Kim Barrett received her PhD from University College London. For her postdoctoral training, Barrett decided it would be in her best interests to get a “BTA” (been to America), since she eventually wanted to get an academic job in Britain. She came to NIH for that postdoc and then ended up being offered a job as a Research Faculty member at University of California, San Diego and decided to stay in the US. She later became a regular faculty member at UCSD in the Department of Medicine. She is now also Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine at UCSD School of Medicine.

Barrett works on intestinal epithelial cells. Her lab is particularly interested in the interaction of epithelial cells with both harmful bacteria and beneficial commensal bacteria or probiotics that may protect the intestine from harm. They also know that the transport and barrier functions of the intestine a re disturbed in specific disease states, such as diarrheal diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, peptic ulcer disease, and cystic fibrosis. By understanding the basic mechanisms that control epithelial properties, Barrett hopes they might ultimately be able to identify targets that would be useful to develop new therapies for these conditions.

Barrett has served on a number of national and international bodies, including the APS. For the APS, she recently completed a term on the Council and became Chair of the Publications Committee in 2005.

Francis (Frank) Belloni was awarded his PhD degree in physiology from the University of Michigan. In 1981 he joined the faculty of the New York Medical College, where he is now a Professor of Physiology and Dean of the Graduate School of Basic Medical Sciences.

Belloni's research focused on cardiovascular physiology, particularly the study of the mechanisms of adenosine's effect on vascular tissue.

Belloni is an active member of APS, serving as Chair of both the Education and Career Opportunities in Physiology Committees. He has also been on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physiology and Journal of Applied Physiology. He currently serves as the Chair of the APS Teaching of Physiology Committee.

Dale Benos attended Case Western Reserve University and did research as an undergraduate in the lab of Dr. Bodil Schmidt Nielsen, the first woman President of APS. He received his doctorate at Duke University (training under another APS President) and remained there for his postdoctoral training. His first faculty position was at Harvard Medical School. He then moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham and in 1996 was named Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics. In 2005 Benos received an Endowed University Professorship in Physiology (the very first one) from the University of Alabama Board of Trustees. In 2006, Benos was the recipient of the UAB President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Benos’ lab works on aspects of ion transport as it relates to kidney, gastrointestinal, lung, and brain function. His work has become more translational, with applicability to such diseases as cystic fibrosis, hypertension, HIV dementia, and brain tumors.

Benos has been very active with the APS’s publications. He has published articles in all of the APS journals except the Journal of Neurophysiology and Journal of Applied Physiology. He was Editor-in-Chief of the American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology and a member of the APS Publications Committee. He was appointed Chair of that Committee and served for 5 years. He was elected to APS Council and then in 2005, he was elected APS President. He took office in April 2006 and will serve until May 2007.

Martin Farias III received his PhD from the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) at Fort Worth, TX in 2003. He then did postdoctoral work at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, and is currently finishing his postdoctoral training in the Department of Internal Medicine - Hypertension Division at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX.

Farias' research deals with the neural control of skeletal muscle blood flow. Currently, he is examining the effects of nitrate tolerance on skeletal muscle vascular conductance during sympathetic stimulation.

Farias is a National Health Disparities Scholar and a National Biomedical Research Role Model for Minorities. He is also the cofounder of SALSA (Society for the Advancement of Latino Scholars in Academia) at UNTHSC. The group's main goal is to help minorities succeed in graduate school as well as serve the local community. Farias is an active member of the APS, serving as a Porter Committee Member and collaborator with the Education Office on many of its programs.

Joseph Dunbar received his PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology at Wayne State University in 1970. His did his postdoctoral training at Sinai Hospital of Detroit before being named an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at Wayne State University. He rose through the ranks in the Department and was named Chair in 1998.

