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The 35th IUPS Congress
National Organizing Committee allocated funds for a travel award program to
encourage the participation of young scientists in the Congress. The goal of
the program was to provide travel grants to physiologists from developing
countries, as well as women and under-represented minorities who were within
15 years of receiving their doctoral degrees. The IUPS received 413
applications for the travel award program and were able to make awards to
167 applicants. The awards ranged in amount from $1,500 to $500.
Unfortunately, because of financial difficulties and visa problems, only 140
candidates were actually able to attend the Congress.
For those who were able to attend, their participation in the Congress was
eye-opening and life changing. As noted by one award recipient, “The
fruitful discussion with other participants gave us all new research ideas
and new collaboration connections. The scientific sessions were simply
excellent, bringing the frontier of science. The IUPS congress is one of the
most important congresses I attend. I will start new projects and apply new
grants based on the ideas I had in the congress. I also got some personal
feedback from my presentation.” Another award recipient commented “This
experience of participation in the 35th IUPS Congress opened a new window
for me. It helped me to get a new understanding of America and science. I
got to know so many excellent scientists and what they were doing. At the
same time I was moved by warm-hearted Americans.”
After the Congress, award recipients were asked to complete a survey to help
the National Organizing Committee to assess the value of the travel award
program. Of the 119 respondents to a Post-Congress Travel Award Recipient
Survey, 56 award recipients were graduate students and 37 received their
doctoral degrees between 2000 and 2004. The respondents were asked how they
would rate the 35th IUPS Congress, 87% or 104 rated the Congress as an 8 or
higher (with 10 being best). While only 37% of the awardees combined their
attendance at the Congress with a visit to a research laboratory or
attendance at a satellite meeting, over 78% used the Congress as an
opportunity to develop collaborative research projects with colleagues.
Similarly, 70% used the Congress as a means of identifying opportunities to
work in another laboratory.
As noted in Table 1, the largest group of applications came from the Asian/Oceanan
region which includes India (31 applications), Pakistan (8 applications),
China (29 applications), Japan (7 applications), and Australia (13
applications). From Europe, the participation was greatest from the United
Kingdom (13 applications), Russia (14 applications), and Hungary (9
applications). From Africa, Nigerian physiologist submitted 26 applications
and 9 were submitted by Egyptian scientists. Mexico (7 applications),
Venezuela (6 applications), Brazil (10 applications) and Argentina (4
applications) contributed the most applications from Latin America. Overall,
40% of 413 award applicants received awards to attend the Congress.
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Table 1. Distribution of IUPS Travel Applications and Awards. |
Africa
Latin America
Asian
Europe
Canada
United States
Total |
Applications
56
36
135
104
16
66
413
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Awards
26
18
53
44
5
21
167 |
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