Chapter News

The Arizona Physiological Society
A New APS Chapter

Stan Lindstedt
AzPS President
At the 2008 Experimental Biology Meeting in San Diego, 10 APS members from the Univ. of Arizona, Arizona State Univ., Midwestern Univ. and Northern Arizona Univ. met to sign a petition and to develop Bylaws necessary to establish an APS Chapter within the State of Arizona (AzPS). Bylaws from previous and current APS Chapters were used to formulate the one submitted and approved by the APS Chapter Advisory Committee (CAC). A major intent of the Arizona Chapter was to focus on the professional preparation of undergraduate and graduate students and for postdoctoral trainees; hence, an Executive Committee was established that contained a President, President Elect, Secretary-Treasurer, a Councillor representing Postdoctoral Trainees and a Councillor representing Graduate Students. The terms of office will be two years for the President, one year for the President-Elect, three years for the Secretary-Treasurer, and one year for the Councillors. With the exception of undergraduate students, all have voting privileges and participate in the governance process. After considering the advice from current and previous Chapter officials, AzPS planners decided to locate the Secretary-Treasurer office permanently within the Department of Physiology at the Tucson campus and for the department to host the annual meeting unless otherwise requested. This arrangement was enhanced by the decision of Dr. Nicolas Delamere, Chair of the Department of Physiology, to assign Mrs. Linda Baughn of the department as Membership Coordinator for the Chapter.

After approval of the Bylaws, AzPS was able to recruit 28 Undergraduate Students, 25 Graduate Students, 12 Postdoctoral Trainees, and 49 APS or APS qualified individuals to become Regular Members. An election was held that had 58% of the eligible voters participating with Stan Lindstedt of Northern Arizona Univ. being elected as President, Erik Henriksen of the Univ. of Arizona selected as the Secretary-Treasurer, Carrie Sharoff of Arizona State Univ. for the Councillor: Postdoctoral Trainee position with Hilary Wakefield, Univ. of Arizona as the Councillor: Graduate Student Member representative.

On November 7 and 8, an inaugural meeting was held in Tucson with 90 members in attendance from five different educational institutions with financial support from APS, the Arizona Physiological Science Program and funds from membership and registration fees. The program featured the appearance of Meredith Hay, Executive Vice-President, Provost, Professor of Physiology and an active member of APS and an informative symposium entitled, “Disrupted Signaling: Cause or Consequences in Cardiovascular Diseases;” oral presentations by 12 Graduate Students, four Postdoctoral Students, and four Regular Members (Figure 2). Additionally, there were poster presentations by seven Undergraduate Students, 13 Graduate Students, 4 Postdoctoral Trainees, and five Regular Members. The APS sponsored Keynote Lecture was presented by Virginia Huxley of the Univ. of Missouri, whose interesting talk was entitled “When it comes to exchange, in health and disease, males and females follow different rules, or what the textbooks don’t know.” An equally well received presentation was the Distinguished Arizona Lecture by Douglas Stuart. His title was “Significance of integrative and comparative approaches in studies on the neurophysiology of movement.”

As required by the Bylaws, a business meeting was held which featured an announcement of officers, distribution of awards (N=6) for oral and poster presentations and an unexpected lively discussion period. However, the highlight of the meeting was the reception that followed the lecture given by Dr. Huxley. Needless to say, a good time “was had by all.”

Charles M. Tipton
for the Planning Committee
Select overview of the 28 posters on display. Presentation of Graduate Student Zelieann Rivera from the University of Arizona. Reception interactions between Nicholas Delamere, Stan Lindstedt and John Konhilas.
Keynote Lecture by Dr. Virginia Huxley. Dr. Stuart attempting to persuade and intimidate Dr. Charles Tipton on changing the meeting location for 2009.

 

 

 

 

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