Given our recent discussion, the extension of the discussion over at DrugMonkey on opportunities for minorities in science, and our shared belief that you ought to apply for whatever funding is available, I wanted to draw your attention to an excellent fellowship opportunity for minority graduate students through the American Physiological Society.
The APS describes the Porter Physiology Development Award thusly:
The goal of the Porter Physiology Development Program is to encourage diversity among students pursuing full-time studies toward the Ph.D. (or D.Sc.) in the physiological sciences and to encourage their participation in the American Physiological Society.
The Porter Physiology Development Program provides 1-2 year full-time graduate fellowships in programs leading to the Ph.D. (or D.Sc.) in the physiological sciences. The program is open to underrepresented ethnic minority applicants who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its territories.
That's 1-2 years of free, cash money (minus the applicable taxes and blah, blah, blah)! You can get additional information here and apply online here, but the application deadline is January 15th. So, get off your tail and apply.
But, "Dr. Isis," you say, "I am not a physiologist. I am working on blah, blah, blah molecular pathway in cultured cells." Well, my sweet little thing, that makes you a physiologist. In fact, darned near every one of Dr. Isis's readers working in the life sciences is a physiologist. Big Daddy Webster defines physiology as the following:
a branch of biology that deals with the functions and activities of life or of living matter (as organs, tissues, or cells) and of the physical and chemical phenomena involved
So, again I ask, little lamb, why are you reading Dr. Isis and not applying for this fellowship?
Education & Careers
Life Science
Comments
So if "functions and activities of life" means "little spineless slimy things running about on the bottom of the ocean," I qualify as a physiologist? SWEET!
Posted by: Miriam | December 30, 2008 5:46 PM
Boy, Miriam, I hope you come back and read this because in all absolute seriousness, you are absolutely a physiologist if you're interested in the processes that let your slimy creatures live in and adapt to their environment.
Last year's Walter Cannon Memorial Lecture at the Experimental Biology meeting (quite the prestigious little lecture) was given by Dr. Barbara Block of Stanford on "Ecophysiology In The 21st Century: Probing Genomes, Oceans And Climate Change With Bluefin Tuna." It was the single most fascinating lecture I've been to at one of these meetings and I was blown away by the scope of the data collection she's doing. Amazing, I tell you!!!!
You don't have to be a biomedical scientist to be a physiologist. So, if you meet their eligibility requirements, go apply for the cash money.
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | December 30, 2008 5:56 PM
It appears that this doesn't apply to students just now applying to graduate programs. The website says you must already be in or be accepted into a graduate program to apply.
Posted by: Sara | December 30, 2008 7:40 PM
I know Dr. Block's work. Her science definitely meets the Dr. Isis gold standard of Incredibly Hot. Her tuna research facility is amazing! Stanford seems to have quite the marine ecology-physiology crossover - George Somero's work on Arctic fish is another *ahem* cool example.
I don't meet the eligibility requirements anyway (no dearth of pasty Jews in the sciences), but I am extremely tickled to be in the physiology club. Especially since IRB boards don't care about invertebrates.
Posted by: Miriam | December 30, 2008 9:42 PM
You've done a very kind thing by posting this. I hope the people to whom this applies recognize how lucky they are to be amidst science careers when you joined forces with DM.
Posted by: Juniper Shoemaker | December 31, 2008 12:02 AM