Workshop
One of the roles of the APS Women in Physiology Committee is to coordinate
activities with other such committees within FASEB. For IUPS/EB2005, the
Women in Physiology Committee co-sponsored a workshop with ASPET Committee
on Women in Pharmacology on “Managing a Laboratory.” This year ASPET was
the primary lead on the workshop, since APS had taken the lead for the past
few years. Siribhinya Benyajati from the Women in Physiology Committee and
Lynn Wecker from the Committee on Women in Pharmacology served as
co-organizers.
The workshop was designed to inform young physiologists of how to deal with
many of the issues they will face starting their own laboratories. Four
speakers discussed the following topics: Sue Piper Duckles (ASPET & APS),
“Mentoring vs. Supervising,” Carol Paronis (ASPET) “How to Delegate and
Still Stay on Top of Things,” Virginia Miller (APS) “Conflict Management or
Managing Difficult Employees,” and Stephanie Watts (ASPET & APS) “Developing
a Budget.” More than 100 young and more senior scientists attended the
session, with many remaining for discussions during a breakout session of
six groups. Each group was well represented by members of APS (Carole
Liedtke) and ASPET (Carol Paronis, Michelle Kalis) and by members of the APS
Women in Physiology Committee and ASPET Committee on Women in Pharmacology.
Each attendee to the workshop received a handout of resource material for
the topics discussed by the speakers. Comments after the session were very
enthusiastic.
Plans for an
APS/APSET Workshop on Balancing Life and Career at EB2006
APS Women in Physiology and ASPET Women in Pharmacology Committees will once
again partner to organize a mentoring workshop for EB 2006 in San Francisco,
CA. APS will serve as the lead organization on this session. APS co-chairs
D. Damon and A. Schreihofer will coordinate planning with ASPET
representative Laura Nisenbaum. The focus of the workshop will be
“Balancing Life and Career” with specific topics include balancing research,
teaching, service activities, balancing job and family, and dual careers.
The target audience is young scientists of both genders interested in
learning skills for their future/current careers. The workshop also offers
a venue for networking between junior and senior scientists.
Mentoring
Program
An APS Mentoring Program directed toward young physiologists in training and
to junior faculty has been in existence since 1993. Over the years the
Committee and staff have tried many different formats and program components
in an attempt to increase the utilization of the mentoring program by
trainees. However, the number of trainees requesting a mentor through the
program remained negligible (about seven per year). Members of the
Committee agreed that the program was not successful in its current format
and should be discontinued. Committee efforts will instead be put into
refining the mentoring website to make it even more useful and interactive,
since it has already been cited by a national publication as being an
excellent resource for mentoring and receives a considerable number of hits
each month.
Caroline tum Suden/Frances Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Awards
The Women in Physiology Committee received 114 applications for the Caroline
tum Suden/Frances Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Awards. This number
of applications is comparable to those received in the past few years.
These awards provide monetary ($500) prizes and complimentary registration
for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows of either gender who give
presentations at the IUPS/EB meeting. The applications include an abstract
submitted for presentation at IUPS/EB and a supporting letter from the
applicant indicating the goals of his/her research project, his/her specific
role in the project described in the abstract, and the reasons why he/she is
deserving of the award. One awardee, who was also a Minority Travel Award
recipient, declined the monetary award and requested a 37th
awardee be named instead. The Committee agreed and the first alternate was
named as a tum Suden Awardee, so that 37 awards were given this year. The
Awardees were invited to attend the APS Business Meeting where they each
received a certificate and a check for $500.
FASEB Excellence in Science Award
The Chair of the Women in Physiology Committee serves as the APS
representative to the FASEB selection committee for this prestigious award
that carries a $10,000 cash prize (supported by Eli Lilly and Company) and
the opportunity to present a plenary talk at a FASEB-sponsored meeting.
Competition is very rigorous for this award, and most nominees have
extensive dossiers documenting their numerous contributions to research,
education, service, and mentoring. Anita Roberts of the National Cancer
Institute in Bethesda, MD was selected the winner of the 2005 award. The
FASEB selection committee wanted to encourage more applications for this
award and sent out a blast email notice for the 2006 award. They received a
total of 137 nominations for the award, of which 103 complete nominations
were reviewed. The Chair of the Women in Physiology Committee is precluded
from coordinating a nomination because of the conflict of interest that this
represents. However, the Committee will review the APS nominees and select
one or two to actively encourage and assist in enhancing their nomination
packets for the next round of competition.
Serving on APS Committees
The Women in Physiology Committee actively encourages women to be active
members of the APS by, for example, serving on APS Committees. The
Committee is particularly interested in those women who are elected within
sections to leadership positions. The committee is delighted that this year
Sue Barman joins two women currently serving on APS Council, Carole Liedtke
and Helen Raybould. The Committee also commends Virginia Miller for her
service as Councillor from 2002 to 2005. The committee also noted that Kim
Barrett became the first woman to chair the Publications Committee and at
least three sections are chaired by women. Committee members were
encouraged to actively work with their APS Section representatives as
nominations for APS committees depend on the APS Section representatives
serving on the Committee of Committees.
Nominations for awards
The Women in Physiology Committee was pleased to note the selection of three
women scientists for the 2005 Distinguished Lectureships. The Committee
continues to identify women scientists to nominate for the prestigious
Bowditch and Cannon Awards, along with other APS and FASEB awards.
Other activities
The Women in Physiology Committee remains active through conference calls to
identify ways to promote the advancement of women and young physiologists in
APS, to engage in the identification of mentors and mentees, to encourage
nomination of women for committees of APS and for APS and FASEB awards, and
to select awardees for the Bodil Schmidt-Neilsen Distinguished Mentor and
Scientist Award and Caroline tum Suden Opportunity Award.
Sirbhinya Benyajati, Chair
Council Actions
-
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 2006.
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