IUPS is offering lecture awards for established researchers (presented as named lectures at the IUPS congresses) and travel awards primarily for physiologists in an early phase of their career.

Congress Travel Awards

The IUPS uses a percentage of revenues generated by prior Congresses to fund Travel Awards to future Congresses. Travel awards are intended for those whose funds for attending meetings is limited. Applications from early-career investigators (graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty/researchers) and those from countries with relatively low GDPs (as listed by the World Bank) are strongly encouraged.

IUPS Named Lectures

There are currently seven “named” lectures which are funded by IUPS and form an integral part of the IUPS congresses. The awardees are selected by the IUPS ExCo and some of  the IUPS commitees respectively in agreement with the programme committee. Self nominations are not applicable.

President’s Lecture The speaker of the president’s lecture is nominated by the president of IUPS to acknowledge the work of an outstanding physiologist by IUPS.

Wallace Fenn Lecture: it is nominated by IUPS Council AND endowed by the Wallace Fenn Fund.

Wallace Fenn

Wallace Fenn was instrumental in the founding of the IUPS in 1953. He served as Secretary General from 1959 to 1965, and President from 1968 to 1971. He is the editor of History of the International Congresses of Physiological Sciences, 1889-1968. His work on muscle physiology is recognized in the “Fenn Effect”, which is the relation between the energy liberated and the work done during contraction. (text: Denis Noble)

Reference: Rall, J.A. Sense and nonsense about the Fenn effect. Am J Physiol 1982 Jan;242(1):H1-6.  doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.1982.242.1.H1.

Ernst Knobil Lecture: The Knobil lecture is nominated by IUPS Commission III (Endocrinology).

Ernst Knobil

Ernst Knobil was 1st Vice President of the IUPS from 1997 to 2001. His work provided the basis for current understanding of the female reproductive system. His work enabled the development of the world’s first hormonal contraceptives. (text: Denis Noble)

Reference: Knobil and Neill’s Physiology of Reproduction (Third Edition) Copyright © 2006 Elsevier Inc.

Photo: Med.uth.edu. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://med.uth.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/profile-Ernst-Knobil.jpg> [Accessed 19 August 2020].

T. P. Feng Lecture, established by a donation from his daughter, Jane Feng. to supports a distinguished lectureship in the field of “nerve, muscle and synapse”

Te Pei Feng

T. P. Feng is considered one of the founders of modern Chinese neuroscience and physiology. He worked at University College London with the Nobel Prize winner, A V Hill, and also at the Universities of Cambridge (with E D Adrian) and Oxford (with J C Eccles). His research included the physiology of the neuromuscular junction and synaptic plasticity in central nervous system synapses. He became a President of the Chinese Physiological Society. (text: Denis Noble)

Reference: https://www.physiology.org/docs/default-source/archive_tphys/the-physiologist-newsletter-1984-february.pdf?sfvrsn=88aa3fcd_2

Schmidt-Nielsen Lecture is funded by a donation from the former International Conferences on Comparative Physiology and the Journal of Experimental Biology. The lecturer is nominated by IUPS Commission VII (Comparative Physiology).

Knut Schmidt-Nielsen

Knut Schmidt-Nielsen was President of the IUPS from 1980 to 1986. He is the founding editor of News in Physiological Sciences (now known as Physiology). He is regarded as the father of comparative physiology and integrative biology. (text: Denis Noble)

Reference: Vogel, S. (2008). “Knut Schmidt-Nielsen. 24 September 1915 — 25 January 2007”Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society54: 319–331. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2008.0010

Photo: Images.the-scientist.com. 2007. Knut Schmidt-Nielsen Dies. [online] Available at: <https://images.the-scientist.com/content/images/articles/52931/52931.jpg> [Accessed 19 August 2020].

Robert Pitts Lecture The lecture is nominated and funded by the Renal Section of Commission V.

Robert Pitts

Robert Pitts helped provide a fundamental understanding of the way the kidneys excreted acidic wastes and thereby maintained the body’s delicate biochemical balance between acidic and alkaline states. He is also known for his work on the organization of the Respiratory Center (the title of his publication in Physiological Reviews) (text: Denis Noble)

Reference: http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/pitts-robert.pdf

August Krogh Lecture funded and nominated by the Scandinavian Physiological Society.

August Krogh

August Krogh is the 1920 Nobel Laureate for Medicine or Physiology for the discovery of the mechanism of regulation of the capillaries in skeletal muscle. He was a pioneer in comparative physiology with publications on The Respiratory Exchange of Animals and Man (1916), Osmotic Regulation in Aquatic animals (1939) and The Comparative Physiology of Respiratory Mechanisms (1941). (text: Denis Noble)

Reference: “August Krogh (1874-1949) the physiologist’s physiologist”. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association199 (7): 496–497. 1967. doi:10.1001/jama.199.7.496PMID 5335475

Photo: Upload.wikimedia.org. 2020. August Krogh. [online] Available at: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/August_Krogh_Bain_32006.jpg> [Accessed 19 August 2020].