0EDITORIAL NOTE
It is my honor and privilege to take the role as the Editor-in-Chief assigned by the President
Xiaomin Wang and members of the present Council at the meeting in Takamutsu in March 2018.
At first, I felt reluctant to accept the assignment, but there appeared to be no other choice, so I
could not refuse. Besides, Prof. Harbindar Jeet Singh committed to help soliciting inputs frommember societies and councilors since, as the present Secretary, he is the only person who has thecurrent addresses of the contact persons. The content of the book was drafted at the meeting andlater approved. I have only about one year for the preparation when we agreed to publish the bookin electronic format by the cerebration of the 30th Anniversary of FAOPS, which will be organizedin conjunction with the FAOPS2019. The invitation to contribute a message from previous andpresent council members and a write up from member societies was launched in May 2018, in
which a deadline for submission was the end of December 2018. Many did submit their messages
and write up by the deadline while there are still many delayed responses. In fact, the last input I
got was in the second week of March 2019, very close to the cerebration! For this reason, many
writings are not properly edited. I must apologize for this.
In the book, there are messages from the council members many of whom wrote the history
and expressed their impressions during the service. Photos of the council are also added with themessage. To assist the uniformity of the write up from society members, we gave a guideline interms of series of questions to be responded by the authors. However, we also accept a free style
type essay. This chapter of the book gives insight into the history, achievements, and therelationship of the societies with FAOPS. I hope you enjoy reading the whole book and know
FAOPS better.
Chumpol Pholpramool, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Physiology, Mahidol University
Editor-in- Chief

1

PREFACE
As you may know that the first Asian and Oceanian Regional Physiology Conference initiatedand organized by The Physiological Society of Thailand was held in November 1986 in Bangkok,
Thailand. During the meeting, Professor Thirayudh Glinsukorn from Thailand, Chumpol
Pholpramool from Thailand, Masao Ito from Japan and others proposed the establishment of theFederation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Society (FAOPS) and invited representativesof different national physiology societies to attend the preparatory meeting. At the Second Asianand Oceanian Regional Physiology Conference, held in New Delhi, India, in 1990, the first
FAOPS general assembly was officially held, which resulted in the election of the first FAOPS
director, Professor Masao Ito, a world-renowned neurophysiologist, was elected as the founding
president.
In general, 2020 should be the 30th anniversary of FAOPS. Given that the FAOPS Conferenceis held every four years, the 9th FAOPS Congress will be held in Kobe, Japan in March 28-31，
2019, so FAOPS Council decided to hold the celebration during this event. In order to review thecourse of FAOPS 30 years, and to inherit the spirit and culture of FAOPS, the decision has been
made by FAOPS Council Meeting in Takamatsu, Japan in March 30, 2018, the founding council
member of FAOPS, Prof. Chumpol Pholpramool, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University,
Thailand, who has served 20 years for FAOPS Council as the President, 2nd Vice President andSecretary, was invited to be the Editor-in-chief to edit the book of “FAOPS:30th ANNIVERSARYHISTORY | STORY | CELEBRATION The Federation of the Asian and Oceanian PhysiologicalSocieties".
Hereafter, Prof. Chumpol Pholpramool carefully organized and fully edited the book of“FAOPS:30th ANNIVERSARY HISTORY | STORY | CELEBRATION The Federation of the
Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies ". The book is mainly divided to 3 parts: 1. Historyof the foundation of FAOPS, including to cherish the memory of the FAOPS founding President,
Professor Masao Ito；2. Messages from the FAOPS founders & Executive Officers and the
FAOPS Council member; 3. Stories from Society members of FAOPS, including a success stories
and their contributions/commitments to FAOPS. This book is the first book in the history of
FAOPS to describe the course of the founding and development of the society, reflecting thedevelopment and change of physiology discipline in the Asian and Oceanian region. Therefore, it
has the significance of the landmark event. We specially thank Editor-in-chief, Chumpol
Pholpramool, and all authors for their great effort to write the book.
As we look back at history and celebrate the 30 years since the founding of FAOPS, we mustbear in mind the predecessors who have made outstanding contributions to the establishment anddevelopment of the society, we have to appreciate Masao Ito, Surenda Kumar Manchanda, Xiong
Li Yang, Chok Yung Chai, Chumpol Pholpramool, John Atherton Young, Fereshteh Motamedi,
Akimichi Kaneko, Swee Hung Cheah, Paul SG Wang, Yasunobu Okada, Ki Whan Kim, Julie YH
Chan, Harbindar Jeet Singh, etc. and all of council members. On behalf of the FAOPS Executive
Committee, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to them! At the same time, we also wantto thank IUPS for his long-term support and help to the establishment and development of FAOPS,
thank every state Physiological Society for your support and cooperation! Thank all the members
for their participation and efforts!

2

I do hope and believe that all members could learn and carry forward predecessors’ spirit ofdevotion, persistence and gumption, face challenges, continue to work hard to build a better
FAOPS.

Professor Dr. Xiaomin Wang
The President of FAOPS

3

CONTENTS

Page
Condolence to the late Prof. Masao Ito

6

Messages from the past and present Executive Officers

7

Akimichi Kaneko

8

Chok Yung Chai

10

Chumpol Pholpramool

11

Fereshte Motamedi

12

Harbindar Jeet Singh

13

Julie Y Chan

15

Ki Whan Kim

16

Swee Hung Cheah

17

Xiaomin Wang

19

Xiong-Li Yang

26

Yasunobu Okada

28

Messages from the past and present Council Members

30

Arif Sidiqque

31

Chea Hun Leem

32

Mei-Ling Tsai

34

Mohan V Kumar

35

Nipon Chattipakorn

37

Saeed Semnanian

38

Suchinda Malaivijitnond

40

Thirayudh Glinsukon

41

Yoshihiro Kubo

42

4

Page
History of the foundation of FAOPS

44

FAOPS Congresses: past, present and future

49

Stories from Society Members of FAOPS

60

Australian Physiological Society

61

Chinese Association for Physiological Sciences

64

Chinese Physiological Society in Taiwan

76

Federation of Indian Physiological Societies

80

Indonesian Physiological Society

83

Iranian Society of Physiology and Pharmacology

86

Israel Society for Physiology and Pharmacology

90

Korean Physiological Society

91

Malaysian Society of Pharmacology and Physiology

94

Pakistan Physiological Society

96

Physiological Society of Nepal

98

Physiological Society of New Zealand

100

Physiological Society of Japan102

Physiological Society of Thailand

107

Appendix: FAOPS Constitution (Revised 2011)112

5

CONDOLENCE TO
THE LATE PROFESSORMASAO ITO
It is with deepest sorrow to learn that Professor Masao Itopeacefully passed away on December 18th, 2018. I have known
Prof. Ito since 1986 when we organized the first AOPS Congress,
which initiated the foundation of the Federation of the Asian andOceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS). Prof. Ito among othersis the founder of FAOPS and served as the first President of
FAOPS. Under his strong and unyielding leadership, FAOPS
steadily grows and gains strength until now. Therefore, he has
made an immense contribution to our physiology community.
Professor Ito is also a renowned neuroscientist, who also played amajor role in and made significant contribution to IBRO. His
devotion and sacrifice to physiologists in the region and to global
neuroscientists will not be forgotten forever.
I wish to express my heartfelt sympathy to Prof. Ito’s family
for such a great loss. I pray for his soul to rest in peace in the highest
level of haven.
Respectfully yours,
Chumpol Pholpramool, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Physiology,
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Science
Mahidol University
December 25th, 2018

6

MESSAGES FROM
THE PAST AND PRESENTEXECUTIVE OFFICERS

7

My Memories of FAOPS 1998-2006
Akimichi Kaneko, M.D., Ph.D.
FAOPS Secretary (1998 – 2006)
FAOPS is going to have its 9th Congress in Kobe, Japan, this year. FAOPS has beenorganizing its Congress every 4 years, and this year FAOPS is going to celebrate its 30th
anniversary. To me, the starting date of FAOPS is slightly vague, since I heard that in the
beginning several physiologists in Asia Pacific region voluntarily gathered and discussed tofound a more formal organization like the present FAOPS. The Council was organized and this
proposal was formally approved in the 1990 meeting. The Shanghai Congress held in 1994 wasmuch more organized one and widely attracted physiologists in the Asia Pacific region, so the
Shanghai Congress, the 3rd FAOPS Congress, was quite successful. I believe that FAOPS became
formally recognized worldwide since.
I was nominated as the Secretary of FAOPS at the General Assembly held in Brisbane in1998 and served as the Secretary for 2 terms until 2006, the year of the 6th Congress held in
Seoul. During these 8 years I had an opportunity to widen my acquaintance with uncountablefriends in the field of physiology in Asia-Pacific region. I visited (in the order of distance frommy country) Korea, Peoples Republic of China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, New
Zealand, Iran to participate FAOPS-related meetings. Now FAOPS is composed by 14 regularmembers and 5 associate member societies. Through these interactions I realized that the member
societies of FAOPS are quite different, in size, activity and the relationship with the country eachsociety belong to. Some country expects the member society a high research activity, but someother country they expect member societies more contribution to education. The aim of FAOPS
activity is set to meet these varieties of requirements. The quadrennial Congress promotes
exchange information on the recent progress in research in Physiology and related sciences. In
most Congresses a satellite activity on physiology education has been organized. In theseeducation satellites, teaching course is often organized and every meeting is attended by many
enthusiastic participants. The aim of future FAOPS activity may not change so much from theabovementioned formula.
In the past decades, the environment of our communication has drastically changed. Internet
not only connect local computers, but this infrastructure also presents useful means of interindividual private communication. For example, FAOPS Newsletter has been distributed initiallyas printed materials, but now it is open to public as a webpage. When I started my service as the
Secretary, correspondence among members has been made by airmails but soon airmails weretaken over by emails. This very powerful means of message distribution technique is now fully
used in daily activity of FAOPS. By internet, FAOPS became more open organization not only
for individual society but also to individual scientists and students, or even to any person in theworld. They can access to FAOPS webpages by their computers or smart phones. Through this8

