APS News

Hall Thanks APS Staff
Council Meets in Bethesda

Hall Thanks APS Staff
    APS President John E. Hall hosted a staff appreciation reception for the Society’s 70 employees at the Beaumont House on the FASEB campus in Bethesda, Maryland. Together with Executive Director Martin Frank, Hall thanked the staff for their efforts over the past year. He pointed out that during his membership he had served as the Chair of a Section, the Chair of the Section Advisory Committee, an Editor of an APS journal, a member of Council, and now President; he could testify to the overall excellence of the staff. Because of the efforts of the staff, APS continues to provide its members with the quality of service, programs, and journals they have come to expect.
    A major portion of the staff appreciation reception is the recognition of years of service to the Society. This year, Hall presented 20-year certificates to Linda Allen (Meetings and Membership Department) and Penny Kirby (Business Office); 15-year certificates to Melinda Lowy (Executive Office), Krysia Moore (Publications Department), and Santa Vadala (Executive Office); and 5-year certificates to Penelope Cochran (Peer Review Department) and Marsha Sanders (Publications Department). Hall expressed Council’s appreciation for their years of service. 
In addition, Hall recognized Jean Shao, Assistant Business Manager, for 22 years of service to the Society on the occasion of her August 1 retirement.
    Martin Frank also recognized the contributions of Linda Allen, Membership Services Manager, for her outstanding and dedicated efforts in ensuring that the scientific sessions and program for the Experimental Biology 2001 meeting were a reality despite the problems associated with the electronic submission of abstracts.
    Hall conveyed the gratitude of the Society’s leadership for the efforts of all the staff in helping to implement the actions of the Council, the committees, and the editors and remarked that, with the staff’s help, APS would continue to serve the needs of the physiology community through the implementation of the Society’s APS Strategic Plan. 

APS President John Hall and Executive Director Martin Frank presented recognition certificates to Melinda Lowy, Santa Vadala, Krysia Moore, Linda Allen, Marcia Sanders, and Penny Kirby.

