|
Mine is the tale of the mortar
between the bricks. In writing this, I realize that it is a tale of the
nebulous world of those who liaise between societies and organizations that
are the recognizable “bricks.” The reason I can relate my tale is that I
happened to become the chair of the official group that extended the
invitation to hold the hold the 35th IUPS congress in the United States in
San Diego in conjunction with EB 2005. The task for me actually began back
in 1986 when as a junior faculty person attending her first IUPS meeting in
Vancouver, Canada I was invited to participate as a member of the then IUPS
Commission on Microcirculation by Professors Christen Crone of Denmark,
Peter Gaehtgens of then West Germany, and Eugene Renkin of the US. Through
Gaehtgens’ work that group met frequently at EB, and Microcirculatory
functions throughout the world in conjunction with World Congresses, and
regional or national meetings. It was an introduction into the world of
people with like passions meeting about the apparently mundane matters of
sharing information between societies and organizing future gathers from
afar. Having learned several of the acronyms for societies, government
agencies, universities, and other nefarious groups, I was asked by the
Microcirculatory Society to act in their stead as a member of the United
States National Commit-tee to the International Union of Physiological
Sciences (USNC/IUPS). This group, under the auspices of the US National
Academies of Sciences, represents the community of Physiological Sciences in
the United States to the parent international organization, the IUPS, and
serves as a national liaison committee. The community of physiological
sciences (“the US bricks”) consists of The American Physiological Society (APS),
The Society for Neuroscience (SFN), The Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES),
The Society for Comparative & Integrative Biology (SCIB), The Society for
General Physiologists (SGP), and The Microcirculatory Society (MCS). They
are represented by the President-elect, President, and Past-President of the
APS, two members of SFN, a single member from BMES, SCIB, SGP, and MCS,
respectively, and two at-large members. IUPS officers residing in the US,
the Executive Director of the APS and others deemed helpful to the mission
of the USNC (read: Professors Shu Chien and Stan Schultz as Chair and
Chair-emeritus of the National Organizing Committee for the 2005 meeting).
To facilitate transfer of information between the groups, the USNC/IUPS
generally meets twice a year, once with EB and once again in the fall at the
US National Academy.
With respect to the 2005 meeting, my role represents a journey begun by
Stanley Schultz and the US delegation to the 33rd IUPS congress in St.
Petersburg, Russia where he presented the invitation on behalf of the US
National Academies for the IUPS to hold the XXXV IUPS Congress in the United
States. My task was to shepherd this invitation to Christchurch to the
delegates of the XXXIV Congress in 2001 on behalf of the USNC. In the
interval between St. Petersburg and Christchurch, the members of the USNC
worked with the IUPS to review how congresses were run, how sites were
chosen, how congresses were financed; we examined with our member societies
whether there was still a place for large international meetings and how the
science we conduct is shared. In Christchurch, we presented a proposal which
was a culmination of this review and a departure from past history: leaving
the format of the traditional “stand alone” meeting to one that intersected
with disciplines related closely to physiological sciences, while still
maintaining the identity of IUPS Congress. The US National Committee
believed that the goal of IUPS, namely to promote the science of physiology
in the changing arena of the 21st century, would be advanced significantly
through endorsement of the proposal. Our further goal was that the attendees
benefit from access to the industrial exhibits, as well as an array of
results from life sciences hitherto not available at IUPS congresses. With
great concern the delegates ratified the notion of having the XXXV IUPS
Congress commence in advance of and then concurrently with EB 2005.
At the start of the 20th century, physiology was the principle basic
biomedical science. Over the century, it spawned disciplines whose US
members joined with the American Physiological Society to participate in EB
2005, including American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the
American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the
American Society for Investigative Pathology, the American Society for
Nutritional Sciences, American Association of Anatomists, and the American
Association of Immunologists. While the discipline of physiology was giving
rise to the other experimental biology disciplines, the focus of the
biomedical sciences was becoming more and more reductionist. With the
completion of the various genome projects the focus has shifted back to the
vital skills of the physiologist at examining and understanding function.