media FAOPS can send out message, including teaching materials or new findings on physiology
or general health promotion.
Now it is possible to organize an on-line meetings or on-line teaching courses by using“Skype” or similar software. Students can participate in such activities from their own institution
or even from their home. They can cut travelling costs. This is just a small example to using
internet to physiology education. I hear that internet usage is more popular in economicallydeveloping countries than in developed countries. Of course, face-to-face interaction isindispensable and provide richer and thicker communication among participants, so meetings
like FAOPS Congress will never disappear, I believe.
As a retired scientist and teacher, I hope the science of Physiology will bring happiness tohuman being and FAOPS will contribute to this goal.
Akimichi Kaneko, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor

9

Chok Yung Chai, Ph.D.
FAOPS Treasurer (1990-1998)
Dear Professor Chumpol:Your email brings me good tidings of great joy and fresh my days! A great memory of thepast is streaming through my mind.
It has been a long time since I retired from Academia Sinica Institute of Biomedical Sciences(IBMS) at the age of 70 years old. After my retirement, I was invited to serve Biomedical
Foundation funded by Academia Sinica Institute of Biomedical Sciences as president of the board.
Probably, due to my contribution to the Institute during the preparatory period from 1981-6 asacting director of the preparatory office, the board allows me to serve the Foundation for two
decades until last year. Now, I am simply being myself as academician. When recalling the oldtime of being an acting director, IBMS received great support from Drs. Paul N. Yu and Shu
Chien. Dr. Shu Chien later became the director of the preparatory office in 1987-8 and the 63th
President of the American Physiological Society in 1990-1991.
Since 1980s when I worked for IBMS, I have encountered the challenges of how Chinese
Physiological Society in Taipei was able to actively participate in FAOPS. During the period of
being a treasurer in FAOPS council, I have been through a harsh time of struggling for a groupmembership in FAOPS, maintaining our membership, and fighting for the bid of hosting FAOPS
Congress. Even though the challenges never end, I was so lucky to have Chumpol with me in
FAOPS. With his great help, our society was able to make important contribution to FAOPS
Congress and FAOPS council. Recalling the past of FAOPS, I must take the opportunity to express
my personal appreciation to Chumpol again.
Now, I am 91 years old. Chumpol will be about at the similar age. Is he still active in FAOPS
council? I wish all the best to FAOPS and send my regards to all friends in FAOPS, particularly
Chumpol who is still my best friend I knew in FAOPS.
Chok Yung Chai, Ph.D.
Professor

10Chumpol Pholpramool, Ph.D.
FAOPS Secretary (1990-1998),
President (2002-2006),
2nd Vice President (2011-2015)
Time passes so swiftly such that 30 years seems like 30 days to me. I still recall when we (meand Prof. Thirayudh Glinsukon) discussed and planned to organize the first international meetingof the Physiological Society of Thailand (PST) and to initiate a regional international associationof physiology societies. At the time, IUPS was the only forum where physiologists meet and share
their knowledge and wisdom. This raises a barrier to many physiologists especially the young one
from many countries in Asia and Oceania to have a chance to brush up their knowledge and tomeet renowned scientists. The idea was well accepted by PST and our friends overseas and we
successfully organized the First Congress of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies(AOPS) in November, 1986. We also organized a business meeting and invited key persons frommany societies in the region to discuss the issue in setting up a regional organization for
physiology. The proposal was unanimously accepted. This is when and where we came up withan agreement to form the Federation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS).
Hence, the meeting may be acknowledged as a historical meeting for the foundation of FAOPS.
We are grateful to the late Prof. Masao Ito, who plays a key role in navigating FAOPS at theearly stage. Without his enthusiasm, clear vision, and strong leadership, FAOPS would not be as
today. We should remember, however, that not only the Council of FAOPS, but also all members
must play active role in supporting and promoting the activities of FAOPS. One unique advantage
of our federation is the unity among member societies in spite of differences in cultural
background, religious, advancement in science and technology, and economic status. In a not too
far future, I envision a less disparities in the development of knowledge in physiological sciencesin the region, which is one of the major goals of FAOPS. To achieve this, I encourage all members,both individuals and societies, to be more active in participating in all programs set forth by
FAOPS.
My best wishes and best regards to all,
Chumpol Pholpramool, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of Physiology: Mahidol University
Advisor: Institute of Animals for Scientific Purposes Development, NRCT

11

Fereshteh Motamedi, Ph.D.
FAOPS Council (1990-1998),
1st Vice President (1998-2002)
Jan 20, 2019In 1989, when I was the general secretary of the 9th Iranian Society of Physiology andPharmacology congress, I became familiar with the idea of FAOPS organization by Professors
Masao Ito and S.K. Manchanda who were among our invited speakers in that meeting. I was so
excited to learn about the FAOPS initiatives that physiologists in more scientifically advanced
countries in the Asian – oceanic region would be willing to help and collaborate with scientists inthe countries with limited facilities and resources.
In 1990, I had the honor to be one of the first FAOPS council members representing oursociety, which became one of the full members of the FAOPS from the start. Later on, I have
served as the FAOPS Vice-President and also I was the editor of the FAOPS newsletter until mycolleague Prof. Saeed Semnanian took over the editorship of this newsletter. From the beginningof the establishment of FAOPS till now our graduate students and young investigators are having
a great opportunity to benefit from the Programs that FAOPS offers including travel grants,
workshops and attending schools in the region and learning new techniques in more advancedlaboratories. Finally I am glad that I have been part of this excellent event and wish the FAOPS
community a great success, also I would to thank Prof. Chumpol Pholpramool for preparing thisbook and wish him the best.
Fereshteh Motamedi, Ph.D.
Professor and Director,
Neuroscience Research Center
Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences,
Tehran IranEmail: motamedi@ams.ac.ir; fmotamedi54@gmail.com

12

My sojourn with FAOPS
Harbindar Jeet Singh, Ph.D.
FAOPS Council (1990-1998; 2006-2011),
Secretary (2011-2019)
My association with FAOPS begun in 1990 in New Delhi when FAOPS was officiallylaunched. I felt really privileged to have been included as a Council member given my age andexperience at that time. I was in fact the youngest member of the Council and it was an entirely
new experience for me sitting amongst luminaries like Prof. Masao Ito, Prof. Manchanda, Prof.
Hubbard, Prof. Yang, Prof. Rahamimoff, Prof. Motamedi, Prof. Chai, Prof. Kim, Prof. Young andof course Prof. Chumpol, many of whom unfortunately are now no longer with us. I was impressedby their zest to promote better and fruitful communications between physiologists in this region.
I had much to learn and communications at that time were still via fax and snail mails.
My first attendance at a FAOPS Council meeting was in 1992 in Shanghai when it was heldin conjunction with the site visit for the 1994 Congress. The Chinese Association of Physiological
Sciences was of course the host for the 1994 FAOPS Congress. It was also my first visit to China,
and Shanghai at that time had just begun to show signs of the impending economic boom andrapid infrastructure development that we see there today. The change in Shanghai landscape wasso visible during my next visit to Shanghai in 1994. It was also at the General Assembly meetingat this Congress in Shanghai that I presented a bid on behalf of the Malaysian Society ofPhysiology and Pharmacology (MSPP) to host the 2002 FAOPS Congress, when the bidding
process was first introduced. There was a close tussle between MSPP and the Korean Physiology
Society (KPS), with MSPP just pipping them by two votes in the General Assembly. The KPS ofcourse got the opportunity to host the 2006 FAOPS Congress in Seoul. At the same time I was
nominated to serve another four-year term as a Council member.