Dunbar is interested in the endocrine mechanisms associated with diabetes mellitus and its complications. Diabetes or insulin insufficiency is characterized by changes in nutrient metabolism as well as chronic alterations in multiple physiological systems. Since obesity is strongly associated with diabetes he is also investigating the role of insulin and adipose tissue hormones in the CNS-mediated regulation of cardiovascular responses. He is investigating the hypothalamic factors mediating the leptin signaling cascade pathway and their potential role in hypertention. He is also studying the CNS-mediated mechanisms of action of insulin and leptin on cardiovascular dynamics. He also has ongoing studies on the influence of diabetes on ischemia-mediated CNS neuronal apoptosis and the role of insulin and IGF1 on this process.

Dunbar serves on the Advisory Board for the APS Professional Skills Training Program. He is an active member of many NIH Review Boards and Committees and has served on the boards of several peer-reviewed national journals, including American Journal of Physiology, Diabetes, and Cancer.

Greg Florant received his PhD at Stanford University. He then taught at Swarthmore College (10 years) and Temple University (5 years) before moving to the Department of Biology at the Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, CO.

Florant’s research focuses on energy metabolism in animals. He is investigating how animals store fat and then use that fat to survive under environmentally harsh conditions, specifically winter hibernation. He is searching for new mechanisms that will help scientists understand body mass regulation and obesity in animals, in the hopes that it will apply to humans.

Florant is active in APS programs. He currently serves as Chair of the APS Porter Physiology Development Committee, overseeing the minority graduate fellowship and minority travel fellowship programs. He is also very involved in NIH and the Ford Foundation, running workshops for minority scientists.

Yolanda Scott George is Deputy Director and Program Director, Education and Human Resources Programs. Her responsibilities include planning, development, management, implementation, and evaluation of multi-year science, mathematics, and technology (SMT) education and educational research projects. She also provides technical assistance to community-based organizations, science-based organizations, schools, colleges and universities, and churches interested in developing science, mathematics and computer education initiatives. She develops and coordinates conferences related to recruitment and retention of minorities, women, and persons with disabilities in SMT. She works with UNIFEM, UNESCO, and non-governmental organizations on gender, science, and technology initiatives related to college and university recruitment and retention and women leadership in SMT.

George currently serves as PI or Co-PI on six grants related to developing evaluation capacity of PIs, project directors and evaluators for the NSF Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP); development of a digital library for biology educators in undergraduate, graduate and professional schools; and international gender, science, and technology. George has authored or co-authored over 50 papers, pamphlets, and hands-on science manuals.

George has served as Director of Development, Association of Science-Technology Centers, Washington, DC; Director, Professional Development Program, University of California, Berkeley, CA; and as a research biologist at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, Livermore, CA involved in cell cycle studies using flow cytometer and cell sorters. She received her MS from Atlanta University in Georgia.

Rayna Gonzales was awarded her Ph.D. degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California at Irvine in the Department of Pharmacology and was recently promoted to Associate Researcher.

Gonzales studies the effects of androgens on vascular reactivity in rat middle cerebral arteries. She has shown that androgens modulate vascular tone by suppressing endothelium-dependent dilation and enhancing the vasoconstrictor thromboxane pathway.

Gonzales is an active member of both APS and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. She has served as a committee member on the APS Porter Physiology Development Committee, the APS Advisory Board for Minority Students in Biomedicine and the UC Irvine Biomedical Minority Training Program. She has been a recipient of the APS Porter Physiology Pre-doctoral Fellowship, the American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship, the APS Travel Award Fellowship for Experimental Biology meetings, and is now serving as a mentor in that program.

