This year the Awards Committee�s efforts have focused on 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.

This year the number of applications for the postdoctoral fellowship awards declined a little. However, we received several outstanding applications and because only two fellowships are awarded, it was still difficult to determine the most meritorious. We followed again the gender distribution of applicants and recipients.  Female recipients still lag behind based on the ratio of female:male applicants for all awards. 

Review Criteria. We now have review and scoring criteria for all of the awards. This is especially helpful for new Committee members, and our review process.

2004 Award Recipients

Postdoctoral Fellowship Award in Physiological Genomics

We received 21 applications and awarded two Postdoctoral Fellowships in Physiological Genomics. The awardees are Matthew R. Jones, Harvard School of Public Health, Physiology Program, Boston, MA, and Takuya Sakaguchi, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA. The fellowships were awarded at a level of a $32,000 stipend and $3,500 trainee allowance grant for the first year and a $34,000 stipend and $3,500 trainee allowance grant for the second year.

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

The RCEA and TCEA 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 2003 deadline, we received 14 RCEA and seven TCEA applications.  We funded four awards: Charles W. Cortes, University of Louisiana, Lafayette, IN; Janna L. Morrison, University of Adelaide, Australia; Snezana Petrovic, University of Cincinnati, OH; and Geoffrey Schofield, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA. We funded four TCEA awards: A. Lynelle Golden, Kennesaw State University, GA and Bastyr University, Kenmore, WA; Jonathan D. Kibble, St. Georges University, Grenada, West Indies; James M. Norton, University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, Biddleford, ME; and Paul R. Standley, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ.

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 and recommended that the awardee be Armin Just, Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology, Chapel Hill, NC.

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 four applications this year and recommended the awardee be Bruce D. Schultz, Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.

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

The Committee has worked hard this year reviewing applications and selecting the best recipients and evaluating our review process and scoring criteria.  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 unanimously accepted the requested wording clarifying the status and proposed studies involving transgenic or knock-out mice in the Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award application.

• Council approved a motion to accept the wording requesting additional information in the Research Career Enhancement Award application regarding incorporating the experience into the applicant�s home institution research program.