Figure 1. Some members of the
1st FAOPS Council

13

During this time a number of Commissions for the promotion of physiology were established,including one on physiology education and another on research and development within theregion. The latter was headed by late Prof. John A Young. I was tasked by him to help assess theresearch needs of physiologists within the region. From the study, the disparity in physiology
research activity within the member countries was very obvious. As expected, research inphysiology was wide and varied and was far more advanced in most areas in the more developed
countries than that in the lesser developed countries. This primarily stemmed from the differencesin emphasis on education and research, availability of research funding and expertise. In countries
of some member societies the emphasis had been more on physiology education, partly perhaps
due to limited research resources. In countries of other member societies the emphasis was bothon research and physiology education. Although much has improved research-wise in some of thelesser developed countries since then, there still remains a lot to be achieved to bridge the gap inresearch activities between the developed and the less developed countries. Although FAOPS had
helped fund numerous workshops on physiology education and research in countries of member
societies in between the FAOPS Congresses, funding remains the main drawback for FAOPS tofully realise its stated aim in the promotion of physiological sciences in the region.
After the completion of my second term in 1998, I was appointed as a Co-Chair of theOrganizing Committee and head of the Scientific Committee of the 2002 FAOPS Congress in
Kuala Lumpur by MSPP. It was a good experience organizing the FAOPS Congress in Kuala
Lumpur; the biggest that MSPP had organized up to that point in time.
My second stint with FAOPS began in 2006 when I was nominated once again to serve as amember of the Council. To avoid a clash between FAOPS and IUPS Congresses in the coming
years, the FAOPS Congress in Taiwan was moved to 2011 instead of 2010. FAOPS Congresses
now fall between the IUPS Congresses. With this shift, the term of the Council elected in 2006
got extended by an extra year to five years. In 2011, I was nominated to the post of SecretaryGeneral of FAOPS and my second term as Secretary-General ends in March 2019. It has indeed
been a pleasure serving as a Secretary to FAOPS and the cooperation that I have received fromall the Council members has been really helpful and commendable.
The hosting of FAOPS Congresses provides a fantastic opportunity to mix and learn about thecultural practices of population within the Asian Oceanian region. The congeniality that exists
between members of the FAOPS Council has indeed provided a joyful experience for me. FAOPS
has also provided the opportunity of meeting fellow physiologists from the Asian and Oceanianregion. Formation of FAOPS has certainly increased the links between physiologists across theregion. The Congresses and workshops that have been held over the years have provided goodavenues for scientific and social exchange between physiologists from within the Asian-Oceanianregion. FAOPS, in my view, has established a very important niche for itself in the web ofphysiology and it is hoped that with time, more societies from other countries within the Asianand Oceanian region would become active members of FAOPS and its status and contributions
will continue to grow.
Thank you FAOPS.

14

A Personal Reflection on the Occasionof the 30th Anniversary of FAOPS
Julie Y.H. Chan, Ph.D.
FAOPS 2nd Vice President (2006-2011),
President (2011-2015)
I have several personal thoughts on the occasion of the 30th Anniversary of FAOPS that I
would like to share with the readers of this wonderful memento edited by my good friend,
Professor Chumpol Pholpramool.
My first thought goes to the founders of FAOPS, in particular the late Professor Masao Ito,
who have the foresight and dedication to put together this body of physiologists we fondly called
FAOPS. Looking back in my capacity as the current President of IUPS, I would particularly liketo pay tribute to their intuition to define the geographic inclusion of physiological societies in theFederation. By witnessing the intense discussions on teaching and research in physiology without
any hindrance during our Congresses and Council meetings by our members whose countries may
be politically antagonistic, I can only admire that FAOPS best exemplifies the motto of IUPS:
Physiology Without Border.
My second thought goes to how association with FAOPS has impacted my careerdevelopment. My first official encounter with FAOPS was in 2002 when I represented the Chinese
Physiological Society in Taipei to offer our invitation to host the 7th FAOPS Congress in Taipei.
As the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee for that Congress, I became the Second Vice
President in 2006, followed by the election to President in 2011. These official appointments haveopened up vast opportunities for me to participate in activities in the global physiology
community. As a result, I was elected the Vice President of IUPS (2013 – 2017), and currently
President (2017 – 2021). Over the years, the experiences gained by interacting with physiologists
in the Asian and Oceanian regions and beyond have afforded me much better perspectives on thesimilarities and diversities of tasks faced by our community. This experience alone has drasticallybenefited me as a teacher and researcher in physiology.
My third thought is with the increasing dominance of cellular and molecular biology incontemporary biomedicine that has relegated physiology away from the limelight of medicine. In
the report Physiology: Current Trends and Future Challenges (http://www.iups.org/news/iupsnews/39/) published in 2017 during the IUPS Congress in Rio de Janeiro, physiologists across theglobe are challenged to bring integrative physiology to the forefront in research and education. I
urge the FAOPS Executives, Council and Member Societies to take up this challenge. With theconscientious support of the physiology community, I am confident that the day will come when
physiology returns to the center stage of medicine.
My final thought is on a famous quotation from Confucius, which basically states that “atthirty, one stands firm”. Now that FAOPS is standing firm, I envisage that our Federation willtake physiology to another level of success and sophistication.
Happy 30th Anniversary FAOPS!

15

In congratulation of the much achievements of
FAOPS during the past thirty years
Ki Whan Kim, MD, PhD
FAOPS Council (1998-2002),
2 Vice President (2002-2006)nd

The 9th FAOPS Congress, which will be held in Kobe/Japan this year, has long 30 years history
since the 1st FAOPS Meeting. We, the Korean Physiological Society, have continued the close
relationships with FAOPS since its foundation and starting the scientific meetings. We had been
devoted our full energies to prepare the 6th FAOPS Meeting held in 2006, August for 8 years since
the determination of Seoul/Korea Meeting at the FAOPS Congress in 1998, Sydney/Australia.
As a senior physiologist and a past organizer of FAOPS Meeting, I would like to advise the
FAOPS in the matter of progresses of scientific activities and communications among thecountries of FAOPS members. Time and tide waits for no man; Therefore, in haste I would liketo recommend the efforts to increase the number FAOPS regular member countries and to makethe frequent, scientific communications between member countries, especially to encourage theyoung physiologists of non-regular member countries.
Ki Whan KIM, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
College of Medicine, Seoul National University
Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the 6th FAOPS
Congress held in Seoul/Korea, 2006 August

16

Swee Hung CheahFAOPS 2nd Vice President (1998-2002),
1st Vice President (2002-2006)
My first palpable physical contact with FAOPS was in Shanghai during the 1994 FAOPS
meeting held there. Before that FAOPS had existed somewhat in the abstract as a line item in the
Malaysian Pharmacology and Physiology Society (MSPP) meetings saying how much we had to
pay up to FAOPS annually in order to continue MSPP’s membership.
In 1994 MSPP mandated a bid for the 2002 FAOPS meeting to be held in Malaysia andHarbindar Singh and I were dispatched to Shanghai to make our ultimately successful pitch.
The next meeting we had was in FAOPS 1998 in Brisbane where we were formally tasked toorganize the 2002 FAOPS. However, it was not the most auspicious time as in 1998 we wereseeing the world-wide economic crisis, currency collapse in many Asian countries and politicalturmoil in Malaysia. So it was with a deep sense of trepidation that we took on the job. A
committee was formed within MSPP to organize the meeting and foremost in our minds was thequestion of funding. Under such fraught and challenging times could we even come up withenough money to start planning? Fortunately FAOPS and MSPP came up with some seed money
to start off the effort. By the new millennium the economic picture had improved. However, beinga basic sciences society, trying to persuade scientific and medical equipment and supply
companies to take up sponsorship programs was a great challenge, and we to literally go cap inhand to solicit for funds. Government was of not much help, indeed we had to navigate a whole
gamut of regulations to make sure we complied with the law and not run an illegal meeting of
foreigners! Fortunately with money from various sources, sponsors, and the generosity of FAOPS
and MSPP we were able finally put the meeting together.
It was somewhat in the early days of the Internet age, and abstracts were mainly sent using thethen major word-processing software, WordStar and Word Perfect. For those who have had theexperience they were rather cumbersome and clunky systems when it came to editing. As usual
abstracts were not always sent on time and it was always a tense time especially when it camenear to deadline for printing the program and abstract books. So it was really quite challenging
trying to get the different pieces together in time – from scientific program, to venue preparation,accommodation to meals. It was thanks to the hard work of the organizing committee that themeeting came off without great hitches, and more importantly without financial loss. Major thanks
also to FAOPS committee members and invited speakers who volunteered to pay their own way.
We were able to draw participants from all over Asia and Oceania - from the Middle Easterncountries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, UAE, and Iran in the west, to South Asian countries
including India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Contingents came from various Southeast Asian
countries such as Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia not to mention Malaysia andSingapore. Great numbers also came from East Asian nations such as China, Japan, Taiwan andSouth Korea and from the south, Australia and New Zealand.
17

As chairman of the organizing committee, I was part of the FAOPS council, and came tointeract with luminaries and giants of physiology such as Prof. Ito, Prof Young, Prof. Chumpol,
Prof. Akimichi and it was a humbling and awe-inspiring experience. It was a most illuminating
time.
Ultimately FAOPS is successful as it is a congenially run organization with due respect shown
to member societies of different countries. Certainly come countries have more resources and are
more advanced in technology and scientific expertise and through FAOPS the dissemination ofadvanced physiology science and knowledge has been expedited to enable the uplifting the qualityof physiology in the member countries, through aids in funding for workshops and meetings andthrough FAOPS’s links with IUPS.
FAOPS also is highly concerned with Physiology education and the dissemination of different
modes of physiology teaching and learning. There is continuous effort in support of introducing
and improving methods of physiology instruction among the various member countries. I find that
this is a good mission, and keeps FAOPS in the forefront of relevancy.
All in all it was a most interesting experience I was happy to been a part of it all.
Cheah, Swee Hung
Professor