Robert Hester received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of Mississippi Medical Center and Mississippi State University. He did his postdoctoral training at University of Virginia before accepting a faculty position in the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Hester's research is on the compensatory mechanisms that regulate the balance between tissue function and blood flow that are essential for the overall function and survival of the tissue. There appears to be a close relationship between blood flow and tissue metabolism. His current work addresses the following hypotheses: In response to mismatches in blood flow and tissue metabolism, decreases in pO2 or increases in H+ and pCO2 are sensed by the venular endothelial cells resulting in the release of vasoactive metabolites of arachidonic acid which dilate the adjacent arteriole. His lab is testing the hypothesis that the release of vasoactive factors from venular endothelial cells is responsible for vasodilation of the feed arterioles during increases in tissue metabolism. His recent studies have on focused on the control mechanisms of blood flow to muscle in an animal model of metabolic syndrome, focusing on the role of arachidonic acid metabolites.

Hester serves on the APS Education Committee and continues to be active in various APS programs. He serves on editorial boards for Microcirculation, AJP: Heart and Circulatory Section, AJP: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. He has reviewed grants for NIH and American Heart Association. He is the Past-President of the Microcirculatory Society.

Barbara Horwitz obtained her PhD from Emory University in Atlanta, GA. She also received training at the Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, MA. She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Davis. She accepted a faculty position at the University of California, Davis in the Department of Physiology. In 1991 she was named Chair of the Department of Animal Physiology, and in 1993 Chair of the Section of Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior. In 2001 she was appointed Vice Provost for Academic Personnel at the University.

Horwitz’s research program centers on the genetic, neural, and hormonal regulation of energy balance. Current studies are focused on the underlying mechanisms associated with altered gene expression and brain regulation of energy balance in genetic and diet-induced animal models of obesity; the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying sympathetic (adrenergic) stimulation of energy expenditure; the role of mitochondrial uncoupling proteins in energy balance and oxidative stress; and the physiological basis of altered metabolism during various stages of aging.

Horwitz has been very active in the APS and Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, including being elected to serve on the Council for both societies and subsequently elected to the presidency of both. She was the second woman President for APS. She has served APS also as an Associate Editor for News in Physiological Science, on the Editorial Board for Journal of Applied Physiology, and as a section editor for a Handbook of Physiology.

Irving Joshua was awarded his PhD from Pennsylvania State University He has been a faculty member for the last 25 years at the University of Louisville where today he is the Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.

Joshua does small animal research to investigate the mechanisms associated with the control of microvascular function during normal and disease states. Specifically, he is investigating alterations in the vasoconstrictor responses of several vessel levels of the microcirculation during the development of several cardiovascular diseases, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and aging.

Joshua has been active in both the APS and the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology, where he served both on the council and as President of the Society. With APS he has served on numerous committees before being elected to the APS Council in 2005.

Mark Knuepfer received his PhD from the University of Iowa. He was previously on the staff of Johns Hopkins University, University of Heidelberg, and University of Western Ontario.

Knuepfer studies the role of the central nervous system (CNS) in regulating cardiovascular responses to pharmacological and physiological stress. His initial studies were focused on the effects of startle and cocaine administration in conscious rats. Cocaine is a widely abused drug considered "safe" despite many reports suggesting that cocaine causes cardiovascular toxicity in some humans. Behavioral stress also contributes to or causes cardiovascular disease yet the genetic factors that determine this predisposition are not understood. His lab uses the rat as a model to elucidate the CNS neurotransmitters and sites responsible for susceptibility to cardiovascular disease.

Knuepfer is active in both the APS and American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Charles Lang is currently Professor and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology. Lang began his scientific career in the Department of Physiology at the LSU Medical Center as a post-doctoral fellow in shock and trauma. After more than a decade at LSU, he moved to the Department of Surgery at SUNY-Stony Brook as Professor of Surgery and the Director of Surgical Research. For the past nine years, he has been in his current position at the Penn State College of Medicine.

Lang’s research has focused on the mechanisms for sepsis-induced changes in glucose and protein metabolism, and the role of cytokines in the regulation of the insulin-like growth factor system. He has worked extensively in recent years on the regulation of translational control by growth factors and nutrients during various catabolic states, including sepsis, thermal injury, disuse atrophy, alcoholism and HIV infection.

