The awards panel will consider an individual candidate working in any area of physiology; their departments need not be identified as physiology departments i.e. candidates can be in departments of biomedical sciences, neuroscience etc.

The application form should be completed and submitted by the applicant.

Candidates will be judged primarily on their contributions to mentoring, and particularly any mentoring at an international level.

Please submit following documents until October 15th (deadline) to laura.davies@iups.org:

• A brief CV of the applicant detailing their chronological academic career and chief achievements (up to three A4 pages).
• A list of most significant mentees (Name, current institution (country/region), current position, major achievements, time when mentored by the applicant), impact of mentoring (up to two A4 pages).
• A statement summarizing the applicant’s contribution to mentoring, including any role in developing mentoring schemes, or other initiatives to support mentees. (one A4 page)
• Letters of support from two mentees (one A4 page each)
• A statement of support from a (non-mentored) senior Physiologist or academic colleague (one A4 page).”

Kyu-Sang Park is a Professor in the Department of Physiology, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, South Korea. He obtained his medical doctorate from Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine in 1993 and completed his Ph.D. at Yonsei University in 1998. He spent three years at the Korean National Institute of Health (NIH) for his military duty. In 2002, he commenced his tenure as an assistant professor at Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine. Between 2006 and 2009, he had worked as a visiting professor in the Department of Cell Physiology and Metabolism at University of Geneva, Switzerland. Since 2017, he has served as the director of national grant-funded Medical Research Center at Yonsei University. Additionally, he presently holds the position of the President of Korean Society for Mitochondrial Research and Medicine from 2022 to 2024. His research interests encompass beta cell pathophysiology, mitochondria, autophagy, and integrated stress responses.

The awards panel will consider candidates working in any area of physiology; their departments need not be identified as physiology departments i.e. candidates can be in departments of biomedical sciences, neuroscience etc. Candidates must be within 10 years of completing their PhD and within 7 years of their faculty appointment (this can be increased by up to 2 years for verified career breaks) and their head of department or institution or equivalent, must affirm the periods taken for career breaks on the application form. Candidates will be judged on their contributions to research, teaching and service to disciplines during their faculty tenure.

Please submit following documents until October 15th (deadline) to laura.davies@iups.org

• An abbreviated CV (up to five A4 pages) detailing their chronological academic career, highlighting major achievements across research, teaching and service to the disciplines. The achievements could include, but not limited to, a list of publications (peer reviewed papers, book chapters and edited books, underlining the corresponding author, and including the DOI), grants held, research awards received, teaching contributions, teaching awards received, invited and other contributions to meetings, webinars and similar outputs, public engagement and intramural and extramural academic activities.
• A statement (up to one A4 page) emphasizing the achievements they are most proud of, and how this distinguishes them, as well as an indication of independence in current research, teaching, and service to disciplines.
• A cover letter formally stating their application, countersigned by their head of department or equivalent and the names and contact details of two potential referees, who have agreed to be named and act as such.

Dr Rosie Brown is a Senior Lecturer and Rutherford Discovery Fellow in the Department of Physiology at the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand. Established in 2019, her research group focuses on how hormones modulate a mother’s behaviour to time the display of care-giving behaviour with the birth of offspring. Her group investigates the hormone-sensitive neural circuit that drives parental behaviour in mothers and fathers and how the changing hormones of pregnancy and lactation act on circuitry to modulate mood and behaviour in parents. Dr Brown teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students about the neural control of social behaviour in Physiology and Neuroscience courses. She is also passionate about supporting early career researchers and leads a University-wide group that aims to connect, support and promote all early and mid-career researchers at the University of Otago.

Dr. Taylor Dick is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia where she leads the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory. Her research group uses novel imaging methods and modelling frameworks to answer fundamental questions about how movement underpins evolution, health, and disease. She leads teaching innovation in physiology, anatomy, and biomedical sciences at the undergraduate and postgraduate level through the development of interactive and innovative teaching resources that motivate and inspire her students. Taylor is a passionate advocate for engaging young girls in STEM and has co-led an Australian Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship program, the Biomechanics Research and Innovation Challenge (BRInC).

Dr. Thomas Jepps is an Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen where he leads the Vascular Biology Group. Research in Thomas’ laboratory is focused on the physiology of blood vessels, and identification of novel targets and potential treatments for hypertension. Thomas’ group utilize a wide range of techniques, including proteomics, immunostaining, and ex vivo and in vivo measurements of arterial reactivity to reveal novel proteins and mechanisms within vascular physiology. Thomas’ research strives to be translational and has led to 2 clinical trials in patients with hypertension.

Dr. Antonios Chatzigeorgiou, is an Associate Professor of Experimental and Clinical Physiology at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He has been devoted for many years to performing research related to the physiology/pathophysiology of metabolism-associated organs such as the adipose tissue and the liver and his studies have shed light on important molecular mechanisms related to the development of obesity/diabetes-related complications, such as insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and steatohepatitis. He has published research papers in high impact journals (e.g. Nat. Immunol., PNAS, Hepatology, Metabolism, Endocrinology, FASEBJ etc.). Currently, his lab studies mechanisms perturbing the homeostasis of the liver within the whole spectrum of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (from benign steatosis up to hepatocellular carcinoma) with special focus in immune-parenchymal cell interactions and adaptations of the parenchymal cells of the liver under different conditions of nutrient/lipid overload and metabolic stress.

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 was 1^st 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 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

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 Society. 54: 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].

Winners of the Knut Schmidt Nielsen award (since 2009)

:2009 – Brian Barnes 

2013 – Barbara Cannon

2017 – Duncan Mitchell

2022 – Roger Seymour

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 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 Association. 199 (7): 496–497. 1967. doi:10.1001/jama.199.7.496. PMID 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].

Winners of the August Krogh Award since 1986:

Kjell Johansen (1986)

Else Kay Hoffmann (1989)

Axel Michelsen (1993)

Bengt Saltin (2001)

Roy Edwin Weber (2005)

Tobias Wang (2009)

Patrik Rorsman (2013)

Christian Aalkjaer (2017)

Angela Fago (2023)