18

Review history, look to the
future, face the challenge andpromote progress
Xiaomin Wang, Ph.D.
FAOPS President (2015-2019)
1. The History of FAOPS
The first Asian and Oceanian Regional Physiology Conference initiated and organized by theThai Physiology Council was held in November 1986 in Bangkok, Thailand. During the meeting,
Professor Thirayudh Glinsukorn, Chumpol Pholpramool, Masao Ito and others proposed theestablishment of the Federation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS) andinvited representatives of different national physiology societies to attend the preparatory meeting.
At the Second Asian and Oceanian Regional Physiology Conference, held in New Delhi, India, in
1990, the first FAOPS general assembly was officially held, which resulted in the election of thefirst FAOPS director, Professor Masao Ito, a world-renowned neurophysiologist, as the firstpresident. The members of 1st FAOPS Council (1990-1994) is listed as Table 1.
Table 1. The members of 1st FAOPS Council (1990-1994)
Masao Ito
Surenda Kumar Manchanda
Xiong Li Yang
Chok Yung Chai
Chumpol Pholpramool
John Ingram Hubbard
Woo Gyeum KimFereshteh Motamedi
Rami Rahamimoff
Harbindar Jeet SinghJohn Atherton Young

President
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
MemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMember

Japan
India
China
China (Taiwan)
Thailand
New Zealand
Korea
Iran
IsraelMalaysia
Australia

Physiology is the study of the functions of life and their mechanisms by integrating theprocesses at all levels between the molecular level to the whole-body level. Thus, Physiology is
the most important key discipline among the biological sciences, and that is why the Nobel Prize
for life science fields is called “The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine”.
FAOPS is a unique organization comprising of countries located in Oceania region and acrossthe Asia Continent. Set up the purpose of the organization is to promote the development of
Physiological Sciences; strengthen exchanges in the physiological sciences and related disciplines
and the popularization of knowledge of Physiological Sciences; to encourage physiologicalscience research; and to promote all other local physiological science level of development. The
Federation has 2 kinds of members, i.e. official (regular) members and associate ones. Nowadays
there are officially 13 members, which include Australia, China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, India,

19

Thailand, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Iran, Israel, Korea, Malaysia, and 6 associate members(Table.2)
Table 2. FAOPS regular and associate members
Country
Regular members
Australia
China
China (Taipei)
India
Iran
IsraelJapan
Korea
Malaysia
New ZealandPhilippines
Thailand
United Arab Emirate
Associate members
Indonesia
Myanmar
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
VietnamUzbekistan

Name of the Society
Australian Physiological Society
Chinese Association for Physiological Sciences
Chinese Physiological Society in Taiwan
Federation of Indian Physiological Societies
Iranian Society of Physiology and Pharmacology
Israel Society for Physiology and Pharmacology
Physiological Society of Japan
Korean Physiological Society
Malaysian Society of Pharmacology and Physiology
Physiological Society of New ZealandPhysiology Society of the Philippines
Physiological Society of Thailand
Physiology Association of United Arab Emirate
Indonesian Physiological Society
Physiology & Biochemistry Subsection Myanmar Medical Association
Pakistan Physiological Society
Physiology Society of Sri Lanka
Physiological Society of Vietnam
Uzbekistan Physiological Society

As we know the first regional Congress of Physiological Science partly supported by the IUPS
in November 1986 in Bangkok. The meeting was highly successful both scientifically andsocially. There were many eminent physiologists at the meeting such as the late Sir John Eccles,
Erwin Neher, the late John Hubbard, Masao Ito, the late John Young and many others. The idea
to establish the Federation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies was brought up andwell accepted. This meeting was later recognized as the First Congress of FAOPS, although it was
not until 1990 when FAOPS was officially formed. Since then, there is 9 congresses of FAOPS at
a 4-year cycle. up to now (Table 3).
Table 3. Congress of FAOPS
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Year
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2011
2015
2019

City
Bangkok
New Delhi
Shanghai
Brisbane
Kuala Lumpur
Seoul
TaipeiBangkok
Kobe

Chair of the Organizing Committee
Prasop Rattanakorn
Surenda Kumar Manchanda
Xiong Li YangJohn Atherton Young
Swee Hung Chaeh
Ki Whan Kim
Julie YH Chan
Chumpol Pholpramool
Junichi Nabekura

20

Table 4. FAOPS Council Meetings
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

Date
01/11/1991
12/12/1992
03/08/1993
06/11/1994
06/09/1996
29/06/1997
27/09/1998
19/11/2000
27/08/2001
23/09/2002
15/10/2006
30/07/2009
2010?
11/09/2011
24/06/2013
22/11/2015
25/09/2016
30/03/2018

City
New Delhi
Shanghai
Glasgow
Shanghai
Pattaya
St. Petersburg
Brisbane
Kuala Lumpur
Christchurch
Seoul
Seoul
Kyoto
TaipeiTaipei
Birmingham
BangkokBeijingTakamatsu

President
Masao Ito
Masao Ito
Masao Ito
Masao Ito
Masao Ito
Masao Ito
Masao Ito
John YoungJohn Young
Chumpol Pholpramool
Chumpol Pholpramool
Y. Okada
Y. Okada
Julie YH Chan
Julie YH Chan
Xiaomin Wang
Xiaomin Wang
Xiaomin Wang

FAOPS Newsletters was created in 1992 and published by the FAOPS Secretariat. It has been
issued 23 issues to date. Its purpose is to serve as a venue for communications and exchanging
viewpoints between members of FAOPS concerning their teaching, research and social activities.
Chumpol Pholpramool (Vol. 1-11), Fereshteh Motamedi (Vol. 13-16) and Saeed Semnanian (Vol.
17-23) are subsequently editors-in-chief of FAOPS Newsletters.
FAOPS website (http://www.um.edu.my/conf/FAOPS/index.html) was first set up by Cheah
Swee Hung supported by Malaysian Society of Physiology and Pharmacology in 2001, andrenewed (http://faops.org.my) in Jan 2012. The current web master is Cheah Swee Hung and leadby Prof. Harbindar Jeet Singh.
2. The main work of FAOPS
The missions of FAOPS are to foster research activities in the field of physiological sciencesin Asia and Oceania, to provide a forum for the exchange and dissemination of knowledge andideas between physiological scientists in Asia and Oceania, and to encourage and support theadvancement of physiological sciences to developing countries and regions in Asia and Oceania.
Four Commissions of FAOPS were gradually established in order to reach this goal. That is on
Commission of Physiology Education, Commission on Promotion of Research, Commission on
Fund-Raising and Committee on Publication. For example, the Commission of Physiology
Education has done a lot of work, such as to held dozen times workshop on Computer Aided
Learning in Physiology Education, Computer Assisted Teaching, Problem-based Learning in
Physiology Education, Immunoassay Techniques, and so on. These activities are distributed todozen countries in Asia and Oceania and benefit hundreds of Physiological teachers. Now it has
become a brand of continuing education programs of FAOPS. The other important action is InterMedical School Physiology Quiz (IMSPQ), that was initiated in 2003 by Professor Cheng Hwee
Ming, from University of Malaya, who has developed and expanded much beyond the initial 7
Malaysian medical schools to the much more medical schools distributed in many countries in21

Asia and Oceania. The IMSPQ is now a good platform for academic physio-dialogue besides
stimulating interest and enjoyment in learning Physiology. It has been warmly welcomed by thevast number of students and become an annual event of a medical school. We can look forward
to more exciting and enriching developments in high profiling Physiology together across theglobe.
3. FAOPS and IUPSThe International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS, http://www.iups.org) was officiallyfounded in Montreal in 1953. FOAPS was approved at the IUPS meeting in Helsinki in 1989 andone of Regional members of IUPS. The establishment and development of FAOPS has been
supported and helped. Before and after the founding of FAOPS, member countries in the AsiaPacific region had hosted 5 International Congress of IUPS, including Tokyo (1965), New Delhi(1974), Sydney (1983), Christchurch (2001) and Kyoto (2009). The Chinese Association of
Physiological Sciences (CAPS) has wined the bid to host the 39th IUPS Congress to be held in
Beijing, China in 2021 during 37th IUPS Congress in Birmingham in 2013.
Prof. Masao Ito, Prof. Akimichi Kaneko and, more recently, Prof. Julie YH Chan have been
elected as the President of IUPS. Some of physiologists in our region have been elected as theVice President, or Council members, or the Commission Chair and members of IUPS. These
examples amply demonstrate that physiologists in the Asia-Pacific region are playing an
increasingly important role on the world physiology stage.
4. The questions and challenge
Spanning over 30 years, the society has a long and rich history of scientific breakthroughs,
technical innovations and professional development, well-organized operations, and fruitfulstrategic developments. But we should be aware that we have a long way to go for theestablishment purposes of FAOPS, and there are more difficult works to do.
In the Asia-Pacific region, there are currently 51 countries. Because of the different national
strength of these countries, such as economy, education, science and technology, security andother factors, their development is uneven. This is why nowadays FAOPS only has 13 official(regular) members and 6 associate members. The most critical bottleneck problems to constraint
FAOPS development are the number of State members, lack of funds and lack of vitality. How tosolve these problems? We should think about it and try to reach a consensus, in order to accelerate
the development of FAOPS, we should carry out reform and innovation. The following issues
should be done as soon as possible.
1. Strengthen ties with non-official member states, increase the strength of the developmentof members, and pay attention to attract enterprises to become our members.
2. Strengthen academic communication between basic physiological scientists and clinicalscientists and strengthen the frequency of academic conferences, supports the special academic
meetings, such as focusing on the translational medicine or precise medicine, and training courses
organized by the Member States, and to promote scientific and research cooperation between
Member States scientists.
3. Strengthen education and training to promote the development of regional physiologicaldiscipline.