Lang has served on the editorial board of American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism, and is currently on the board for Shock and Journal of Nutrition. He has served as the basic science councilor for the Shock Society as well as the Chairman of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Section Program Committee and Steering Committee for APS.

Dexter Lee earned his PhD in 2000 in the Department of Physiology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He received his postdoctoral training in the Vascular Biology Center and the Department of Physiology at Medical College of Georgia. In 2006 Lee accepted the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Howard University, College of Medicine in Washington, DC.

Lee's research focus is on the renal mechanisms for chronic blood pressure control during hypertension. Specific interests are to investigate the role of inflammatory cytokines on renal function and their contribution to end-stage renal disease.

Lee has been active in APS and has received numerous travel awards to APS meetings as a result of his research. He has also received several New Investigator Awards from APS, the Council for High Blood Pressure Research, and the Jackson Cardiovascular Meeting.

Carole Liedtke graduated with a PhD in physiology from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. She stayed to do her postdoctoral work there, helped to position the department/division in an entirely new area of research, and was hired as a researcher, then instructor, then Assistant Professor. She is now a full professor in the department/division. In addition, in 1989, Liedtke continued her own professional education and development by earning an M.B.A. degree, as a part-time student.

Liedtke investigates how Na-K-Cl cotransport (NKCC1) and CFTR are activated during fluid secretion in epithelia. NKCC1 is an electroneutral transport pathway that is critical for supplying Cl for secretion and for mediating energy-efficient absorption of Na and Cl in renal tubules. She is dissecting signal transduction cascades involved in activation of NKCC1. Her studies provided the first evidence for activation of NKCC1 cotransport by alpha-adrenergic agonists, hyperosmotic stress and intracellular Cl. Subsequent investigation of membrane-associated events, including activation of phospholipases A2, C, and D, their regulation by G proteins, and generation of lipid mediators, led to more detailed study of protein kinase C (PKC) regulation of cotransport.

Liedtke instituted and has run the postdoctoral training program at Case for the past 5 years. She has served APS as a member and then Chair of the Women in Physiology Committee, which is the committee that is the impetus behind these courses. She was then elected to APS Council where she served for three years, until May 2007.

Melinda Lowy is the Higher Education Programs Coordinator for the undergraduate, graduate, postdoc, new investigator, and continuing education programs for the APS. She has held that position since 2001.

Previously, Lowy served as a copy editor for the APS for 8 years. She has worked on the Handbooks of Physiology series, as well as most of the APS journals. She was Journal Copy Editor for American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology, Physiological Reviews, and Journal of Applied Physiology.

She also held the position of Executive Assistant to the Executive Director before joining the Education Office.

Prior to joining APS, Lowy was a lab technician at the University of Michigan, studying ion transport in the colon. She has an M.S. degree from Oregon State University.

Lori McMahon received her Ph.D. from St. Louis University Health Sciences Center in St. Louis, Missouri. She did postdoctoral training at Duke University Medical Center and, in 1998, joined the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

McMahon’s laboratory is interested in understanding the role of inhibitory interneurons and inhibitory mechanisms in governing the activity of local synaptic circuits. A major effort is aimed at understanding the role of the inhibitory amino acids, glycine and taurine, and glycine-gated chloride channels in providing neuronal inhibition in hippocampus, a brain region highly susceptible to seizure activity and excitotoxic cell death. Another major focus of the laboratory is directed toward elucidating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie long-term changes in the strength of excitatory synaptic transmission and how these mechanisms are altered in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. Finally, the lab is examining the effects of estrogen on synaptic function and plasticity. McMahon is interested in determining how estrogen-induced changes in synaptic plasticity contribute to the memory enhancing effects of this hormone.

She has been active in both the APS and the Society for Neuroscience and is currently a member of the Editorial Board for Journal of Neurophysiology.

