Matalon and Romero Receive Prestigious American Physiological Society Awards for Excellence in Physiological Research

Rockville, Md. (December 4, 2023)–The American Physiological Society (APS) is pleased to honor two exceptional member-researchers with the 2024 Physiology in Perspective: The Walter B. Cannon Award and the Henry Pickering Bowditch Award lectureships. These awards recognize the lifetime achievement of an established researcher and the physiological research excellence of an early-career researcher, respectively.

The Society’s Executive Cabinet announces Sadis Matalon, PhD, FAPS, as the 2024 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.

The Executive Cabinet has also announced Steven Romero, PhD, as the 2024 Henry Pickering Bowditch Award lecturer. The lectureship is awarded to a regular member who is 42 or younger or less than eight years from the start of their first faculty or staff research scientist position beyond postdoctoral training. The recipient is recognized for original and outstanding accomplishments in the field of physiology.

This year’s awardees will each deliver a lecture at the American Physiology Summit in April 2024.

About the Recipients

Sadis Matalon, PhD, ScD, FAPS, is the Alice McNeal Endowed Chair and a distinguished professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Heersink School of Medicine’s Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. He is also director of UAB’s Pulmonary Injury and Repair Center. Matalon was elected corresponding member of the National Academy of Greece. His research interest centers on understanding the basic mechanisms by which oxidant gas inhalation damages mitochondrial function and its implications in the onset and development of acute and chronic lung injury. He is a past editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology and is editor-in-chief of Physiological Reviews.

Matalon has served on multiple UAB and APS committees and is a member of the APS International Committee. He will present the Physiology in Perspective: The Walter B. Cannon Award Lecture titled “The Long Road to Ithaca: A Physiologist’s Journey” on Thursday, April 4, 2024, at 2:55 p.m. PDT, in the Long Beach Convention Center, Grand Ballroom 2.

Steven A. Romero, PhD, is an associate professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center within the Department of Physiology and Anatomy. He is director of the Human Vascular Physiology laboratory, where his work investigates how the vascular system adjusts and adapts to exercise and environmental stress in health and disease. Romero is a past recipient of the APS Porter Physiology Development Fellowship, a reviewer for the APS family of journals and an editorial board member for the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology. He will give the Henry Pickering Bowditch Award Lecture titled “Cardiovascular Adjustments after Acute Heat Exposure: Mechanisms and Clinical Implications” on Thursday, April 4, 2024, at 2 p.m. PDT, in the Long Beach Convention Center, Grand Ballroom 2.

“The recipients of the Cannon and Bowditch awards represent the best of the best in physiology. Past Cannon awardees perform top-tier physiological research to answer some of the most vital questions regarding life, health and disease. Previous Bowditch lecturers, though early in their careers, have shown outstanding promise in their respective fields,” said APS President Willis “Rick” Samson, PhD, FAPS. “On behalf of the APS membership and community, I congratulate Sadis and Steven, and look forward to hearing more about their work at the American Physiology Summit.”

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.