22

4. Strengthen the construction of FAOPS website, run well the society’s publication Newsletter, to explore the possibility to create the FAOPS official magazine, enhance the cohesionof the society.
5. Strengthen the funds raised. Through the establishment of FAOPS development
foundation, to attract charitable funds and corporate funds for the relief of membership feesdeveloping countries and support the development of the society.
6. Strengthen the communication and cooperation with the Asia Oceanic region, internationalorganization related physiology and Enterprise, and so on, based on the advantages andcharacteristics of Asia Oceanic region, to hold international, multi-discipline conferences, to build
a platform for research and production.
5. Epilogue
As we look back at the history and celebrate the 30 years since the founding of FAOPS, wemust bear in mind the predecessors who have made outstanding contributions to the establishment
and development of the society, we have to appreciate Masao Ito, Surenda Kumar Manchanda,
Xiong Li Yang, Chok Yung Chai, Chumpol Pholpramool, John Atherton Young, Fereshteh
Motamedi, Akimichi Kaneko, Swee Hung Cheah, Paul SG Wang, Yasunobu Okada, Ki Whan
Kim, Julie YH Chan, Harbindar Jeet Singh, etc. and all of council members (Table 5). We also
thank Chumpol Pholpramool, Fereshteh Motamedi and Saeed Semnanian to do a great job as theeditors-in-chief of FAOPS Newsletters. We specially thank Cheng Hwee Ming to make the great
contribution to organize the IMSPQ.
The recent developments in life sciences and technology have been remarkable. The humangenome has been decoded, new technologies such as genetic engineering, protein engineering,cell engineering, computer, the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence are emerging, that hasenabled us to study the fine structure and function of gene, proteins and cell that compose thehuman body. Physiology is the basis for many clinical sciences and it is the role of physiology tointegrate findings obtained in specialized scientific subdivisions and to understand how livingorgan function as a whole. Therefore, Physiology is a more important discipline than otherdisciplines to understand the life science and medicine.
We are in the best time for the development of physiology and also face the challenge of
FAOPS to develop. In fact, these challenges are also our opportunities. We look forward to the
FAOPS under the leadership of the new Executive Committee, reform, innovate, and promote thesociety development to a new stage!

23

Table 5. FAOPS Council Members (1990-2019)Year
1990-1994

1994-1998

1998-2002

2002-2006

Name
Masao Ito
Surenda Kumar Manchanda
Xiong Li Yang
Chok Yung Chai
Chumpol Pholpramool
John Ingram Hubbard
Woo Gyeum KimFereshteh Motamedi
Rami Rahamimoff
Harbindar Jeet SinghJohn Atherton Young
Masao Ito
Xiong Li YangJohn Atherton Young
Chok Yung Chai
Chumpol Pholpramool
Sang Ho Lee
Fereshteh Motamedi
Usha Nayar
Rodger Pack
Rami Rahamimoff
Harbindar Jeet SinghJohn Atherton Young
Masao Ito
Fereshteh Motamedi
Swee Hung Chaeh
Paul SG Wang
Akimichi Kaneko
Thirayudh Glinsukorn
Ki Whan Kim
V Mohan Kumar
Rodger Pack
Rami Rahamimoff
Xiong Li Yang
Chumpol Pholpramool
John Atherton Young
Swee Hung Cheah
Ki Whan Kim
Paul SG Wang
Akimichi Kaneko
Pat Cragg
Ming Fan
Thirayudh Glinsukorn
V Mohan Kumar

Position
President
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
MemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberPresident
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
MemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberPresident
Past President
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
MemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberPresident
Past President
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
MemberMemberMemberMember
24

Country
Japan
India
China
China (Taiwan)
Thailand
New Zealand
Korea
Iran
IsraelMalaysia
Australia
Japan
China
Australia
China (Taiwan)
Thailand
Korea
Iran
India
New ZealandIsraelMalaysia
Australia
Japan
Iran
Malaysia
China (Taiwan)
Japan
Thailand
Korea
India
New ZealandIsraelChina
ThailandAustralia
Malaysia
Korea
China (Taiwan)
Japan
New Zealand
China
ThailandIndia

2006-2011

2011-2015

2015-2019

Arie Moran
Saeed Semnanian
Yasunobu Okada
Chumpol Pholpramool
Ki Whan Kim
Julie YH ChanDavid Cook
Xiong Li Yang
Pat Cragg
Ming Fan
V Mohan Kumar
Arie Moran
Saeed Samnanen
Harbidar Jeet Singh
Julie YH Chan
Yasunobu Okada
Byung Rim Park
Chumpol Pholpramool
David Cook
Harbindar Jeet Singh
Nipon Chattipakorn
G Ilavazhagan
Arie Moran
Arif Siddiqui
Xiao Ming Wang
Saleh Zahedi Asi
Xiao Ming Wang
Julie YH Chan
Javad Mirnajafi-Zadeh
Yoshiro Kubo
Anuwat Dinudom
Harbindar Jeet SinghColin Brown
Chae Hun Leem
Suchinda MalaivijitnondIsrael Sekler
Arif Siddiqui
Shashi Bala Singh
Mei-Ling Tsai

MemberMemberPresident
Past President
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
MemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberPresident
Past President
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
MemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberPresident
Past President
1st Vice President
2nd Vice President
Treasurer
Secretary
MemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberMemberProfessor Dr. Xiaomin Wang
Capital Medical University,
Beijing, China

25

IsraelIran
Japan
Thailand
Korea
TaiwanAustralia
China
New Zealand
China
India
IsraelIran
Malaysia
China (Taiwan)
Japan
Korea
ThailandAustralia
Malaysia
ThailandIndia
IsraelPakistan
China
Iran
China
China (Taiwan)
Iran
Japan
Australia
Malaysia
New Zealand
Korea
ThailandIsraelPakistan
India
China (Taiwan)

Unforgettable Memory
Xiong-Li Yang, Ph.D.
FAOPS 2nd Vice President (1990-1994),
1st Vice President (1994-1998), Council(1998-2002),
Secretary (2006-2011)
It was in the evening of Nov. 11, 1990 when I arrived at the New Delhi International Airport
to attend the Second Congress of AOPS, as a representative of the Chinese Association of
Physiological Sciences (CAPS). At the airport I was met by the late Prof. Manchanda, former
Chairman of Indian Physiological Society (host institution). By coincidence, Prof. Pholpramool
from Thailand arrived around the same time. That was the first time I met him, and we then started
the collaboration in the FAOPS, lasting for more than 20 years.
In addition to the scientific program, the representatives of national physiological societies ofcountries in the Asian and Oceanic Region, including Australia, China, China (Taipei), India,
Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, hold a meeting, discussing the possibility of establishinga federation of Asian and Oceanic physiological societies. Chaired by Prof. Ito, Japan, the meeting
proceeded very smoothly in a warm and friendly atmosphere and made several important
decisions. Even though a number of scientific meetings in the field of physiology were held inthis region before, it was in the New Delhi meeting where the FAOPS was formally founded.
Prof. Ito was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the Federation and Shanghai, China wasselected as the city for holding the Third FAOPS Congress.
I was appointed as the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Congress by CAPS. In
early ninetieth of the last century, when the door of China that had been closed for a long periodof time was just opened to the world, it was not easy to hold a large international scientificmeeting. Nevertheless, under the strong support from the Chinese government and the CAPS, my
Chinese colleagues in the former Shanghai Institute of Physiology tried the best endeavor to makethe Congress to be held in the Shanghai Convention Center in November, 1994，as scheduled,with more than five hundred participants from 25 countries. In the opening ceremony, the lateProf. T. P, Feng, one of the founders of modern physiology in China, delivered a keynote speech,
in which he presented his insightful comments on the big challenge confronted by physiologists
given the emergence of cell biology and molecular biology. And the speech was warmly
welcomed by the audience, as evidenced by the warm and long lasting applause. In the plenary
lecture given in the Congress, Dr. Neher provided a concise description of research advances withthe use of patch clamp techniques. This was indeed a big event in the history of CAPS, which
rendered Chinese physiologists to realize how important international exchange may be forscience advance. Meanwhile, international ties of physiologists in this region were muchstrengthened during the Congress, which was meaningful for the future of physiological researchand education in this region. In the closing remarks, as the first Vice-President of FAOPS, I said
“We are all living in an open world, a world of open skies, open minds and open hearts. Once
friendship is forged, long distance between us, both physically and mentally, would be shortened.”26

While I still have a most vivid memory of the Congress, including the opening and closing
ceremonies, welcome reception, plenary lectures, twenty-five years have elapsed. Flying time hasbrought the heads of our generation with numerous grey hairs. I am fully confident that younger
generations will definitely push the FAOPS forward with greater effort and make still further
progress.
Xiong-Li Yang, Ph.D.
Professor: Institutes of Brain Science and State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology,
Fudan University
138 Yixueyuan Rd., Shanghai 200032, PRC

