This is the Trainee Advisory Committee's (TAC) first annual report to the APS Council. In its first year, the Committee has sought to generate ideas for projects, prioritize those ideas, and assign Committee members to begin work on each. The Committee's discussions were focused by the charge from the APS Council. The Committee met twice during its first year, once via conference call and subsequently at the 2004 Experimental Biology meeting.

Duties of the Trainee Advisory Committee are to: elect a chairperson, who is a member of the committee or has served on the committee within the past three years; meet annually at the spring meeting of the Society and as needed during the year; investigate the needs of trainees, both pre-doctoral and postdoctoral, to determine how the Society can provide necessary support and assistance; organize an annual symposium or workshop at EB designed to assist trainees in their development of independent careers; publish an email newsletter for trainees and establish a web site for trainees on the APS Home Page; bring relevant matters to the attention of Council and act on Council recommendations; encourage the active membership of trainees in the Society; coordinate activities with other such APS committees to enhance the status of trainees and to respond to the needs of trainees.

Each of the Committee activities listed below is related to one of the Committee's charges.

TAC Trainee Survey

The TAC is currently finalizing a Trainee Survey with the help of APS staff. The survey includes ranking the importance of several issues (e.g., balancing work and family, mentoring, granting, teaching) and a few short answer questions. The Committee agreed that the survey should be general in nature and include issues/questions relevant to both graduate student and postdoctoral experiences, including those of trainees from abroad studying in the US. Responses from both trainees and non-trainees will be requested (along with status identification) to allow assessment of needs from both perspectives.

The survey will be done online and will be brief, keeping in mind the APS full membership needs survey planned for later this year. Each member of the TAC will send the survey out to his/her own section listserv, asking members to respond and pass the survey along to trainees in their labs or departments. This should help increase the response rate.

Trainee Advisory Committee Symposium, Experimental Biology 2006

The TAC discussed the upcoming symposium slot and the subject and type of symposium that would be best. It was agreed that the TAC will work with the Women in Physiology and Career Opportunities in Physiology Committees to make sure the three sessions do not overlap in content. Ex officio committee liaisons have been established (see Committee Liaisons below) who will oversee that process. Members of the TAC recommended that their symposium be an interactive session or a round table discussion of specific issues. Additionally, it was agreed that it would be important to include issues facing non-US citizens working in the US. Ortiz and Bavis will serve as session organizers.

Trainee Email Newsletter and Web Page

Email Newsletter: The TAC deferred a full discussion of establishing a separate listserv for trainees until the Committee's fall meeting. The Committee requested staff to investigate having the Trainee listserv be added to the Members-only web page, which would allow those postdoctoral fellows and others who are regular members to sign up for the listserv. In the meantime, the Committee will use the previously established trainee listserv, which was initially populated with all student members. Messages are sent out on a monthly basis by APS Education Office staff and include relevant APS and other news, notice of award opportunities, and postdoctoral position openings.

Web Page: The Committee reviewed the home pages of the current APS Career Web for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and agreed that there was no need to establish a new separate web site. Instead, the Committee will work with APS staff and funnel any material that would be relevant to a specific section on the careers web to them for posting. Announcement of the new material can be sent out via the listserv.

Committee Liaisons

The members of the TAC discussed which APS Committees should have a liaison with the TAC. Currently, two APS Committees, other than Section Steering Committee, have Trainee Representatives: the Women in Physiology and the Animal Care and Use Committee. Those two representatives were invited to be ex-officio members of the TAC and attended the Committee's meeting at EB 2004. In addition, the Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee requested a member from the TAC to sit as ex-officio on that Committee.

Sectional Responsibilities

Most of the TAC members have been asked by their sections to write short articles on the Committee's activities for their section newsletter. All members were encouraged to do so to increase the visibility of the Committee and of trainees. As each member writes something, they will post it to the Committee listserv and share with others on the Committee. Then the others can include that article and either expand on it or focus on another aspect of the Committee's activities, allowing for more material to be in each section's newsletter.

Because all of the TAC members are appointed by their respective section, each section needs to have in place a method by which to identify their TAC member's replacement. Even though every member might not be replaced at the same time, Committee members will begin working within their sections to start discussing the best way to appoint replacement members to the Committee.

Postdoctoral Issues

Sussman attended the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) Convocation on Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers and National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) meetings held just prior to EB in Washington, DC, on behalf of the Committee.

The COSEPUP Convocation grew out of a report by the Committee in 2000 addressing concerns about the current state of Postdoctoral Training in this country and its impact on young scientists and the advancement of science. Some effects of the report include raises in NIH Postdoctoral stipends, the comprehensive Sigma XI Postdoctoral survey, and the creation of the NPA. The purpose of the meeting was to promote communication among COSEPUP members, postdoctoral scientists, and other interested parties (e.g., Sigma XI, NIH, other funding agencies, Medical School Administrators). Salient issues that were addressed include reduction of time to complete both graduate and postdoctoral training, encouraging trainees to pursue non-academic and non tenure-track careers, standardization of compensation and benefits, and increasing opportunities for postdocs to achieve greater financial, and therefore research independence, i.e., obtain grants covering supplies as well as compensation.

The annual meeting of the NPA included further discussion of many of the same issues as the COSEPUP Convocation. The NPA is working to advance interests of postdocs through both national and local activities by promoting the formation of local Postdoctoral Associations and Postdoctoral Offices and courting their membership in the NPA. Additional concerns for the NPA are to give postdocs a national voice for communicating with COSEPUP, NIH, and other funding agencies, provide support and information services to postdocs, and grow to a sustainable size and achieve financial solvency before their charter grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation runs out. The NPA has offices housed in the AAAS building in Washington, DC, two staff members, a web page, an executive board composed of NPA members (primarily founding members), and several committees made up of executive board members and other NPA members.

The relationship of the NPA to professional societies is evolving. They are actively collaborating in at least one project with the AAMC postdoc committee (to generate a "toolkit" for institutions focused on professional development issues) and are offering membership in the NPA to professional societies. There is much work to be done regarding the development of this relationship to ensure complementarity without redundancy. For example, the NPA could provide societies with guidelines for promoting trainee involvement, and societies could advertise their trainee activities on NPA publications. To facilitate development of these issues, Sussman has been communicating with two relevant NPA Committees, Diversity and Outreach.

The Sigma XI survey is a comprehensive survey of postdoctoral research activities, career goals, and perceptions. Sigma XI has involved psychologists, lawyers, the National Academy of Sciences, and the NPA in the development of the survey. It is extremely comprehensive in nature. For a fee, institutions have the opportunity to contribute additional questions and receive results from their postdocs to these and the standard survey questions. Sigma XI will consider requests to provide the same service to professional societies

Fall Meeting

The TAC was previously given approval by Council for a 1.5-day fall meeting. This will be held in September 2004. This meeting will allow the Committee to have a significant amount of time to plan their future activities and directions and discuss what issues should be dealt with in a more substantial manner.

Caroline R. Sussman, Chair

Committee Action Items

• Council accepted the report of the Trainee Advisory Committee.

• Council approved a Trainee Advisory Committee sponsored symposium/workshop at EB 2006.

• Council approved the allocation of $500 for a society membership in National Postdoctoral Association.