APS Conferences

Comparative Physiology 2006: Integrating Diversity
Physiological Genomics and Proteomics of Lung Disease

Meeting Organizer, David Goldstein at the Banquet and Awards Dinner.

The 2006 APS Intersociety Meeting: Comparative Physiology 2006: Integrating Diversity was held in the seaside city of Virginia Beach, VA. The meeting took place over four days at the modern Virginia Beach Convention Center, which was a short distance from the sandy beaches, lapping waves, and the oceanfront boardwalk. The Organizing Committee, chaired by David Goldstein, Wright State University, included Jon Harrison, Arizona State University; Harvey Lillywhite, University of Florida; Berry Pinshow, Ben Gurion University of the Negev; and Nora Terwilliger, University of Oregon. The organizers worked together to select the wide array of different symposia, plenary lectures, speakers, topics, and social networking opportunities in order to make this meeting exciting and productive for the attendees.

The conference was attended by 363 total registrants, of whom 35% of registrants were represented by young scientists, including 23 postdoctoral and 104 students. Fifty-eight attendees were APS members (16%), 53 attendees were nonmembers (15%), and invited chairs and speakers made up the remaining 122 registrants (33%). Table 1 (below) shows the breakdown of the different registration types. The meeting program also attracted a large group of registrants from outside of the United States. Out of the 363 registrants, 129 (36%) represented countries from Australia, Argentina, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Turkey, South Africa, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
The meeting program consisted of a series of concurrent symposia each morning on a wide variety of topics. The audience was encouraged to share their ideas and thoughts with the speakers at the end of their talks. Each afternoon the attendees were invited to listen to distinguished keynote lecturers in the field of comparative physiology in the plenary sessions. The plenary lecturers were Theunis Piersma, University of Groningen; Tyrone Hayes, University of California, Berkeley; Terrie Williams, University of California, Santa Cruz; and Carlos Martinez del Rio from the University of Wyoming, respectively. The meeting also had several social activities including a Welcome and Opening Reception, which gave the attendees a chance to meet with long time colleagues and enjoy some hot and cold hors d’oeuvres and wine. There were also four poster sessions where scientists presented their work. A social event held on Monday at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center provided registrants with an opportunity to view many different underwater animals including, sea turtles, seals, and numerous species of fish. The evening was concluded with a 3-D Imax Presentation of The Deep, which took the audience on an underwater tour of some of our deepest oceans.

APS President-Elect, Hannah Carey and co-organizer, Jon Harrison congratulate the Scholander Award winner (Schilder) and runner-ups. L-R: Hannah Carey, Rudolf Schilder, Sami Noujaim, Peter Piermarini, Maria Serrat, and Jon Harrison.

A total of 292 abstracts were submitted for the meeting. A hundred and ninety-one of these abstracts were programmed as poster presentations. The remaining 101 abstracts were submitted by invited speakers. Of the abstracts submitted for the meeting, 73 (20%) had a female first author; 109 (37%) were submitted from institutions outside of the United States, including 46 from Canada, 36 from Europe, eight from Australia, seven from Taiwan, as well as abstracts from Argentina, Israel, Iran, Nigeria, and South Africa.

On Wednesday evening, Goldstein hosted the Banquet and Awards Presentation dinner, which also included the Scholander Lecture. Attendees gathered at the Sheraton Oceanfront ballroom for evening dinner, wine and conversation with new and old colleagues. After much anticipation, the winner of the highly competitive Scholander Competition was announced. The first place winner was Rudolf Schilder from Pennsylvania State University. Schilder received a certificate, waived registration, and a cash prize. Three runner-ups were also recognized at the presentation for their work presented in the competition, including Maria Serrat, Kent State University; Peter Piermarini, Cornell University; and Sami Noujaim, SUNY, Upstate. Each received a cash prize and a certificate. The banquet concluded with the Scholander Lecture which was presented by David Jones of the University of British Columbia.

There were 42 recipients of the Research Recognition Award for Outstanding Abstract by a Graduate Student or Postdoctoral Fellow presented earlier in the meeting. The following awardees were presented with a certificate and cash prize: Gisela Lannig, Alfred Wegner Institute, Germany; Leslie Babonis, University of Florida; Tomasz Owerkowicz, University of Adelaide, Australia; Julia Rein, University of Potsdam, Germany; Timothy Muir, Miami University; Kenneth Welch, University of California, Santa Barbara; Bettina Schewe, University of Potsdam, Germany; Cheng-Hao Tang, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan; Niv Palgi, Ben Gurion University, Israel; Pei-Jen Wang, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan; I-Dar Shen, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan; Francois Vezina, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, The Netherlands; Amanda Szucsik, University of California, Irvine; Nathan Miller, Michigan State University; Lobke Vaanholt, University of Groningen, The Netherlands; Jody Wujcik, University of Maine; Dominique Maillet, University of Ottawa; Catalina Reyes, University of British Columbia; Michael Elnitsky, Miami University; Susan Smith, University of Rhode Island; Patrick Baker, Miami University; Johannes Overgaard, National Environment Research Institute, Denmark; Jill Prewitt, University of Alaska, Anchorage; Keri Lestyk, University of Alaska, Anchorage; Blazej Andziak, City College of New York; Gian Paolo Volpato, Massachusetts General Hosp.; Andrew Carroll, Harvard University; L. Elaine Epperson, University of Colorado Health Science Center; T. Todd Jones, University of British Columbia; Rashpal Dhillon, Queen’s University, Canada; Emanuel Azizi, Brown University; Brian Bostrom, University of British Columbia; Mette Hagensen, University of Aarhus, Denmark; Kristin Schubert, University of Groningen, The Netherlands; Elizabeth Orr, University of Alberta; Chun-Yen Huang, Tunghai University, Taiwan; Nann Fangue, University of British Columbia; Lene Petersen, Memorial University of Newfoundland; Alexander Gerson, University of Western Ontario; and Rebecca Watson, University of California, San Diego. Graham Scott of the University of British Columbia and C. Jaco Klok of Arizona State University were awarded the August Krogh Research Recognition Travel Award. In addition, Sydella Blatch, Arizona State University; Andrew Clark, University of California, Irvine; Sue Ebanks, University of Florida; Erica Gonzalez, Baylor College of Medicine; Mervin Hastings, University of British Columbia; and Adrianne Prysock of the Georgia Institute of Technology were the recipients of the Porter Physiology Development Committee’s Minority Travel Fellowship Award, which is provided to encourage participation of under-represented minority students. With support from the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the fellowship provides reimbursement of all expenses associated with travel and participation in the conference. The recipients were matched with the following APS members: Gregory Florant, Colorado State University; Holly Shiels, University of Manchester; Siribhinya Benyajati, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center; Alice Villalobos, University of Rochester; Amanda Southwood, University of North Carolina, Wilmington; and Thomas Roberts, Brown University, who were attending the conference, offered guidance and made introductions to the other scientists.