27

On the Occasion of the 30th
Anniversary of FAOPS
and the 9th FAOPS Congress
Yasunobu Okada, M.D., Ph.D.
FAOPS President (2006-2011)
As one of the former Presidents, I would like to congratulate all the FAOPS members on the
30th Anniversary of FAOPS and to give cordial greetings to all the participants of the 9th FAOPS
Congress (FAOPS2019) in Japan.
I served as the FAOPS President from 2006 to 2011 and enjoyed working with all the Council
members. During that term, we could approve the Physiological Societies of Pakistan and
Myanmar as new Regular Members as well as Uzbekistan Physiological Society (UPS) as a new
Associate Member of FAOPS. Prior to this approval for UPS, the UPS itself was reestablished in
2008, and I was invited to attend the first UPS reestablishing congress held in Tashkent and happy
to deliver an invitation speech. We also decided to change the FAOPS Congress cycle from a 3year cycle to a 4-year cycle, thereby enabling every FAOPS Congress to be held just between two
subsequent IUPS Congresses. Actually, this 4-year cycle started from the 7th FAOPS Congress in
Taiwan in 2011.
The missions of FAOPS are to foster research activities in the field of physiological sciencesin Asia and Oceania, to provide a forum for the exchange and dissemination of knowledge andideas between physiological scientists in Asia and Oceania, and to encourage and support theadvancement of physiological scientists to developing countries and regions in Asia and Oceania.
To achieve these missions fully, it is necessary not only to concentrate the efforts by all themembers but also to raise enough funds. In my opinion, it must be grateful if the Chinese
Physiological Society can make more contribution in consideration of its recent great
achievements and rapid growth.
Physiology is the study of the functions of life and their mechanisms by integrating theprocesses at all levels between the molecular to the whole-body level. Thus, Physiology is a mostimportant key discipline among the biological sciences, and that is why the Nobel Prize for life
science fields is called “The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine”. I hope that all the FAOPS
members enjoy their physiological studies and can exchange their results between the FAOPS
members especially at the FAOPS Congress.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to summarize briefly my own research history. I started
electrophysiological studies on non-excitable, but not excitable, membranes in epithelial andfibroblastic cells in vitro as well as in isolated small intestinal epithelia and enterocytes ex vivo
from the early 1970’s. At that time, such a choice of research field was quite unusual for a
newcomer, because most electrophysiological studies were actively carried out on excitable
membranes. Several years later, I and my collaborators anyhow succeeded in elucidation of ionicmechanisms of the transmural potential changes associated with absorption of sugar and aminoacids in small intestinal epithelia (in 1977) and also in discovering membrane potential oscillations
28

(in 1977) and cytosolic Ca2+ oscillations (in 1983 long before upcoming surges of Ca2+ oscillation
studies) in these non-excitable cells. During these studies, we happened to find, for the first time(in 1988), the activity of a new type of anion channel activated by cell swelling, called volumesensitive outwardly rectifying anion channel (VSOR; also called VRAC) which plays an essential
role in cell volume regulation after cell swelling, called the regulatory volume decrease (RVD). I
then selected the anion channel as my main research subject, despite that this choice was against
the tide of research directions at that time, in which anion channels were looked down as mere
background channels. Thereafter, together with a doctor-course student who came from a different
academic field, we demonstrated in vitro the causal involvement of VSOR activity in inductionof apoptotic cell shrinkage, which we, for the first time, called the apoptotic volume decrease(AVD), in collaboration with researchers from a different academic field, including Dr. Y. Ishizaki(in 2000), and also in induction of ischemia-reperfusion neuronal cell death in vivo again in
collaboration with researchers from a different scientific field, including Dr. S. Shioda (in 2007).
The VSOR involvements were also shown in the necrotic volume increase (NVI) and inductionof necrotic glial cell death under lactacidosis (in 2002) and neuronal cell death under excitotoxicity(in 2007) in vitro. After molecular identification of LRRC8 as the VSOR core component by othergroups (in 2014), we provided evidence that LRRC8A plus C/D/E are actually necessary but not
sufficient to reproduce the full-set of phenotypic properties of VSOR (in 2017). We have also
been studying another type of swelling-activated anion channel with exhibiting a huge unitaryconductance, called the maxi-anion channel (Maxi-Cl) in persistent collaboration with researchers
from Uzbekistan, China and Bangladesh, including Dr. R.Z. Sabirov. We demonstrated, for the
first time, that this anion channel serves as one of non-vesicular conductive pathways for ATP
release (in 2001). We also showed a variety of physiological roles of Maxi-Cl-mediated ATP
release including not only its facilitating role in RVD in vitro (in 2011, 2012) but also signalingroles in the tubule-glomerular feedback in macula densa cells ex vivo (in 2003) and in ischemiareperfusion injury in hearts ex or in vivo (in 2017) in collaboration with researchers from different
fields, including Dr. P.D. Bell and Dr. H. Matsuura, respectively. After long-term desperate
struggles, we have at last identified the molecule responsible for the Maxi-Cl by genome-wide
approaches in combination with proteomics, gene silencing screening, and proteoliposome
reconstitution (in 2017). What I can advise young FAOPS members after looking back myresearch experiences is as followings: First, do not go with the crowd, and do pursue your own
interest, even though being against the tide! Second, make collaboration with researchers fromdifferent fields. Third, promote your studies in international collaboration especially with thosefrom FAOPS countries. Fourth, do not hesitate to jump into the doctor courses of different
scientific fields, as far as you are interested in.
Lastly, I wish the FAOPS will attain further development, and the research and education
works by all the FAOPS members will be successful.
Yasunobu Okada, M.D., Ph.D.
Former President: FAOPS
Former President: The Physiological Society of Japan
Adjunct Professor: Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
Guest Professor: Yokohama City University
Professor Emeritus (Former President): SOKENDAI (Graduate University for Advanced
Studies)
Professor Emeritus (Former Director-General): National Institute for Physiological Sciences(NIPS)

29

MESSAGESFROM PAST AND PRESENTCOUNCIL MEMBERS

30

Professor Arif Siddiqui, Ph.D.
FAOPS Council (2011-2015, 2015-2019)

Dear Members
I have the privilege of steering Pakistan Physiological Society joining FAOPS in 1998 and feelextremely honored to have been representing the same at the Executive Council of FAOPS for two
consecutive terms. Soon after, I realized that its leadership been open and forth coming resulting
to enhanced networking and professionally rewarding strides. Prof. Msao Ito, Prof. Chumpol
Pholpramool, Prof. Julie Y. Chan, Prof. Xiaomin Wang, Prof. Harbindarjeet Singh and Prof. Saeed
Semnanian deserve special mention for this.
In its geographical jurisdiction FAOPS can be regarded as distinct platform for strengthening
exchanges and related disciplines thereby promoting the development of physiological sciences inless privileged countries. In recent years I clearly noted a distinct surge in its activities. Certainly
there is tremendous scope, however, for this to be capitalized constituent societies need to be moreproactive, not only with FAOPS but also within themselves and projecting the FAOPS’ platform.
Predominantly, finances have been the major constraint in FAOPS’s progression but it is the
responsibilities of constituent societies to be innovative in overcoming so as to minimize thebottleneck and make best use of such an important forum. Another aspect needing attention is tofind more avenues for interaction especially at younger level and introduce more levels ofinteraction and collaboration such as research workshops and FAOPS through its senior executives
walking to events organized by member societies who may not be able to organize events like
congresses in their jurisdiction in near future. This will definitely ensure FAOPS visibility insmaller constituent societies.
I sincerely wish FAOPS a great future ahead.
Professor Arif Siddiqui, Ph.D.
Member: FAOPS Executive Council (2011-19)
Former Vice Chancellor: Barrett Hodgson University, Karachi

31

Transformation of Physiology
Education workshop in FAOPS
2011
Mei-Ling Tsai, Ph.D.
FAOPS Council (2015-2019)
Commission on Physiology Education in FAOPS council plays an important role in promoting
regional experience exchange in physiology education. The first FAOPS Physiology Education
workshop was introduced to FAOPS Congress in 1994 after the guideline for Commission on
Physiology Education was proposed in the first FAOPS Executive Committee Meeting in 1991.
Before 2000s, Computer-based laboratory teaching Physiology was introduced in the workshop.
Later, problem-based learning (PBL) became an important focus. All physiologists benefits fromthe workshops. Some of them even changes traditional settings in physiology teaching based on
the new concepts.
Because of personal interest, some physiologists are willing to implement new pedagogies for
improving physiology teaching in a classroom setting. However, some physiologists in early
2000s must change their teaching pedagogies due to external pressure, medical education reform
in many medical schools. Physiology teaching may undergo various levels of transformation.
Meanwhile, the learners in the 21st century, born after 1982, have changed their learning patterns.
They are heavy users of social media, prefer to learn in an informal environment, and pay muchless attention to didactic lectures than those of older generations. The changes in their learning
styles also requires further modification in teaching approaches to meet the needs in the 21st
century.
In 2011 when Chinese Physiological Society in Taipei is responsible for organizing
Physiology Education workshop in the 7th FAOPS Congress (Figure 2), our major challenge is tooffer Physiology Education workshops which prepare stakeholders to meet their needs in the 21st
century. Based on our experiences in medical education, we decided to focus on three important
issues, including PBL in physiology teaching, impact of medical education reform on physiology
teaching, and how to educate the neo-millennial learners. To provide better platforms for decent
discussion, we created panel discussion in symposia and theme-based colloquium. In addition,
medical students were invited to participate in the symposium and give a reflection report as aclosing remark. To further disseminate the updated concepts of Physiology education to congressgoers, one more symposium related to physiology education was embedded in FAOPS Congress.
The dramatic changes in the format of Physiology Education workshop invited more participants
to learn current progression of physiology education.
The transformation of Physiology Education workshop occurred in 2011 and a new format ofPhysiology Education workshop appeared in FAOPS 2015 as well. Although Physiology
education workshop still coexists in FAOPS Congress, both medical and graduate students wereinvited to Education symposium in addition to physiologists. Short talks followed by panel
discussion were designed to facilitate decent and dynamic discussion.

