Carrying the Torch Forward

APS offers a tremendous number of awards and fellowships. In fact, we award more than $1.2 million per year. However, to me, one award program stands out as a beacon of the Society’s priorities and values.

The Porter Physiology Development Fellowship is one of the Society’s signature awards programs. The Fellowship, one of the largest awards that APS gives, has more than a 50-year history of recognizing and celebrating underrepresented researchers for their work and potential. This year, eight outstanding new Porter Fellows have been acknowledged for their scientific achievement and promise:

• Cesar Barrabi, Wayne State University, Detroit
• Jeanmarie Gonzalez, University of California, San Francisco
• Jonathan J. Herrera, University of Michigan Ann Arbor
• Michelle Herrera, University of California, Irvine
• Cesar Meza, Florida State University, Tallahassee
• Lindsey Ramirez, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta University
• Luis A. Rivera-Arce, Ponce Health Sciences University, Puerto Rico
• Luke Schwerdtfeger, Colorado State University, Fort Collins

The Fellowship has a storied history at APS. It was established in 1921 by William Townsend Porter—one of our most prominent members and the founding editor of the American Journal of Physiology—to provide support to predoctoral students in physiology. During the civil rights movement in the 1960s, a handful of visionary APS members decided that the Fellowship could be used not only to recognize up-and-coming scientists but also to promote diversity in the discipline.

A. Clifford Barger, PhD, and Edward W. Hawthorne, MD, PhD—one of only eight Black APS members at the time—orchestrated a revamp of the Fellowship. The goal was to increase the diversity of people studying physiology, laying the groundwork for the Fellowship as it is today. The two went on to serve as Porter Committee co-chairs from 1967 to 1986. Along with Eleanor Ison-Franklin, PhD, the Committee’s co-chair from 1984 to 1998 (who at times almost singlehandedly ran the Porter program from her office at Howard University), they shaped the program to become what it is today.

Since 1967, APS has supported more than 160 Porter Fellows. Each new class joins an esteemed group of past Fellows, many of whom have achieved remarkable things. Our Porter alumni have gone on to lead research labs and hold key administrative positions at the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation (NSF) and other scientific and academic institutions. These scientists, administrators and entrepreneurs represent the best of APS.

While the Porter program has been an undoubted success, the goals for the program have not yet been fully realized. Today, Black, Hispanic and Native American people still comprise only 11% of APS members. In 2015, Black and Hispanic scientists made up just 2.5% and 5.9% of life scientists in the STEM workforce, respectively, according to recent NSF data.

As we enter into a new phase of planning and programming initiatives aimed at closing these gaps and increasing meaningful diversity, equity and inclusion in physiology, I think it is important to remember the work of these visionary leaders and continue carrying their torch forward. The Porter Fellowship provides a great tool, but we still have work to do.

Scott Steen, CAE, FASAE, is executive director of the American Physiological Society.

This article was originally published in the November 2020 issue of The Physiologist Magazine.