The American Physiological Society and the Organizing Committee gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided through generous educational grants from NIH-NIDDK, National Science Foundation, The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, the European Society for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry, Sable Systems International, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Journal, Journal of Experimental Biology, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology Journal and the American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Attendees discuss their work during the poster sessions.	David Jones presented the Scholander Lecture during the banquet.

2006 APS Conference
Physiological Genomics and Proteomics of Lung Disease
November 2-5, 2006, Fort Lauderdale, FL

Usha Raj congratulates the student winners of the Research Recognition Award for Outstanding Abstract, from L-R: Mathieu Marino, Xiaoming Gong, Melanie Konigshoff, Vihas Vasu, Stephanie Kaestle, and Usha Raj.

The conference was attended by 138 total registrants, of whom 15% of registrants were represented by young scientists, including nine postdoctoral and 11 students. Twenty-six attendees were APS members (19%), 48 attendees were non-members (34%), and invited chairs and speakers made up the remaining 44 registrants (32%). Table 1 (below) shows the breakdown of the different registration types. The meeting program also attracted a large group of registrants from outside of the United States. Out of the 138 registrants, 19 (14%) represented countries from Brazil, Canada, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.

The meeting program consisted of five symposia on a wide variety of topics. The audience was encouraged to share ideas and thoughts with the speakers at the end of their talks. There were also two sessions that included short oral presentations of submitted abstracts that gave postdoctoral fellows and students the opportunity to present their work to their peers. During the meeting there were two keynote lectures that were presented. Allen Cowley, Jr., of the Medical College of Wisconsin discussed a topic entitled, “Genomic Approaches to Complex Diseases,” and David Schwartz of National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH presented, “Environmental Genomics and Human Health.” The meeting also had several social activities including a Welcome and Opening Reception, which gave the attendees a chance to meet with long time colleagues and enjoy some hot and cold hors d’oeuvres and wine. There were also two poster sessions where scientists presented their work.

Meeting organizer Usha Raj (right), congratulates the postdoctoral fellows winners of the Research Recognition Award for Outstanding Abstract. From L-R: Judie Howrylak, Om Singh, Jeffrey Lande, and Usha Raj.

A total of 58 abstracts were submitted for the meeting. Fifty of these abstracts were programmed as poster presentations. The remaining eight abstracts were submitted by invited speakers. Of the abstracts submitted for the meeting, 19 (33%) had a female first author; 11 (19%) were submitted from institutions outside of the United States, including eight from Europe, two from South Korea, and one from Brazil.
 

On Saturday evening, Raj hosted the Banquet and Awards Presentation dinner. Attendees gathered at the hotel’s ballroom for evening dinner, wine, and conversation with new and old colleagues. During the dinner, eight postdoctoral fellows and students were recognized as the recipients of the Research Recognition Award for Outstanding Abstract by a Graduate Student or Postdoctoral Fellow. The following individuals were presented with a certificate and cash prize: Jeffrey Lande, University of Minnesota; Om Singh, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Judie Howrylak, University of Pittsburgh; Stephanie Kaestle, Charite University of Medicine, Berlin, Germany; Vihas Vasu, University of California, Davis; Melanie Konigshoff, University of Giessen Lung Center, Germany; Xiaoming Gong, Cleveland Clinic Foundation; and Mathieu Marino, University of Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, Jessenia Alcocer, Universidad Metropolitana, Puerto Rico and Arnaldo Pica, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, were the recipients of the Porter Physiology Development Committee’s Minority Travel Fellowship Award, which is provided to encourage participation of under-represented minority students. With support from the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the fellowship provides reimbursement of all expenses associated with travel and participation in the conference. The recipients were matched with two APS members: Thomas Schmidt, University of Iowa, and Oliver Eickelberg, University of Giessen, Germany, who were attending the conference, offered guidance and made introductions to the other scientists.

		Table 1. Registration Statistics.
		Registration Type   APS Member Nonmember Postdoctoral Student Invited Chairs/Speakers Total	Number of Attendees (%)   26 (19) 48 (34) 9 (7) 11 (8) 44 (32) 138
Raj presents Jessenia Alcocer a certificate for the Porter Physiology Development Committee’s Minority Travel Fellowship Award.

The American Physiological Society and the Organizing Committee gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided through generous educational grants from NIH-NIDDK, NIH-NHLBI, NIH-NIEHS, and Sepracor, Inc.

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