Council Meets in Bethesda
    The APS summer Council meeting was held in Bethesda, MD, at the APS Headquarters Office on July 13-15, 2001. During the summer meeting, Council meets with the committee chairs, receiving reports on the committees’ accomplishments during the past year, and listening to their plans for the coming year. These committee reports are published in this issue of The Physiologist. 
    One of the most exciting developments this year was the establishment of a public relations effort. The Task Force on Communciations/Public Information spearheaded this effort. The Society has selected a tri-fold approach to its initiative to improve communication with the general public. First, in June, a public relations firm, the Krupa Company, was selected after a general “Call for Proposals” to work with the Society to develop a public relations effort on behalf of APS meetings, journals, and awards. Second, a Communications Specialist was hired on staff to begin coordinating efforts between the Krupa Company and the Society. Third, at this Council meeting, a new committee, the Communications Committee, was established and Council approved nominations for the initial group of Committee members. This Committee will act to formulate the Society’s policies for the promotion of physiology and the Society’s activities; work with the Communications Specialist, communications firm, and appropriate committees to help identify media-appropriate elements of the Society’s journals, meetings, awards, and other activities to promote; work with the Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology to determine the best means of promoting physiology; and develop methods for early identification of journal articles appropriate for promotion, utilizing reviewers and/or editors of APS journals.
    This same Task Force on Communications/Public Information also has been working on a Consensus Conference on Training Programs in Integrative Physiology/Pharmacology. Participants in the conference would include leaders in the genomics/proteomics/bioinformatics fields and representatives from industry, academia (both human and veterinary medical schools), and funding agencies. These people would work to help define the problem, review relevant data to determine whether concerns about the lack of qualified people were valid, discuss the impact it would have on the future of biomedical research, and develop potential solutions to the problem. The conference would culminate in the formulation and dissemination of a White Paper.
    Other Task Forces currently meeting include a Task Force on Sections and Groups and a Task Force on Translational Medicine. The Task Force on Sections and Groups proposed and Council endorsed the concept of having the funds for the Distinguished Lecturer activities and the Featured Topics deposited into discretionary accounts for each section, which can be carried over from year to year. This will allow the sections flexibility in dealing with events associated with the Distinguished Lecturer or the Featured Topics. A new award, the David S. Bruce Undergraduate Research Poster Award, was approved by Council in memory of David Bruce, former Chair of the Teaching of Physiology Section. Up to four awards will be made to undergraduate students presenting research posters at the Experimental Biology meeting, starting most likely in 2003. 
    New task forces initiated at the summer Council meeting include a Task Force on Awards, a Task Force on Foundations/Fund Raising, and a Task Force on Trainees. Council will be working to identify appropriate Chairs and members for these task forces this fall.
    The Publications Committee continues to capitalize on the latest in technology to better disseminate the research published in the Society’s journals. Immediate publication of accepted research articles began in August with the initiation of Articles in PresS. Authors will be asked to allow their accepted articles to be placed online immediately, allowing for primacy of publication. Articles will be citable as online publications and that citation information will be included in the final published version. Council also approved a new service called S-Proofs that will allow authors to receive their page proofs electronically as an Adobe PDF file. This will help to decrease the time from acceptance to final publication. An option will exist to allow authors to receive hard copy page proofs with color figures, but there will be a charge for that service. The Society’s last 10 years of legacy data are scheduled to be scanned and placed online this year, with another 10 years each succeeding year. The cost to do this has risen substantially, but Council remained adamant about the importance of making the journals and the research contained within them available to the world. Council also approved a business plan that will be used to manage an online text book entitled Cell Physiology: Molecular Dynamics that was donated to APS by its author, Henry Tedeschi. This model will be used for future online books. A new committee, the Book Advisory Committee (made up of the former Handbook Committee, Technical Book Committee and History Book Committee), has been instituted to deal with online books and especially to develop an online Handbook of Physiology.
    The Career Opportunities in Physiology, Education, Liaison with Industry, and Women in Physiology Committees are also planning to make good use of web technology in the coming year. The Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee is working to update the careers portion of the APS web site and the careers brochure. Plans include having information available on graduate programs in physiology, potential career paths available to physiologists, and awards and fellowships for students. The Education Committee will be focusing this fall on the development of the APS Archive of Teaching Resources as part of the BioSciEd Net, a project sponsored by NSF as part of the National Digital Library. BioSciEd Net is a multi-society project that involves AAAS, American Society for Microbiology, Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment (STKE), National Association of Biology Teachers, and Ecological Society of America, as well as APS. In addition, the Education Committee is working to develop plans for a series of web-based, self-directed mini-tutorials for graduate and postdoctoral students. Ideas for tutorials include seminar preparation and delivery, poster development and presentation skills, mentoring and being mentored, and writing and reviewing skills. The latter two tutorials will be developed with the aid of the Women in Physiology Committee, which held and will hold Mentoring Workshops at the Experimental Biology meeting on these topics. The Liaison with Industry Committee will be assisting in developing the appropriate material regarding careers in industry for each of these projects. 
    The Animal Care and Experimentation and Public Affairs Committees have also been working to revise their portions of the APS web site. The new site will provide a “Legislative Action Center” with timely information on issues related to research funding and animal research, as well as general information on contacting members of Congress. A commercial software package will be installed to enable APS members to generate a personalize letter to a member of Congress using a message prepared by the appropriate Committee or public affairs staff. This should enable members to more easily let their representatives on Capital Hill know their positions on issues of importance.
    Additional details of the Council’s actions during the July meeting will be communicated to the membership at the next APS Business Meeting and can be found in the committee reports included in this issue of The Physiologist. 

APS Council: back row (l to r): Dale Benos, Judith Neubauer, Steven Hebert, Jo Rae Wright, Robert Carroll, Douglas Eaton, and Mordecai Blaustein. Front row (l to r): Celia Sladek, Hannah Carey, Gerald DiBona, Barbara Horwitz, John Hall, Kim Barrett, and J.R. Haywood		Committee Chairs: back row (l to r): Thomas Peterson, Glenn Reinhart, William Talman, Mordecai Blaustein, and Thomas Herzig. Front row (l to r): Dale Benos, Celia Sladek, Judith Neubauer, John Stallone, Susan Barman, Hector Rasgado-Flores, and Robert Carroll.

[Table of Contents] [Collaborating With Industry: The Rules of the Game] [A Matter of Opinion] [Careers] [Section News] [Chapter News] [Education] [Membership] [ APS Committee Reports] [Experimental Biology 2002] [Physiology and EB 2001] [Public Affairs] [Sustaining Associates] [Book Reviews] [Positions Available] [People & Places] [News From Senior Physiologists ] [Announcements] [APS Membership Application] [Scientific Meetings and Congresses]