The goal of the Porter Physiology Development Program is to encourage diversity among students pursuing full-time studies toward the Ph.D. (or D.Sc.) in the physiological sciences and to encourage their participation in the American Physiological Society. The program provides 1-2 year full-time graduate fellowships. The program is open to underrepresented ethnic minority applicants who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its territories.
2009-2010 Porter Physiology Fellowship Program
In 2009-2010, the program provided funding for five fellows. A new feature this year is the direct pay of the fellowship stipend to the institution rather than to the fellow. This will increase accountability, providing better information on IACUC compliance and fellow training for the use of humans/animals in research. Among the successes the Committee can now claim is that 100% of applicants for the Porter fellowship are APS members, and all applications are in line with a physiological approach. Recent Committee Activities
One of the improvements to the program was encouraging Fellows to participate in EB, APS professional development activities, and K-12 outreach activities. Nearly all (80%) of the 2009-2010 Porter Fellows applied for a Minority Travel Fellowship (4/5). Half (2/4) of the students who applied received a fellowship, and 100% of the awardees presented a poster at EB 2010. One Fellow (20%) has completed at least one of the APS Professional Skills Training Courses.
2010-2011 Porter Fellowships - New and Renewal Applications
A total of 11 new and four renewal applications were submitted for the January 15 deadline and reviewed by the Committee. The stipend paid to the Porter Fellows for 2010-2011 will again be $23,500, consistent with the NIH scale. Funds were available for five new awardees and three renewals. One awardee declined the award after receiving a Ruth L. Kirschstein F-31 Predoctoral Fellowship, therefore, a total of seven Porter Fellowships will be made in the coming year.
2009-2010 Travel Awards
The Porter Committee reviewed and recommended award recipients for Minority Travel Fellows (EB & workshops). Four travel fellows received funding to attend “ET-11: APS International Conference on Endothelin,” September 2009 in Montreal, Canada. In January 2010, the Committee selected 35 travel fellows from 82 applicants to attend EB 2010.
Grant development
The APS Minority Travel Fellows program has been generously supported by an R13 grant from NIDDK since 1987. Since then, the program has submitted several successful continuation grant proposal. APS recently received the NOGA for funding for 2 years; $175,000 total. APS will submit a new competitive proposal in 2011.
2009 APS Awards
The APS exhibited at the 2009 meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, promoting graduate study in physiology and the APS programs for minority students. APS provided $2,500 for cash awards for the most outstanding undergraduate presentations in physiology research.
2009 APS Exhibit
In 2009, the theme for the SACNAS annual conference was “Improving the Human Condition: Challenges for Interdisciplinary Science.” The conference attracted over 2,800 conference attendees (36% professionals, 41% undergraduates, 18% graduates, 3% postdocs, special guests, and local community participants). The SACNAS exhibit hall hosted 282 exhibiting organizations and showcased 804 student research poster presentations over a two-day period. The APS was an exhibitor during the national conference in Dallas, TX from October 15-18, 2009.
USASEF
In October 2010, the first USA Science and Engineering Fair will take place in Washington, D.C. The Education Committee is organizing events for students and several past K-12
Outreach Fellows have been invited to participate.