Patricia Molina received her MD in 1986 from Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala and did her internship at Hospital General San Juan de Dios. She then came to the US and received her PhD in 1990 from Louisiana State University Medical Center, Her postdoctoral training was at Vanderbilt University. She is currently Professor of Physiology at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

Molina's research interests include the impact of chronic alcohol consumption on the progression of AIDS-associated muscle wasting and on the metabolic and pro-inflammatory counteregulatory responses to shock and trauma, as well as understanding the neuro-endocrine mechanisms that regulate peripheral metabolic and inflammatory responses to hemorrhagic shock and trauma.

Molina is active in the APS, serving on the International Physiology Committee and in the leadership of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Section. She also was a member of the US National Committee for the International Union of Physiological Sciences meeting.

Evangeline Motley received her PhD in 1991 from Howard University in Washington, DC, after completing her dissertation research at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals in King of Prussia, PA. Her postdoctoral training was done at the University of Cincinnati. She was then hired as an Assistant Professor of Physiology at Meharry Medical College in 1993. Motley is currently an Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Biology in the Department of Biomedical Sciences. She served as Chair of the Division for a few months before she accepted her new position as Associate Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research.

Motley's research is in the area of cardiovascular physiology. She studies signal transduction mechanisms that lead to hypertension, atherosclerosis and insulin resistance.

Motley has been active in APS, serving on committees and helping with educational and minority programs. She is also an active member of the Endocrine Society and the American Heart Association.

L. Gabriel Navar received his PhD from the University of Mississippi under Dr. Arthur Guyton, author of the famous Textbook of Medical Physiology. He served on the faculty at the University of Mississippi and the University of Alabama at Birmingham before becoming Chair of the Physiology Department at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, LA.

Navar’s laboratory investigates the hormonal and paracrine mechanisms regulating renal hemodynamics, glomerular filtration rate, and sodium excretion with specific focus on the tubuloglomerular feedback mechanism and its role in renal autoregulation. Another area of interest is the intrarenal mechanisms mediating changes in sodium excretion that occur in response to changes in arterial pressure, a phenomenon termed "pressure natriuresis." More recent work has focused on the roles of the kidney and the renin-angiotensin system in the development of high blood pressure and the associated changes in kidney function.

Navar has been an active member of the APS since 1966, serving on many committees, in the Renal Section, and in the publications program. In 1991 the APS membership elected him to serve on the APS Council to assist in running the Society. The members then elected him again in 1998 to serve as President. During his presidency, Dr. Navar coordinated an effort to increase the membership of the Society, enabling APS to hit the 10,000 member mark. He also oversaw the granting of full membership benefits to overseas members, allowing them to vote in elections, serve on committees, and serve on Council or as President.

Judy Neubauer received her PhD from Rutgers University. She did her postdoctoral training at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She is currently a Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Neubauer’s research focuses on the neurobiology of respiratory control and the neuronal responses to hypoxia and CO₂.

Neubauer has been very active in the APS, serving in the Respiratory Section leadership, as Chair of the Hypoxia Group, and as member and Chair of the APS Joint Program Committee. She also serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Rudy Ortiz worked at NASA before getting his PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz. After completing a University of California Office of the President's postdoctoral fellowship at UC Santa Cruz, Ortiz continued his postdoctoral research at Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, LA. He was appointed as one of the first faculty at the new University of California, Merced, where he started in January 2005.

Ortiz studies the kidney function and metabolism of elephant seals during a unique post-weaning fast period. By monitoring hormones in the pups, Ortiz hopes to learn why they are able to fast for such long duration, what makes them stop fasting, and how the kidneys function supports the fast. This type of research may contribute to a greater understanding of human eating behaviors and obesity. He also studies the role of the kidneys in hypertension (chronic high blood pressure). Specifically, he studies the role of the adrenal steroid aldosterone, which damages soft tissue such as the heart in patients with hypertension. Drugs that block aldosterone prevent such damage, but paradoxically also seem to stimulate more aldosterone production.

