American Physiological Society Announces 2023 Award Recipients

Rockville, Md. (April 13, 2023)—The American Physiological Society (APS) is pleased to announce the recipients of the Society’s most prestigious and highly competitive awards. Awardees will be recognized for their achievements at the American Physiology Summit, APS’ flagship annual meeting, to be held April 20–23, 2023, in Long Beach, California.

Curt Sigmund, PhD, FAPS, James J. Smith & Catherine Welsch Smith Chair of Physiology, chair of the Department of Physiology and associate director of the Cardiovascular Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, is the 2023 Physiology in Perspective: The Walter B. Cannon Award lecturer. This lectureship is the most prestigious award that APS bestows and recognizes the lifetime achievement of an outstanding physiological scientist and APS member. Sigmund gave the lecture “A Multigenerational Exploration of Vascular Smooth Muscle Control” at a virtual event on February 23, 2023. Watch the Cannon lecture on-demand.

Gina Yosten, PhD, a tenured associate professor of pharmacology and physiology at Saint Louis University, is this year’s recipient of the Henry Pickering Bowditch Award Lectureship for early-career achievement. The Bowditch award recognizes original and outstanding accomplishments in the field of physiology and is given to an APS member younger than 42 or who is fewer than eight years from the start of their first faculty or staff research scientist position beyond postdoctoral training. Yosten gave the lecture “An Orphan Finds a Home: Exploring the Roles of Orphan GPCRs in Human Metabolic Diseases” at a virtual event on March 7, 2023. Watch the Bodwitch lecture on-demand.

Read more about Sigmund and Yosten.

David Allison, PhD, dean of the School of Public Health and provost professor at Indiana University Bloomington, is the 2023 recipient of the Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award. This award honors an APS member who has made outstanding contributions to physiological research and demonstrated dedication and commitment to mentorship. Allison will share his thoughts on mentoring in an on-demand virtual lecture, sponsored by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, on May 11, 2023.

Mark Nelson, PhD, University Distinguished Professor and chair of the University of Vermont Department of Pharmacology, is the recipient of the 2023 Annual Marion J. Siegman Lectureship. This award recognizes an established investigator who has made outstanding contributions to the understanding of muscle contraction and motility. Nelson will give a talk titled “A Look into Brain Blood Vessels: When They Work and Don’t” at the American Physiology Summit on April 20, 2023, at 1 p.m. PDT, in Long Beach Convention Center Room 201A.

The following awardees will be recognized at a ceremony at the Long Beach Convention Center on Sunday, April 23, 2023, at 7:45 a.m. PDT, on the PhysioHub Discovery Stage.

Carie Boychuk, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science at San Antonio, for the Beverly Petterson Bishop Award for Excellence in Neuroscience.

Erica Dale, PhD, assistant professor at the University of Florida, for the Giles F. Filley Memorial Award for Excellence in Respiratory Physiology and Medicine.

Melinda Engevik, PhD, assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, for the Lazaro J. Mandel Young Investigator Award, which recognizes a researcher in the field of epithelial or renal physiology.

Cameron McCarthy, PhD, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, for the Shih-Chun Wang Young Investigator Award, which recognizes a researcher in the physiological sciences.

Jaime Vantrease, PhD, research assistant professor at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in Chicago, for the Dean Franklin Young Investigator Award, which recognizes a researcher performing in vivo physiological research and establishing an independent laboratory. The Dean Franklin award is sponsored by Harvard Bioscience.

The John F. Perkins Jr. Research Career Enhancement Award allows an early-career researcher to obtain special training or an established researcher to develop new skills or retrain in areas of developing interest. This year’s recipients are:

• Maria Alicia Carrillo-Sepulveda, PhD, assistant professor at the New York Institute of Technology
• William Wesley Dowd, PhD, associate professor at Washington State University
• Adam Konopka, PhD, assistant professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Rian Landers-Ramos, PhD, assistant professor at Towson University in Maryland

The Teaching Career Enhancement Award allows an educator to develop innovative and potentially widely applicable programs for teaching and learning physiology. This year’s recipients are:

• Lourdes Alarcon Fortepiani, PhD, professor at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio
• Sheree Johnson, PhD, assistant professor, Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C.

APS also honors members of its 12 system-based sections with distinguished lectureships. Meet the 2023 distinguished lecturers.

NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: For more information, please contact APS Media Relations or call 301.634.7314. Find research highlights in the APS Newsroom.

Physiology is a broad area of scientific inquiry that focuses on how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function in health and disease. The American Physiological Society connects a global, multidisciplinary community of more than 10,000 biomedical scientists and educators as part of its mission to advance scientific discovery, understand life and improve health. The Society drives collaboration and spotlights scientific discoveries through its 16 scholarly journals and programming that support researchers and educators in their work.