32

In 30 years, Commission on Physiology Education in FAOPS councils indeed fulfill their
mission in promoting physiology education and facilitating experience exchange. In addition to
Physiology Education workshop, the education symposium is designed from organizer- toparticipant- centered format. Various forms of symposia will be in place. The
workshop/symposium provides an important platform for physiologists in the region to learn fromother physiologists and consolidate a long-term friendship through education. The long-term
interactions of physiologists in the education workshop has built a tradition in a FAOPS Congress.
In addition to undergraduate-centered Physiology Education, graduate-centered Physiology
Education should be further addressed. Promoting regional mobility among the graduate students
may facilitates further reform of graduate programs in the region.

Figure 2. A group photo after Physiology Education Symposium in FAOPS2011

Mei-Ling Tsai, Ph.D.
Chinese Physiological Society in Taipei

33

Celebration of the FAOPS 30th year
Chae Hun Leem, M.D., Ph.D.
FAOPS Council (2015-2019)
I would like to deeply congratulate the 30th year of FAOPS. Physiological sciences are thecentral core of all biology to understand life. In the area of Asian and Oceanian, lots ofphysiologists are fascinated by the nature of physiology. FAOPS is very good container to cover
the communication between the physiologists in this area. Now physiologists need to open new
topics in addition to the conventional physiological sciences. We can say the last century as theera of the experiment based biology and now we are facing new form of sciences linked
computational sciences and data sciences. Lots of physiological data of each person is now easily
obtained and accumulated and they can open the possibility to bring the physiological knowledge
in the textbook to the everyday human life. The physiological system of individual human bodywill be deciphered by the sophisticated system analysis and eventually by the artificial intelligence.
Human efforts to understand the body and to make better life will continue and we need to takephysiology into people’s life as a central core of the future development.
Chae Hun Leem, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor: Department of Physiology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine

34

V. Mohan Kumar, M.D.
FAOPS Council (1998-2002, 2002-2006,
2006-2011)
The Federation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS) was officiallyformed/renamed during the Second Congress of Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies(AOPS), held at New Delhi, India from 12 to 15 November, 1990. I had the good fortune to be
the Joint Secretary of the Congress and to manage its scientific program. Late Prof. Masao Ito,
the Founding President of FAOPS, took a very keen interest in the organization of the Second
Congress of AOPS. On-sight visits and discussions with Prof. Masao Ito and also Prof. Hiroshi
Kawamura resulted in the organizing of 25 symposia, 32 invited and plenary lectures during theCongress. In addition, there were 245 posters and brief communications. The participants of theCongress were not only from Asia and Oceania, but also from USA, USSR, UK, Italy, France,
Finland, Argentina and some African countries.
It is also important to throw some light about the Federation of Indian Physiological Societies(FIPS), which is the society from India affiliated to the FAOPS. India had four physiologicalsocieties, at the time when discussions were going on for the formation of FAOPS. The societies
are the Association of Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India, Physiological Society of India,
Indian Society for Comparative Animal Physiology and Society of Animal Physiologists of India.
These four societies represented the physiologists from medical science, pure science,comparative animal science and veterinary science, respectively. Understandably, there werepractical difficulties in including all the four societies from India in the FAOPS.
One should give due credit to Prof. S.K. Manchanda for bringing the four societies under theumbrella of FIPS to seek adherence with the FAOPS, with each of these societies continuing its
independent existence, and working for the specialties that it represented. The meeting of theoffice bearers of these Societies was held in the Department of Physiology, at All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi on 26th October 1990. This meeting, attended by Prof.
S.K. Manchanda, Prof. B.K. Anand, Prof. M. Habibulla, Prof. M.L. Madan, Prof. Usha Nayar,
Prof. B.K. Kapoor and myself, decided to form a federation of these four physiological societies(i.e. FIPS) to act as the nodal point for the interaction with the international bodies like FAOPS.
Though the Indian physiology community and FIPS were co-founders of the FAOPS, they
have not been playing their expected role in the activities of this Asia and Oceanian society, inthe past few years. Prof. S.K. Manchanda, the founding President of FIPS, passed away on 9th
Nov 1998. After his sad demise, the momentum created by him for scientific interaction of thefour physiological societies and its contribution to the FAOPS came to a decline. It took several
years of concerted efforts to revive the FIPS. Finally on 20th July 2011 a meeting of the Executive
Council of FIPS was held at Delhi. The Executive Council constituted a Nomination Committee35

with myself as the Chairman, to propose the next set of office bearers of the FIPS. After longdrawn interactions with the four constituent Societies, the General Body of the FIPS was firstreconstituted. The reconstituted General Body of the FIPS met at Delhi on 11th January, 2013
and elected its new office bearers. This reactivated FIPS is now carrying on the activities in an
efficient manner, and fulfilling the constitutional obligation with the FAOPS.
The discipline of physiology in India is facing the same problems that this community isfacing everywhere else. Teaching hours in physiology in medical curriculum have been cut down.
Funding for research in physiology has been greatly reduced. Strong opposition from animal
activists is hampering the experiments on animals. Many of these activists have political clout,and some of them do occupy the seats of power. In this situation, research collaboration withinternational organizations and other countries in the region would be extremely beneficial for
Indian scientists. Creation of networks and international working groups within FAOPS would
facilitate research and teaching. Research in physiological sciences can certainly be addressed
towards solving societal problems. But, at the same time, the importance of fundamental researchshould never be ignored. I am sure that the Indian scientists will continue to make significant
contributions in the field of physiology, and bring laurels to the Asia and Oceanian region. In
addition, it is hoped that the other member nations of FAOPS will make use of the vast humanresources available in this big country to improve the research and teaching activities of their
universities and other teaching institutions. With these few lines, I wish a bright future for the
FAOPS.
Profesor V. Mohan Kumar

36

Nipon Chattipakorn, M.D., Ph.D.
FAOPS Council (2011-2015)
On this special occasion in which FAOPS will celebrate its 30th Anniversary in 2019, it is anhonor and my great pleasure to join others to be a part of this celebration. In the past three decades,
FAOPS has been a great promoter for the advancement of the physiological sciences in Asia andOceania since its beginning. Young physiologists across the regions have been encouraged andsupported through its member societies for both educational and scientific research. Its activity
including the FAOPS Congress has drawn great attention of both young and senior physiologists
as shown by the growing number of participants in the past decades. It has been a place whereexperts from various fields and young investigators come together to share and discuss exciting
novel findings and to foster those who need help regardless of their nationalities. FAOPS has
been doing its job to serve these purposes wonderfully, and I am certain that it will continue tosupport physiological science research and education for the future generations to come. Andagain, on this special occasion I wish FAOPS all the success!
Nipon Chattipakorn, M.D., Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Cardiac Electrophysiology
Director: Cardiac Electrophysiology Research and Training Center (CERT), Faculty of
Medicine, Chiang Mai University,
Chair: Department of Physiology,
Faculty of Medicine, Chiang Mai University,
Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand

37

Saeed Semnanian, M.D., Ph.D.
FAOPS Council (2002-2006, 2006-2011)
My name is Saeed Semnanian, professor of physiology in Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran,
Iran. I have been the council member of FAOPS from 2004 to 2011, for two terms. Thereafter I
have been the editor of FAOPS newsletter and have succeeded in publishing 11 editions of thisnewsletter, which is sent to the physiologists of FAOPS 14 member countries.
I was introduced to FAOPS through Prof. Fereshteh Motamedi from Iran, who along with
Prof. Masao Ito from Japan and Prof. Pholpramool from Thailand, late Prof. Manchanda from
India and some others, founded FAOPS at 1990. She was a FAOPS council member for two terms
and then at 2004, I was elected to be a council member from Iran.
It is impossible to write about FAOPS and not to mention in more details about Prof. Masao
Ito. Indeed, he had a pivotal role in founding this organization. Prof. Ito has been President of the
Science Council of Japan, President of both the Neuroscience Society of Japan, and the
Physiological Society of Japan for many years since 1994. He has also served as President of theInternational Brain Research Organization (IBRO) and the International the Union of
Physiological Sciences (IUPS). He has been elected to the Japan Academy, Royal Society, Royal
Swedish Academy of Sciences, Armenian Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of
Sciences, and won the 2006 Gruber Prize in Neuroscience.
I have had the privilege of knowing Prof Ito since 1988. We had invited him to our biannual
Physiology and Pharmacology congress and I met him for the first time in Tehran. Since then he
was kind enough to accept me for many short research visits to his lab in RIKEN Frontier Researchand thereafter RIKEN BSI, in Tokyo. At 2006, I spent one year of sabbatical leave in his lab which
remains unforgettable memories of his superb behavior and also vast scientific knowledge andexperience.
Getting to know outstanding physiologists from Asian and Oceanic countries was one of mybest souvenirs from those years acting as a FAOPS council member. Every two years we would
meet and discuss about how FAOPS could be influential in disseminating the knowledge ofphysiology, especially among young scientists of member countries. In between these meetings,
we were in touch by email and coordinated the organization’s affairs.
Now FAOPS is 30 years old and we are going to celebrate its 30th Anniversary during the 9th
FAOPS Congress in 2019 in Kobe, Japan. It seems that it might be also a good opportunity torevise its strengths and maybe weaknesses in order to shed light on the path this scientificorganization should pave in the decades ahead. I believe this important job should best be affordedby the current Council, using the consultation of the physiology societies in member countries.