Ortiz has been active in APS programs and recently served as one of the first members of the new APS Trainee Advisory Committee, where he organized their first Experimental Biology workshop on “Transition from Postdoc to Jr. Faculty: Surviving the Initial Years” to be held at EB 2006 in San Francisco.

Keri Kles Poi received her PhD in 2002 from the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, investigating intestinal nutrient transport during hypoperfusion. She obtained her postdoctoral training in the Institute of Inflammatory Bowel Disease at the University of Chicago School of Medicine.

During her postdoctoral training as she was writing up her results as manuscripts, Poi discovered that she really enjoyed writing. While investigating various career paths, she decided to be a scientific or medical writer. Poi is now working at Eli Lilly & Company as a scientific writer. She has the opportunity to write about clinical trials that investigate therapies for people with diabetes. Currently, she is in the role of writing about pharmaceutical funded clinical trials and publication planning.

Poi has been active in the APS, receiving the 2004 Young Investigator Award from the Cell and Molecular Section of the APS. She has also been a recipient of the APS NIDDK Minority Travel Awards from APS for several years. In addition, she has received awards from the American Society for Nutritional Sciences for her research.

Darlene K. Racker received her PhD degree from the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Heath Sciences/The Chicago Medical School (now, Rosalind Franklin University) in 1987. She did her postdoctoral training at Columbia University in the Department of Pharmacology before being named Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology in 1990. After joining the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago in 1994, she was named Associate Professor in 2006.

Racker's research interests are in cardiovascular anatomy and electrophysiology. She studies the conduction system of the heart, myocardial infarction, and the electrophysiological and anatomical properties associated that disease and rhythm disturbances.

Hector Rasgado earned his PhD from the Department of Physiology at the University of Maryland in 1984. He also received his postdoctoral training in that department as well as in the Department of Physiology at the Chicago Medical School. In 1988, Rasgado received his first NIH grant and joined the Department as a faculty member. He remains at the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at the university, now renamed as the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science.

Rasgado’s research focuses on the regulation of intracellular Mg2+ and Ca2+ ions and cell volume regulation in muscle cells. His main contributions to these fields have been characterizing a novel plasmalemmal transporter for Mg2+, helping to understand the mechanisms by which muscle cells sense and control their volume in response to their needs and/or to changes in their environment, and contributing to our understanding of how and why muscle cells undergo cell volume changes during their contraction.

Rasgado has been an active member of APS, including serving on the International Physiology Committee. His leadership abilities on the Committee led to his being named Chair for two consecutive terms. He initiated a program to support specialized meetings for physiologists in Mexico and Latin and South America that are held in their own countries and have speakers from the US that are paid for in part by APS.

For the International Physiology Meeting held in 2005 in San Diego, Rasgado and his brother wrote a symphony about the body and physiology called "Body Notes" that was performed by the San Diego Chamber Orchestra for the first time during the meeting. It debuted in Mexico, his home country, in 2006 and included video images and dance in addition to the music. This year it will be performed at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Margaret Reich is Director of Publications and Executive Editor for the 15 journals of the APS. She was named to that position in 1999.

Previously, Reich served as Director of Annals of Emergency Medicine, and before that as Production Manager of the American Heart Association’s 5 journals. She started her career as an Editorial Assistant at Yale University Press.

Reich is a member of Society for Scholarly Publishing, has served on their Board of Directors, the Education Committee, and the Program Committee before being elected President in 2004. She has also served as the Council of Science Editors Education Committee Chair and was Chair of their Program Committee.

Alberto Roca received his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Roca was an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Fellow in the Biochemistry Department at Rice University in Houston. He is a former University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow. He currently is a Project Scientist in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of California, Irvine. He has also conducted research at the Institute Curie in France funded by a Chateaubriand Fellowship.

Roca’s research involves using biophysical approaches to understand the molecular mechanism of recombinational DNA repair.

