The Women in Physiology Committee has embarked on several new activities to fulfill its charge to mentor young scientists and provide incentives to them to present their work at APS meetings. Highlighting these activities are a proposal to establish a Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award and a very successful workshop co-sponsored by the ASPET Committee on Women in Pharmacology at EB02.

The committee has proposed to Council the establishment of a Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award named after former APS President Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen. The award fulfills a function of the committee by recognizing excellence in mentorship, thus, encouraging young scientists in the early stages of their careers. The award recognizes a mentor and scientist of either gender.  Nominations will be submitted to the Women in Physiology Committee, which will select the awardee. The award will carry a $500 cash prize. The awardee is expected to write an article for The Physiologist and to meet with Caroline tum Suden awardees and other young scientists and their mentors at a roundtable discussion to be held during the EB meeting. The roundtable discussion offers, as well, a convenient venue for one-on-one meetings of mentors and mentees.

The Women in Physiology Committee has, as one of its charges, the development and promotion of careers of young scientists in the discipline of physiology. The committee has recommended in the past and is now very pleased that the APS Mentoring Program is available to both female and male young scientists. The program is designed to provide advice, encouragement, support and networking opportunities for young scientists who are currently in training or have just started a new position in academe or industry. The APS Education Office has now completed a revision of the APS Mentoring Program website, which is an interactive and user-friendly site with many sources of information for young scientists at the formative stages of their careers as well as for senior physiologist mentors in the program. The committee reviewed the website and provided their comments. Additional actions were taken to upgrade the mentoring program. Former mentors were directly contacted by mail to request their renewed participation. Next, student members of the APS will be contacted by Email to encourage them to join the program. We noted that requests for mentors are submitted year round from students of both genders. To facilitate matching of mentor and mentees, the committee will take an active role in the selection process. On a rotating quarterly basis, committee members will receive and evaluate information on the research interests and expertise, career paths, and area designated by the mentee for advice and counsel. These criteria for pairing a mentee and mentor are modifications of past criteria. The changes were driven by many mentees who were seeking advice on career issues, other than scientific training. The goal of the Women in Physiology Committee is to match mentor-mentees as soon as possible, thus enhancing the value of the mentor-mentee relationship. This approach should also provide encouragement to mentor-mentees to meet directly at the Fall APS conferences and EB meeting. The Committee also highly commend Marsha Matyas and Melinda Lowy for their exceptional efforts in redesigning the website. Society members are encouraged to participate in the program as either mentor or mentee; applications are available from the Society's Education Officer, Marsha Matyas, and on the program website at http://www.the-aps.org/education/mentoringprogram.

The committee also sponsored a Mentoring Program breakfast at EB02 as an opportunity for face-to-face meetings of mentor-mentee pairs. The breakfast was held on the first day of the meeting in order to facilitate further interactions between mentors and mentees during the meeting.  The highlight of this breakfast was a brief talk by our invited speaker, Eldon Braun (Univ. of Arizona) on the mentor-mentee relationship. Balancing Braun's talk was a presentation by one of his former mentees who offered several examples of their experience in the APS Mentoring Program. Attendance at the breakfast was poor for several reasons, including the separation of rooms for breakfast and the mentoring workshop. The committee decided to discontinue the Mentoring Program Breakfast and to foster participation of young scientists at the Women in Physiology Committee workshop and roundtable discussion with the Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Awardee.

One of the charges to the committee is to coordinate activities with other such committees within the FASEB organization. The committee took the initiative to plan and co-sponsor a Workshop with the ASPET Committee on Women in Pharmacology at EB02 on "How to be a Good Mentor; How to be a Good Mentee." Two representatives from the Women in Physiology Committee (Susan Barman and Robin Davisson) and two from the Committee on Women in Pharmacology (Margarita Contreras and Pat Kantak) served as co-organizers. The workshop was designed to provide training for mentors and mentees of both genders on the mentoring process. Over 150 young plus some more senior scientists were able to gain valuable insight on the role of mentors and mentees through oral presentations, case studies and a handout distributed at the session. Plans are underway to make the slides used by the panelists, as well as the handout material, available on the APS and ASPET websites. Plans are underway to co-sponsor with the ASPET Committee on Women in Pharmacology a workshop on "Presentation Skills" at EB03 in San Diego.

The committee has the pleasure of serving as the review panel for the Caroline tum Suden/Frances Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Awards. These awards provide monetary ($500) prizes and complimentary registration for 36 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows (of either gender) who give presentations at the EB meeting. The committee critically reviews abstracts submitted to EB and a supporting letter from the applicant in its selection process. Society members are strongly encouraged to remind their trainees of this opportunity.

As committee chair, Liedtke serves as the APS representative to the selection committee for this FASEB Excellence in Science Award. This prestigious award carries a $10,000 cash prize (supported by Eli-Lily) and the opportunity to present a plenary talk at a FASEB-sponsored meeting. For EB02, the recipient was Phyllis M. Wise, Chair of the Department of Physiology at University of Kentucky, an APS member. The committee encourages all APS members to identify potential candidates for this prestigious award and, as one small step in this direction, to nominate women to give Distinguished Lectures organized by the various sections of APS. Less than 10% of the Distinguished Lecturers since 1995 have been women.

One of the charges to the Women in Physiology Committee is to encourage women to be active members of the APS. One way to be active is to serve on APS Committees and APS Section Steering Committees. At its Business meeting, the committee discussed the process of being selected to serve on APS Committees, Sections, and Council. The committee is delighted that this year for the first time since 1975 a woman (Barbara Horwitz) is serving as President. Two women currently serve on APS council (Kim Barrett and Virginia Miller). We congratulate Hannah Carey and Jo Rae Wright for their service to APS Council that was completed as of EB02. On another positive note, the committee learned that more women are now serving on and chairing committees and are elected to section leadership positions. Sadly, it was noted that no women were on the ballot this year for President-elect. 

Carole Liedtke, Chair

Council Actions

• Council accepted the report of the Women in Physiology Committee.

• Council endorsed the idea of a new award � the Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award. The Committee will develop the award criteria and submit it to Council for approval.