The International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) is an organization which brings together physiologists from throughout the world. The unifying objective or physiologists is to increase mankind's understanding of the functions of cells, tissues, organs and organ systems of animals and humans.
The union recently completed an assessment by its Long Range Planning Committee to help guide union directions and activities. Recommendations from the report are already being implemented.
The U.S. National Committees (USNCs) represent the United States scientific community in the international structure of the unions, work to promote positive international engagement and collaboration, and serve as bridges between the National Academies, the many disciplinary societies, scientific funding agencies, and individual American scientists.
The U.S. committee to IUPS supports the growth of biology by:
- Serving as a neutral venue where representatives of U.S. professional societies, government agencies, and other important stakeholders can meet to discuss trends in their disciplines
- Acting as a communication bridge between the U.S. and international scientific communities
- Initiating and facilitating activities on important disciplinary and trans-disciplinary issues
- Collaborating with other national and international organizations interested in the advancement of the biological sciences
Representing the U.S. in the International Network of the Union
The U.S. National Committee nominates scientists for leadership positions in the union, votes on union business matters, and sends a delegation of scientists to represent the U.S. in the quadrennial IUPS Congresses.
The IUPS Congress and General Assembly was hosted by the United States on March 31 – April 5, 2005, in San Diego, California, in association with the annual meeting of the American Physiological Society (part of the annual FASEB Experimental Biology meeting). Over 10,000 scientists participated in the 2005 Experimental Biology meeting, with over 5,600 participating in the IUPS Congress. The sessions of the Congress were organized into 15 thematic tracks covering frontiers in physiology, with talks progressing from genome to function levels. As part of the young scientist travel program, over 160 young researchers received support from the IUPS, the USNC-IUPS (with funding from NSF), and the American Physiological Society. A successful satellite education workshop was also held.
Supporting Education and Opportunities for Younger Scientists
The IUPS values the active participation of younger researchers in the international Congresses and offers young scientist travel grants for presenting authors of accepted abstracts. The union supported 154 young investigators from 34 counties to attend the 2009 Congress, including 12 from the U.S. and 2 from Puerto Rico. IUPS funds are also used to support junior faculty and student participation in IUPS-sponsored scientific meetings held in the periods between Congresses. In addition to the union program, the American Physiological Society and the U.S. National Committee to IUPS have also supported additional travel fellowships to encourage the participation of younger U.S. scientists in the international meetings.
As a complement to its young scientists travel support, the IUPS places an emphasis on effective physiology teaching. At each Congress, the IUPS Education Committee organizes a 3-4 day satellite teaching meeting, attended by 75-100 students and junior faculty members from around the world. In between Congresses, the Education Committee organizes 2-3 day regional workshops focused on teaching physiology in less affluent countries. Recent workshops were held in Kenya and Chile, In addition, the IUPS, American Physiological Society, University of Texas at Austin, and Rush Medical College participate in the initiative Physiology for the 21st Century, which is working to generate an updated set of inquiry-focused laboratory exercises to teach physiology concepts.
Developing Scientific Programs and Publishing Information
Peter Hunter (University of Auckland) and Aleksander Popel (Johns Hopkins University) are co-chairs of the IUPS Physiome and the Bioengineering Committee. The IUPS Physiome Project seeks to develop computational models to improve understanding of eukaryotic physiology, and it links together databases and models generated by laboratories around the globe. The physiome project website provides additional information about this worldwide collaborative initiative.
The principle journal of IUPS is Physiology, published jointly with the American Physiological Society. The journal focuses on review articles and highlights of new research developments. Editorials discussing news and current developments from IUPS are also published approximately twice per year. The current Editor in Chief of the journal is Walter Boron, Case Western Reserve University.
The National Academies currently convenes five U.S. National Committees in the biological sciences, one committee for each union to which it adheres. Members of the committees are scientists from academe, government and industry who represent the U.S. research community and who have a strong interest in international science. Members generally serve for 3-year terms and are eligible for re-appointment to a second 3-year term. Members of the Executive Boards of the biology unions who reside in the U.S. serve as ex-officio members and are also invited to be actively involved with the committees. Nominations for new members are sought from a variety of sources, including the members and other Boards within the National Academies, scientific societies, and the scientific community at large.
Support for the five U.S. National Committees in the biological sciences is provided by the Directorate for Biological Sciences
of the National Science Foundation.
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The 36th International Congress of Physiological Sciences was held in Kyoto, Japan, July 27-August 1, 2009 and attended by over 4,000 participants from 72 countries. Walter Boron, Case Western Reserve University, was elected IUPS Secretary-General. Malcolm Gordon, University of California, Los Angeles, was elected Treasurer.