Roca is a founding co-chair of the Postdoc Committee of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). He is principal investigator of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant that allowed him to create www.minoritypostdoc.org and to organize the Minority Postdoc Summit at the 2004 SACNAS annual conference. Alberto credits his success in proposal writing to a FASEB/MARC grantsmanship training seminar.

Roca has been an invited speaker on minority postdoctoral issues at the following conferences: the Compact for Faculty Diversity’s annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring; the Howard University/University of Texas-El Paso’s Institute on Preparing for Postdoctoral Experiences in STEM; and the COSEPUP Second Convocation on Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience. In addition, he is a member of the Diversity Committee of the National Postdoctoral Association.

Michael Romero received his PhD in 1991 in Genetics (unofficially Physiology & Biophysics) from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. His postdoctoral training was in the Department of Cellular & Molecular Physiology at Yale University School of Medicine and was subsequently promoted to Associate Research Scientist there. In 1997 he accepted an Assistant Professorship in Physiology & Biophysics back at Case Western Reserve University followed by an Assistant Professorship as well in the Department of Pharmacology. He became an Associate Professor in both departments in 2003, received tenure in 2006 and has recently moved to the Department of Physiology & Biomedical Engineering at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine.

Romero is interested in ion and solute transporters associated with cellular acid-base homeostasis: HCO₃- transporters, anion transporters, H⁺ transporters and monocarboxylate transporters. In particular, he focuses on epithelial cell physiology and development in several model organisms.

Romero clones mammalian, vertebrate, and invertebrate transporter cDNAs and expresses the corresponding proteins in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Many of his studies use a variety of electrophysiology techniques including microelectrodes to measure ion activities and membrane potential/current. To better understand these ion transporters, he determines which cations and/or anions are transported. Using both chimeric protein approaches and site-directed mutagenesis, he is beginning to understand critical domains and residues of particularly HCO₃- transporters. He also develops antibodies for protein localization in epithelial tissues. His lab is presently supported by the National Eye Institute (NIH) and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Romero has been active in APS, serving on the Education Committee and featured in the APS Career Opportunities in Physiology brochure and web site. He is presently the Vice Chair of the Cellular & Molecular Section of APS and on the Epithelial Transport Group steering committee. He has been the recipient of APS travel awards, tum Suden Award, and section postdoctoral and new investigator awards. Several of his fellows have also won APS sectional awards for their Experimental Biology presentations. He was previously on the Editorial Board of American Journal of Physiology-Gastrointestinal, Liver Physiology and currently serves on the Editorial Boards of American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Tom Schmidt earned his Ph.D. degree in Physiology from Cornell University. He completed two postdoctoral positions, first at the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, MD) and then at the Fels Research Institute, Temple Medical School (Philadelphia, PA). In 1983 he accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics in the College of Medicine at the University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA) He is now a Professor in that department and holds the Harold Myers Professorship in Medical Education.

Schmidt’s primary interests are in how steroid hormones, especially the adrenal steroids cortisol and aldosterone, mediate their diverse physiological effects at the cellular and molecular levels. These steroids bind to intracellular receptor proteins that function as ligand-activated transcription factors. Thus, much of his research has focused on these steroid receptors and their abilities to regulate specific gene expression.

Schmidt is active in the American Physiological Society, having served previously on the Education Committee and currently serving on the Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee.

Annabell C Segarra obtained her BS and MS from the University of Puerto Rico and her PhD from NYU. She did a 6 months post-doc at NYU and 3 yrs at Rockefeller University. She is currently a Professor at the Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Puerto Rico.

Segarra’s main area of interest is neuroendocrinology. The research in her laboratory focuses on the interactions between sex steroids, glucocorticoids and the opioid system in modulating motivated behaviors such as sexual behavior and drug abuse. The long term goal is to elucidate the mechanisms by which alterations in brain neurochemistry and/or synaptic connectivity result in dysfunctional motivational and reward circuits. Since many of these motivated behaviors are

sexually dimorphic, their laboratory also investigates the developmental window when this dimorphism is established and the factors involved. Her current research efforts are concentrated in studying the interactions between estrogen and the opioid system in modulating behavioral sensitization to cocaine.