The theme of 2005 was indeed “From Genomes to Functions” and the meeting
format highlighted our internationally based skills before a large audience
that is becoming aware of the translation of genetic message to whole organ
function but without the physiologist’s perspective or skills. Thus, at
Christchurch we argued that the proposed changes would enhance, rather than
diminish, the identity of physiology and IUPS.
In the interval between meetings in Christchurch and San Diego, the tasks of
the USNC/IUPS focused on the formation of the NOC, chaired by Chien, and the
actual task of hosting a meeting. The other articles highlight the roles
played by those participants. The USNC/IUPS remained in touch with our home
societies soliciting information, funds, emotional and intellectual support;
we coordinated with the National Academies and their contacts within the
State Department to aid in the issuing of visas; we reviewed the proposals
for travel funds within the United States and from the International
community of scientists. Through it all, I doubt that even the people in my
laboratory, no less outside of the hierarchy of the APS and the
International Affairs office of the National Academies, would know who is a
member of the USNC/IUPS, no less what it does! Therefore, I have tried to
reconstruct a roster of its members who were with me at every step along the
way in Table 1.
My tasks ended at the meeting in San Diego where I had the opportunity to
thank the attendees for accepting our invitation on behalf of the societies,
to what was a unique interdisciplinary meeting with the opportunity to
integrate basic sciences with translational research where we focused on
physiological sciences moving from genomes to functions. Once my tasks were
done, I personally enjoyed the meeting and its science and look forward to
the 2009 XXXVI IUPS Congress in Kyoto, Japan. To the young members of the
societies, if you are asked to serve on a liaison committee, its success or
failure depends on your personal passion for your discipline, so if you have
it, please take on the role of mortar between the bricks.
|
Table 1: 1998-2005 USNC/IUPS Membership. |
IUPS Congress
Year
Chair
Vice Chair
APS
APS
APS
SNS
SNS
BMES
SGP
SICB
MCS
At-Large
At-Large
IUPS Officer
IUPS Officer
Ex officio
Ex officio
NAS staff |
St.
Petersburg
(1997)
1998
Schultz
Huxley
Schafer
Cowley
Navar
Spitzer
Shoukas
Oxford
Terwilliger
Huxley
Sarelius
Knobil
Chien
Schoen |
1999
Huxley
Cowley
Boron
Cowley
Navar
Humphrey
Spitzer
Shoukas
Oxford
Terwilliger
Huxley
Sarelius
Knobil
Chien
Schultz
Schoen |
2000
Huxley
Cowley
Boron
DiBona
Navar
Humphrey
Spitzer
Shoukas
Oxford
Terwilliger
Sarelius
Popel
Knobil
Chien
Schultz
Turner |
Christchurch
2001
Huxley
Cowley
Boron
DiBona
Hall
Houk
Spitzer
Shoukas
De Weer
Terwilliger
Sarelius
Popel
Rasgado-Flores
Chien
Cowley
Schultz
White |
2002
Huxley
Cowley
Horwitz
DiBona
Hall
Houk
Landmesser
Greene
De Weer
Burnett
Sarelius
Popel
Rasgado-Flores
Neill
Cowley
Schultz
Chien
Sheahan |
2003
Huxley
Cowley
Horwitz
Williams
Hall
Houk
Landmesser
Greene
De Weer
Burnett
Sarelius
Popel
Rasgado-Flores
Neill
Cowley
Schultz
Chien
Sheahan |
2004
Huxley
Cowley
Horwitz
Williams
Granger
Houk
Landmesser
Greene
De Weer
Burnett
Sarelius
Popel
Rasgado-Flores
Neill
Cowley
Schultz
Chien
Sheahan |
San Diego
2005
Huxley
Cowley
Eaton
Willams
Granger
Houk
Landmesser
Greene
De Weer
Burnett
Sarelius
Popel
Neill
Cowley
Schultz
Chjen
Sheahan |
| |
 |
| Peter Agre,
Allen Cowley, D. Neil Granger, and Virginia Huxley listen as Shu Chien
addresses the Congress participants at the Opening Ceremony. |
| |
|
