An Exciting Time to Be APS President

By Linda Samuelson John A. Williams Collegiate Professor of Gastrointestinal Physiology

It is a great honor to have been elected as the 93rd president of the American Physiological Society (APS). Currently, as President-elect, I am part of the executive leadership team with the President and the Past-President. I transition to my term as President at the APS annual meeting at Experimental Biology in April 2020.

It is especially meaningful for me to be following in the footsteps of my mentor and colleague John A. Williams, who was the 76th APS president. Michigan Physiology has had a remarkable impact on the APS since its inception in 1887. I will be the 11th member of our department to serve as APS President. Two of these people, W.H. Howell and Warren P Lombard, were founding members of the APS. I am honored to be joining this distinguished group of Michigan Physiologists:

• W. H. Howell, Chair and Professor of Physiology (1889-1892), and APS President (1905-1910). • Warren P. Lombard, Chair and Professor of Physiology (1892-1932), and APS President (1919-1920). • Carl J. Wiggers, Instructor of Physiology (1906- 1911), and APS President in 1949. • Ralph W. Gerard, Professor of Physiology (1955- 1969), and APS President in 1951 • Horace W. Davenport, Chair and Professor of Physiology (1956-1979), and APS President in 1961. • John M. Brookhart, Graduate Student in Physiology (1935-1940), and APS President in 1965. • David F. Bohr, Professor of Physiology (1948-1985), and APS President in 1978. • Harvey Sparks, Professor of Physiology (1967-1978), and APS President in 1987. • James A. Schafer, Graduate Student in Physiology (1963-1968), and APS President in 1996 • John A. Williams, Chair (1987-2008) and Professor of Physiology (1987-present). APS President in 2003.

This is a time of great change in the APS. I am deeply humbled by the task ahead as the APS undergoes a major redesign aimed to position our members and the discipline of physiology at the forefront of scientific discovery. It has been an exciting time to build from our past and reshape a society that has been in operation for 132 years! Some of the

new initiatives include a revamp of our brand and logo, creating a new APS postdoctoral fellowship program, launching a new journal, and completely overhauling the annual meeting. Thus, there are many new things to work on.

The new journal Function will provide an open-access, multidisciplinary home for high-profile publication in the physiological sciences. Work is underway to launch the journal in 2020. I hope that you will consider sending your best work to this journal, which is designed to promote major insights into biological function and disease.

Perhaps the most exciting but daunting task ahead for the APS is the creation of a new annual meeting. We will part ways with Experimental Biology and put on our own meeting in 2023. The APS staff, leadership team and key members are currently working to design a new, world-class meeting. The vision is to build an innovative platform that will attract a broad group of scientists to present their new discoveries. This is clearly the initiative where my work as APS President will have the greatest impact.

I am excited to be APS President with the Society embarking on so many new things. My term will be filled with new ideas and initiatives to build on the past to continue the impact of the APS into the future.