Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award

Seven nominations for the second Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist award were received by APS office and reviewed by the Women in Physiology Committee.  Christin Carter-Su of the University of Michigan was selected as the 2005 awardee. The award carries a stipend of $1,000 plus travel expenses to attend the IUPS/EB2005 meeting. The awardee gave a 30-minute lecture on mentoring to young physiologists and their mentors and will wrote an article based on the lecture for publication in The Physiologist. The lecture followed a luncheon to which were invited Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen, the former Schmidt-Nielsen Awardee, R. Clinton Webb, mentees of Dr. Carter-Su, awardees of the various APS award programs (tum Suden, Minority Travel, Porter Fellows, etc.), APS Council members, other trainees, and guests specified by the awardee. 

APS/ASPET Mentoring Workshop

One of the roles of the APS Women in Physiology Committee is to coordinate activities with other such committees within FASEB.  For IUPS/EB2005, the Women in Physiology Committee co-sponsored a workshop with ASPET Committee on Women in Pharmacology on "Managing a Laboratory."  This year ASPET was the primary lead on the workshop, since APS had taken the lead for the past few years.  Siribhinya Benyajati from the Women in Physiology Committee and Lynn Wecker from the Committee on Women in Pharmacology served as co-organizers. 

The workshop was designed to inform young physiologists of how to deal with many of the issues they will face starting their own laboratories. Four speakers discussed the following topics: Sue Piper Duckles (ASPET & APS), "Mentoring vs. Supervising," Carol Paronis (ASPET) "How to Delegate and Still Stay on Top of Things," Virginia Miller (APS) "Conflict Management or Managing Difficult Employees," and Stephanie Watts (ASPET & APS) "Developing a Budget."  More than 100 young and more senior scientists attended the session, with many remaining for discussions during a breakout session of six groups.  Each group was well represented by members of APS (Carole Liedtke) and ASPET (Carol Paronis, Michelle Kalis) and by members of the APS Women in Physiology Committee and ASPET Committee on Women in Pharmacology.  Each attendee to the workshop received a handout of resource material for the topics discussed by the speakers.  Comments after the session were very enthusiastic. 

Plans for an APS/APSET Workshop on Balancing Life and Career at EB2006

APS Women in Physiology and ASPET Women in Pharmacology Committees will once again partner to organize a mentoring workshop for EB 2006 in San Francisco, CA.  APS will serve as the lead organization on this session. APS co-chairs D. Damon and A. Schreihofer will coordinate planning with ASPET representative Laura Nisenbaum.  The focus of the workshop will be "Balancing Life and Career" with specific topics include balancing research, teaching, service activities, balancing job and family, and dual careers.  The target audience is young scientists of both genders interested in learning skills for their future/current careers.  The workshop also offers a venue for networking between junior and senior scientists. 

Mentoring Program

An APS Mentoring Program directed toward young physiologists in training and to junior faculty has been in existence since 1993.  Over the years the Committee and staff have tried many different formats and program components in an attempt to increase the utilization of the mentoring program by trainees.  However, the number of trainees requesting a mentor through the program remained negligible (about seven per year).  Members of the Committee agreed that the program was not successful in its current format and should be discontinued.  Committee efforts will instead be put into refining the mentoring website to make it even more useful and interactive, since it has already been cited by a national publication as being an excellent resource for mentoring and receives a considerable number of hits each month.

Caroline tum Suden/Frances Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Awards

The Women in Physiology Committee received 114 applications for the Caroline tum Suden/Frances Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Awards. This number of applications is comparable to those received in the past few years.  These awards provide monetary ($500) prizes and complimentary registration for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows of either gender who give presentations at the IUPS/EB meeting.  The applications include an abstract submitted for presentation at IUPS/EB and a supporting letter from the applicant indicating the goals of his/her research project, his/her specific role in the project described in the abstract, and the reasons why he/she is deserving of the award. One awardee, who was also a Minority Travel Award recipient, declined the monetary award and requested a 37^th awardee be named instead.  The Committee agreed and the first alternate was named as a tum Suden Awardee, so that 37 awards were given this year.  The Awardees were invited to attend the APS Business Meeting where they each received a certificate and a check for $500. 

FASEB Excellence in Science Award

The Chair of the Women in Physiology Committee serves as the APS representative to the FASEB selection committee for this prestigious award that carries a $10,000 cash prize (supported by Eli Lilly and Company) and the opportunity to present a plenary talk at a FASEB-sponsored meeting.  Competition is very rigorous for this award, and most nominees have extensive dossiers documenting their numerous contributions to research, education, service, and mentoring.  Anita Roberts of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD was selected the winner of the 2005 award.  The FASEB selection committee wanted to encourage more applications for this award and sent out a blast email notice for the 2006 award.  They received a total of 137 nominations for the award, of which 103 complete nominations were reviewed.  The Chair of the Women in Physiology Committee is precluded from coordinating a nomination because of the conflict of interest that this represents.  However, the Committee will review the APS nominees and select one or two to actively encourage and assist in enhancing their nomination packets for the next round of competition.

Serving on APS Committees

The Women in Physiology Committee actively encourages women to be active members of the APS by, for example, serving on APS Committees.  The Committee is particularly interested in those women who are elected within sections to leadership positions.  The committee is delighted that this year Sue Barman joins two women currently serving on APS Council, Carole Liedtke and Helen Raybould. The Committee also commends Virginia Miller for her service as Councillor from 2002 to 2005.  The committee also noted that Kim Barrett became the first woman to chair the Publications Committee and at least three sections are chaired by women.  Committee members were encouraged to actively work with their APS Section representatives as nominations for APS committees depend on the APS Section representatives serving on the Committee of Committees.

Nominations for awards

The Women in Physiology Committee was pleased to note the selection of three women scientists for the 2005 Distinguished Lectureships. The Committee continues to identify women scientists to nominate for the prestigious Bowditch and Cannon Awards, along with other APS and FASEB awards.

Other activities

The Women in Physiology Committee remains active through conference calls to identify ways to promote the advancement of women and young physiologists in APS, to engage in the identification of mentors and mentees, to encourage nomination of women for committees of APS and for APS and FASEB awards, and to select awardees for the Bodil Schmidt-Neilsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award and Caroline tum Suden Opportunity Award. 

Sirbhinya Benyajati, Chair

Council Actions

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

• Council approved the funding for a lunch and lecture by the Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Awardee at EB 2006.