General Information. This year again, the majority of the Awards Committee�s efforts have been related to reviewing applications for six awards: the APS Postdoctoral Fellowship in Physiological Genomics, the Research Career Enhancement Award, the Teaching Career Enhancement Award, the Arthur C. Guyton Award for Excellence in Integrative Physiology, the Shih-Chun Wang Young Investigator Award, and the Lazaro J. Mandel Young Investigator Award.

During the 2001-2002 year, the number of applications for the postdoctoral fellowship awards had declined, despite a fairly aggressive advertising campaign. This year that trend was reversed, and we received 35 applications, which is similar to past �good� years. The number of applications for the other awards has remained steady. Female award recipients still lag behind based on the ratio of female:male applicants for all awards. The Committee has not been able to determine why this is so, or come up with any feasible way to balance the gender distribution.

Review Criteria. We now have established review criteria for each of the awards. The criteria give a relative weighting to the various parts of the application (applicant, host, project, etc.). The Committee, especially new Committee members, found these guidelines very helpful for comparing competing applications. In the process of establishing these criteria, we identified some additional information that we would like to see included in the application.

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program. This year the APS Council asked us to evaluate the postdoctoral fellowship program. Martin Frank prepared a historical review of this program and sent out a survey to all past recipients of a Fellowship award. Review of the 14/17 surveys that were returned showed that: 1) most recipients used predominantly a systems approach to their graduate studies, but switched to a predominantly molecular approach for their postdoctoral work; 2) about 2/3 of the recipients are now employed in academia; and 3) in their academic position, four are assistant professors, two still postdocs, one a medical student, and the rest research scientists with various titles. Our evaluation of the program is that it is successful, needed, and should be continued. We identified a couple of issues that we asked Council to consider to improve the program.

Bowditch Award Lecture. This year Council also asked us to make a recommendation regarding the age limit for Bowditch Award recipients. The award is to be made to an outstanding �young� investigator, with �young� being defined by age. Since its inception, the age limit has increased from 35 to 42 years. The Committee�s discussion was that there are outstanding investigators under the age of 42, but that the current philosophy is that a �junior� investigator is someone at the Assistant Professor level, and this can be someone in their mid-40�s. Thus, we recommended setting the age limit at 45 years at the time of the award presentation. 

Young Investigator Awards. For several reasons, the monetary value of the Young Investigator awards is different. The Committee feels that it would be better if the awards could be adjusted so that the monetary value of the award is the same for all three awards. We asked Council if it were possible to set a value for these awards.

2003 Awardees

Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards in Physiological Genomics

We received 35 applications and because of the current fiscal situation awarded only two postdoctoral fellowships.  The Committee recommended that the awardees be Ryan Streeper, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, and Eric Lazartigues, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA. Based on the new funding scale, these awards were a $32,000 stipend and $3,500 mini grant for the first year.

The Research Career Enhancement (RCEA) and Teaching Career Enhancement (TCEA) Awards

The RCEA and TCEA Awards are designed to enhance the career potential of regular APS members. The RCEA supports short-term visits to other laboratories in order to acquire new skills or attendance at a course directly related to a particular research methodology. The TCEA provides funds for the development of innovative and widely applicable programs for teaching physiology.

For the October, 2002 deadline, we received eight RCEA and three TCEA applications. We recommended funding five of the RCEA awards to: Michael J. Fay, Midwestern University, Downers Grove, IL; Shakeeb H. Moosavi, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA; Suzanne M. Schneider, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM; Ping Ming Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA; and Lei Xi, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. We recommended funding one of the TCEA awards to Corey L. Cleland, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.

For the April 15 deadline, we received seven RCEA and one TCEA applications. We recommended funding of four RCEA awards to: Nancy L. Kanagy, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, NM; Richard M. McAllister, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS; Katherine Janet Rennie, Colorado Health Science Center, Denver, CO; and Steven J. Swoap, Williams College, Williamstown, MA.

The Committee did not recommend funding the TCEA application.

Young Investigator Awards

The APS has three Young Investigator Awards: the Arthur C. Guyton Award for Excellence in Integrative Physiology, the Shih-Chun Wang Young Investigator Award, and the Lazaro J. Mandel Young Investigator Award.

The Arthur C. Guyton Award was established in 1993 and is awarded to an investigator who has demonstrated outstanding promise in research that utilizes quantitative and integrative approaches and feedback control system theory for the study of physiological function. The recipient cannot hold an academic rank higher than Assistant Professor. This year we received two applications for the award. The Committee recommended that the awardee be John P. Collister, University of Minnesota, Rochester, MN.

The Lazaro J. Mandel Award was established in 2000 in memory of Lazaro Mandel, Professor of Physiology at Duke University. The award is given to an individual demonstrating outstanding promise in epithelial or renal physiology, who holds an academic position no higher than Assistant Professor. We received five applications for the award this year, and recommend the awardee be Lori A. Birder, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA.

This year the Shih-Chun Wang Award was not available.

The Committee has worked hard this year, reviewing applications and selecting the best recipients, reviewing the postdoctoral fellowship program, establishing criteria that will ensure consistent reviews, and following the trends in total applications submitted and gender distribution. I would like to personally thank each Committee member for the time and effort they have put forth to ensure that we met our goals.

Pat Preisig, Chair

Council Actions

• Council accepted the report of the Awards Committee.

• Council accepted a change to the wording clarifying the experimental approach that meets the criterion of the Post-doctoral Fellowship award.

• Council approved the requested changes to the Post-Doctoral Fellowship program requiring that:

• the mentor/host be an APS member at the time the application is submitted, and remain a member for the duration of the award;

• encourage the recipient of the award to become an APS member;

• attempt to obtain financial support from Industry for the program.

• Council approved the motion requesting that two additional pieces of information be included on all 3 of the Young Investigator Award (Guyton, Wang, and Mandel) application forms.