During the EB meeting the Porter Physiology Development Committee hosted a reception for travel fellows and their mentors and past and current Porter Fellows with the goal of building stronger connections between minority students and the larger community of APS scientists, especially minority scientists. The reception was very successful with approximately 100 people in attendance. Importantly, the reception continued for more than two hours as participants interacted and networked with one another. The Porter Committee requested continued funding of this event.

The Committee served as the review panel for the APS Minority Travel Fellowship Awards. Forty-seven travel fellows were funded to attend EB 2002. Fourteen additional travel fellowships were awarded for the two APS conferences.

Chairs of the Minority Affairs Committees of FASEB societies met at EB 2001 to discuss ways in which the committees could work to increase the participation and visibility of minority scientists at EB meetings. To this end a joint symposium was proposed entitled, "Genomics: A Unified Approach to Solving Diverse Problems in Health and Disease," that was held at EB 2002 supported by FASEB/MARC program. The symposium was an outstanding success and drew a very diverse audience that exceeded the capacity of the room.

The annual meeting of the Porter Physiology Development Committee was also held during EB 2002. The following agenda items were discussed at the meeting: implementation of action items approved by APS Council last year, the impact of the approved increase in stipend level ($15,000 to $18,000) and allowing fellowship supplements from other sources, possible revision of the application process and application deadlines, generating new sources of revenue to support committee goals, and review of fellowship applications.

As of March 31, 2002, the Porter Physiology Development Committee Fund had funds available of $142,147. During 2001, the fund received contributions of $14,500 from Merck, $62,805 from the William Townsend Porter Foundation, $40,000 from APS, $1,610 in private contributions, and $6,204 in interest income. 

A goal of the Porter Committee has been to increase the applicant pool. To this end the Committee last year recommended and received approval for an increase in stipend level and the lifting of the restriction preventing supplementation of the stipend from other sources. These changes were recommended so that the Porter Fellowship would be more inline with NIH guidelines for pre-doctoral fellowship awards, thereby making the Porter fellowship more attractive.

The Committee noted a significant increase in the number applications received. The number of new applications from the January 2002 deadline rose from four to nine. However, these changes have also reduced the total number of Porter awards available, and, presently, funds are not sufficient to fund all meritorious applications. In addition, given the NIH recommendation of an increase in predoctoral stipends to $26,573 by 2006, the number of Porter fellowships available will decline if the Porter stipend level is to keep pace with these changes. Thus, there is an urgent need to raise additional funds to support Committee goals.

Presently, there are two application deadlines for Porter Fellowships, January 15 and June 15. The January 15 deadline primarily serves renewal applications and applications from predoctoral students currently in their programs. The June 15 deadline serves predoctoral students who have an unanticipated need or incoming predoctoral students for the fall. This year, the Committee received more new fellowship applications in June than in previous years. Given the funding available (enough for eight-nine fellowships), several meritorious applications were not approved because of limited funding. The decision was made to defer some funding decisions so that there would be sufficient funds available for awards for the June 2002 applicant pool. Similarly, the designation of the Merck and Ison-Franklin fellows was also deferred to include the June awardees. In the future, the Committee may need to reconsider the Porter Fellowship application deadlines in an attempt to alleviate this problem.

The Porter Physiology Development Committee reviewed four renewal applications and nine new applications from the January 15, 2002 application deadline. All of the renewal applicants were awarded second year fellowships. Three new fellowships were awarded; decisions for three were deferred until the June cycle, and the remaining three were not approved. Deferred applicants were informed that their applications would be reviewed with the June applications. Deferred applicants were also invited to revise/update their applications prior to the June 15 deadline.

The new 2001 Porter Physiology Development Fellows are Rashad Belin, third year PhD student, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Illinois at Chicago; mentor: P. de Tombe; Becky Marquez, fourth year PhD student, Department of Physiology, Cornell University; mentor: Susan Suarez; Nivalda Rodrigues-Pinguet, fourth year PhD student, Division of Biomedical Sciences, University of California, Riverside, and Department of Biology, California Institute for Technology; mentor: Henry Lester. The renewing Porter Fellows are Maurice Williams, fourth year PhD student, Department of Integrative Physiology, University of North Texas Health Science Center at Forth Worth; mentor: Patricia A Gwirtz; Carmen Padro, fourth year PhD student, Department of Physiology, University of Puerto Rico; mentor: Miguel Rivera; Wendy Brisbon, third year PhD student, Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Meharry Medical College; mentor: John T. Clark; Jorge Gonzalez-Perez, second year PhD student, Department of Pharmacology, University of Puerto Rico; mentor: M. Crespo.

Final reports were received from Marcelo Febo-Vega, PhD expected 2002, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, mentor: Annabell Segarra; Annelyn Torres-Reveron, PhD candidate, Department of Physiology, Ponce School of Medicine; mentor: Gregory Quirk; Sonia Houston, PhD completed, Department of Physiology, University of Missouri-Columbia; mentor: Virginia Huxely; Lisa Hernandez, PhD candidate, Department of Physiology, University of California-Davis; mentor: Saul Schaefer.

The progress reports from the 2001-2002 Porter Fellows clearly attest to the Fellows' high level of achievement. The Committee expresses great pride in the role the Society has played in the development of these outstanding young scientists and its continued support of this goal.  

Pamela J. Gunter-Smith, Co-Chair

Council Actions

• Council accepted the report of the Porter Physiology Development Committee.

• Council endorsed the idea of providing additional funding pending receipt of matching funds from the Porter Foundation.

• Council approved the idea of using APS members local to the New Orleans area to be judges at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students.

• Council approved funding for a reception for current and former Porter Fellows and Minority Travel Fellows at EB 2003.