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Caroline R. Sussman
was selected by APS council as the first Chair of the newly created
Trainee Advisory Committee (TAC). She is serving a two-year term which
began January 1, 2004. Sussman recently completed a three-year term as
Trainee Representative to the Cell and Molecular Physiology Section
Steering Commit-tee and a three-year term on the APS Membership Committee.
The TAC is composed of the 12 trainee representatives from the Steering
Committees of each APS disciplinary section plus the two ex officio
trainee representatives from APS committees-at-large, Women in Physiology
and Animal Care and Experimentation. Additional ex officio members include
an Advisor and APS staff member. One TAC member serves as liaison to the
Careers Committee.
The TAC was created in response to guidelines set forth
by an APS Task Force on Trainees. The TAC was first convened during the
fall of 2003 with a goal of increasing the participation of young
scientists in their sections, and in APS as a whole. This helps both APS
and trainees by keeping APS relevant to the needs and interests of the
next generation of scientists and encouraging trainees to utilize the many
resources provided by APS for them. An added benefit is that it provides
tremendous opportunities to Trainee Representatives for networking and
building leadership skills.
The creation of this committee comes at a time when there is a growing
national consensus that the plight of young scientists in basic research
has evolved to be largely untenable. Several studies have indicated that
training periods exceeding 14 years are not unusual, and many are stuck
indefinitely in the “postdoctoral training” phase of their careers. There
is evidence that this unattractive situation has discouraged many of the
best and brightest from pursuing or continuing careers in basic research.
These issues have drawn the attention of several local and national
groups, most notably the National Academies’ Committee on Science,
Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP) which is actively engaged in
implementing policy changes to rectify the situation. One important
outgrowth of COSEPUP is the creation of the National Postdoctoral
Association (NPA) which has also undertaken many activities to improve the
postdoctoral landscape. To facilitate communication between the NPA and
the TAC Sussman is also a member of the NPA Outreach Committee.
A multifaceted approach is needed to improve the
training experience of young scientists, and the involvement of
disciplinary societies is a crucial aspect. One over-riding goal for the
TAC is to find its niche within the currently existing programs for
trainees provided by the NPA and others. For example, the TAC will build
on pre-existing resources provided by the Women in Physiology and the
Career Opportunities in Physiology Commit-tees, and not duplicate or
replace them. The Committee will draw on the unique perspectives of
trainees themselves to implement relevant activities which will include a
session at EB beginning in 2006, modifications to the APS student
newsletter to make it relevant to students and postdoctoral students, and
modifications to the APS Careers web site. To facilitate representation of
the interests of all APS members as the Committee embarks on these
activities, the TAC will also be sending out to the APS membership a brief
needs assessment survey.
Sussman is an Instructor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. She received a PhD in
Physiology from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT in 1997 under
the guidance of J. Larry Renfro in the Department of Physiology and
Neurobiology. Her thesis focused on the effects of heat-shock
protein-inducing stresses on renal transepithelial transport in primary
cultures of flounder renal proximal tubule and in the LLC-PK1 renal cell
line. Part of these studies involved optimizing conditions to promote
maximally differentiated physiological characteristics of the LLC-PK1
cells. Through this aspect of the work Sussman developed an interest in
the regulation of cellular proliferation and differentiation. To develop
this interest she did postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Robert H.
Miller in the Department of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve
University in Cleveland, OH where she examined the effects of a variety of
regulatory factors on the development of oligodendrocytes, the myelinating
cells of the CNS. Current work examines the roles of helix-loop-helix
transcription factors in balancing cellular proliferation and
differentiation during zebrafish development.
Sussman graduated cum laude in 1988 from Connecticut
College with distinction in Biology and an award for excellence in
Zoology. She received the CAMPS Procter and Gamble Professional
Opportunity Award and two graduate student fellowships from the University
of Connecticut for her graduate work. During her postdoctoral training she
won a Young Investigator travel award from the Society for Neurochemistry
and was the Case Western Reserve University nominee for the Burroughs
Wellcome Fund Career Award in 2000. She received a postdoctoral fellowship
from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and an NRSA (declined). She
was the first recipient of and is currently funded by a Young Investigator
Award postdoctoral-to-PI bridge grant from the Wadsworth Foundation.
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