By studying the interaction between limbic brain neurochemistry and plasma steroids in normal and aberrant motivated behaviors, their laboratory can obtain physiologically relevant information that may contribute to elucidate the mechanisms involved in many psychiatric disorders, and to identify gender bias. A better understanding of the factors that lead to differential sensitivity to drugs of abuse is crucial for the development of pharmacotherapy that is equally effective in males and females.

Cathy Uyehara received her PhD from The University of Hawaii. Following that, she did her postdoctoral research at SmithKline Beecham before accepting a position at Tripler Army Medical Center. She is currently Deputy Chief and Director of Collaborative Research at the Department of Clinical Investigation.

Uyehara's research is on vasopressin regulation and action in fluid and electrolyte balance. Her current focus of study involves two different lines of research: 1)renal fluid regulation in alcohol exposure and vasopressin, and 2)vasopressin regulation of regional blood flow in septic shock.

Uyehara is active in the APS, serving on the Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee and working with the Education Office on both K-12 and undergraduate programs. She serves as both the Chair and reviewer for both the Scientific Review Committee and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for her institution. She also reviews grants for various funding and government.

Clinton Webb received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He had postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Michigan and Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen in Antwerp, Belgium. His first faculty position was at the University of Michigan, where he rose through the ranks, reaching full professor in 1989. He then moved to become chair of the Department of Physiology at the Medical College of Georgia in 1999.

Webb’s research focuses on vascular smooth muscle, with particular emphasis placed on: 1) vascular reactivity in hypertension and diabetes; 2) penile erection; 3) cellular and subcellular mechanisms of contraction and relaxation of vascular smooth muscle (cell signaling, electrogenic sodium pump, subcellular calcium distribution, monovalent cation movements, nitric oxide, RhoA/Rho kinase, etc.); 4) adrenergic neurotransmission in blood vessels; and 5) intercellular communication between vascular smooth muscle cells.

Webb has served both APS and Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine on many committees. In 2004, he was named the first Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Awardee by the APS.

Charles Wood obtained his PhD from the University of California at San Francisco in 1980 and did postdoctoral work at UCSF with Dr. Abraham Rudolph, from 1980-1983. He has been at the University of Florida since 1983. He is now Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

Wood's lab focuses on the mechanisms controlling the responses to stress in the fetus in utero and on the mechanisms controlling the timing of birth. Present work in this laboratory focuses on three projects: 1) the interaction of prostanoids with the cardiovascular and endocrine controlling elements of the brain and the role of the locally-generated prostanoids in brain in the control of fetal stress responses (hypoxia and hypotension); 2) the influence of estrogen on the fetal brain regions which are important for cardiovascular and endocrine responsiveness to stress; and 3) the biological activity of sulfoconjugated estrogens in fetal plasma.

Wood is active in the APS, a member of the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology, a member of the Fluid and Electrolyte and the Endocrine sections of the APS. He is also a past editorial board member of the AJP Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative section.

Irving Zucker received his doctorate from New York Medical College. He did his postdoctoral work at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine and then was hired on faculty there. He has remained there and in 1989 was named Chair of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.

Zucker’s research revolves around an understanding of the mechanisms that regulate sympathetic nerve activity in disease states such as heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes. His lab is interested in understanding what substances in the brain are responsible for abnormal sympathetic nerve activity in these disease states. These substances include angiotensin II, nitric oxide, and oxidant stress.

Zucker is active in APS, the American Heart Association, NIH, and the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology (ACDP). He has served as Councilor and President for the ACDP. He has served on many APS Committees, most recently Public Affairs Committee, which deals with biomedical research funding. In 2004 he was elected to the APS Council to help govern the Society.