38

I assume that the main challenges of this relatively young organization are lack of adequate
funding, high variability between the scientific level and situation of the member societies, andmanagement problems.
Usually all regional scientific organizations face the same above mentioned problems. Theinternational scientific organizations with good funding situations are usually those backed bywealthy member countries or with too many members and thus membership dues and also theones who publish high level and well internationally sold scientific journals. The variability
between the scientific levels of the member societies are also seen amongst International scientificorganizations, but translates in their congresses as a strong point and does not result in poor
participation in the scientific gatherings. The management challenges, which sometimes are seenin the scientific organizations, are more prominent in the young and regional ones rather thanmore mature and international ones.
At last, I deeply hope this important scientific organization be able to bring physiologists of
the old continent together and be effective in spreading out this knowledge for the good of people’s
health in this part of the world.
Saeed Semnanian, M.D., Ph.D.
July 2018, Tehran

39Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Ph.D.
FAOPS Council (2015-2019)
First of all, I must express my gratitude and honor to be a part of the cerebration of the 30th
anniversary of the Federation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS).
Comparing with other societies in Physiology throughout the world, at this age of the FAOPS, thesociety seems to be a teenager which is very young, energetic, and full of power to move forward
to achieve her purposes. Although I have joined this society in a very short of time since 2015, I
have always felt a high honor to be given this opportunity to work in this society. Indeed, I servein the council of many international physiological societies, but I can accentuate that FAOPS is
one of the best societies that is very strong in academic, activity and friendship. I am grateful for
the Emeritus Professor Chumpol Pholpramool, a renowned senior Thai physiologist, who gaveme an opportunity to work with him as a Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of the
8th FAOPS Congress in November 2015, in Bangkok, Thailand. It is an initiating step for me towork with FAOPS before becoming one of the council members. Professor Pholpramool is a hard
worker and always builds the atmosphere of cordiality at work. He organized the FAOPS2015 asa Chair of the Local Organizing Committee for several years before the event was happened.
Working with other council members in the FAOPS, who are all outstanding in the field of
Physiology, I could learn a lot in many aspects from many angles. My eyes have always been
wide open during the council meetings by various stimulating ideas of the committees who devote
themselves to make FAOPS in a better place. The society does not think only about the reputationof the society, but the council members have always thought about fostering the young
physiologists to grow stronger with mutual collaboration.
I have always felt and kept asking myself how lucky I am to have this opportunity to work inthis society, which is surrounding with many outstanding council members from many countries.
It seems that we are different, but we have the same root of Asian and Oceanian culture under the
FAOPS umbrella. By our culture, which has been transmitting from generation to generation, theseniors always groom the juniors and give opportunity and support them whenever possible. With
regard to this culture, it makes FAOPS unique, brilliant and strong. I truly hope that this tradition
will always be in here for good.
Suchinda Malaivijitnond, Ph.D.
Professor: Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Director: National Primate Research Center of Thailand

40

Thirayudh Glinsukon, Ph.D.
FAOPS Council (2002-2006)
In the past decades, the limited knowledge in physiological sciences in some Asian andOceanic countries was recognized. Initiation on the international collaborations of physiologicalscientists in the region and the western countries to improve this situation was proposed by the
Physiological Society of Thailand. In 1990, the Federation of the Asian and OceanianPhysiological Societies (FAOPS) was officially established by a unanimous decision of many
physiological scientists at the 2nd FAOPS Congress in India. This organization serves as a forum
where physiological scientists in the region and those from the developed countries collaborate
and share their activities through the education, training and frontier research in physiologicalsciences. At present, there is a gradually increase in number of the member societies to participate
in FAOPS activities for the advancement in this field.
I would like to express my great appreciation to all member societies for their supports andcollaborations in the activities of FAOPS for progression in the advancement of this field at present
and in the future.
Professor Dr. Thirayudh Glinsukon
Former Vice President: Walailak University, Thailand

41

Cerebrating the 30 years’
anniversary of FAOPS
Yoshihiro Kubo, Ph.D.
FAOPS 2nd Vice-President (2015-2019)

First of all, I would like to express my condolences to Late Prof Masao Ito who passed away
on Dec 18, 2018. He was one of the co-founders of FAOPS and also the first President of FAOPS.
It is truly a big loss for all of us and FAOPS. I regret the first FAOPS Congress in Japan,
FAOPS2019 (Kobe), was not in time. I would like to express my gratitude to his contribution to
FAOPS and physiological sciences and wish his soul rest in peace eternally.
After FAOPS was officially established by the effort of Prof Ito and other co-founders inNovember in 1990, almost 30 years have passed. I would like to cerebrate 30 years’ anniversaryof FAOPS, with many thanks to people who contributed to its foundation and running so far.
I have been serving as Vice-President of The Physiological Society of Japan (PSJ) in Chargeof International Affairs for 7 years till today, and facilitated organization of international
symposia at every PSJ annual meeting, including KOJACH (Korea-Japan-China), AuPS
(Australia)-PSJ, CAPS (China)-PSJ, CPS(Taiwan)-PSJ, KPS(Korea)-PSJ etc. I also facilitatedlectures/symposia abroad, including the meetings of AuPS, CAPS, CPS, KPS and PST(Thailand), in response to their invitations. It is a great pleasure and fun for me to have thisopportunity to work for the academic interactions between PS and FAOPS countries/ regions.
The number of registrants of FAOPS2019 (Kobe) is 1,849 (as of Jan 18, 2019) besides theinvited speakers. Among the 1,849 registrants, there are as many as 563 oversea participants. I
feel pleased if the international academic activity of PSJ so far could have contributed to acquire
this large number.
I started to serve for FAOPS, as one of the Councils and as the 2nd Vice-President, from thetime of FAOPS2015 (Bangkok). During my term, council meetings were held three times, in2015 (Bangkok, Thailand), in 2016 (Beijing, China) and in 2018 (Takamatsu, Japan). We
discussed various management and administration issues, plan of FAOPS2019, and also future
action plans. I always enjoyed constructive discussion with nice and cooperative members tochallenge difficult tasks.
One of the characteristic points of FAOPS as a whole is that the situation ofresearch/education of physiological sciences significantly differs between countries/regions.
Some aim at achieving cutting-edge science, and others focus more on promotion of uniqueresearch and also education. As an example, unique researches in herbal medicine, puncture,primate biology etc. are performed, taking advantage of the strength in unique resources andhistory. We cannot say which is more important, and I believe each activity has its own

42significant value. FAOPS is for all members from various countries/regions and, in my opinion,
its activity should include various aspects.
Obviously, the practical problem is the limited budget. As we see in the recent high activityof the international “Physiology Quiz” program, however, I hopefully believe there should bethings we can accomplish within the limited budget.
The next FAOPS congress, FAOPS2023, is to be held in Teheran (Iran). It is truly noteworthy
that the FAOPS congress will take place for the first time in East Asia. It shows the activity of
FAOPS entered the next stage. I wish the FAOPS2023 and also following congresses will beheld successfully by the leadership and efforts of the host PSs as well as those of the next FAOPS
executive members and councils.
It appears that the world is now experiencing unprecedented issues. There are obviously
various conflicts in politics and economy in and between countries/regions all over the world,
threatening the worldwide peace and growth of economy. I sincerely wish these issues would notgive negative effect on the academic activities of FAOPS. I also believe, even in difficult politicalsituation, we need to cooperatively strive to further facilitate academic interactions in between
FAOPS countries/regions, to propel progress of research and education of physiological sciences.
Yoshihiro Kubo, Ph.D.
Professor: National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS)
Vice-president: The Physiological Society of Japan in Charge of International Affairs (20122020)

43

HISTORYOF
THE FOUNDATION OF FAOPS

44

History of the Foundation of FAOPS
Motivation and initiation
The impact of knowledge in physiological sciences on health and medicine has beenrecognized since Hippocrates in Ancient Greece. Up to the past decades, however, scientists inthe western community, where background training, finance and collaborations among them arestrong, play a major role in the advancement of this field whilst the contributions from scientists
in Asia and Oceanic countries are limited. In 1984, Prof. Dr. Thirayudh Glinsukon and Prof. Dr.
Chumpol Pholpramool were, respectively, elected to the offices of the President and SecretaryGeneral of the Physiological Society of Thailand (PST). At that time, there is no internationalorganization that binds together physiological societies in Asia and Oceania. Both Profs.
Glinsukon and Pholpramool then decided to organize the 1st Congress of the Asian and OceanianPhysiological Societies (1st AOPS Congress) on November 26-29, 1986 at the Imperial Hotel in
Bangkok, Thailand. The purposes of the conference were not only to serve as a forum where
physiological scientists in the region and those from the developed countries to update and share
their knowledge, but also to be a forum for the discussion on the establishment of regional
international organization in physiology. Thus a business meeting was included in the program on
November 27th. Key persons, 24 all together, from many countries in Asia and Oceania wereinvited to the discussion (Table 6). Prof. Rami Rahamimoff from Israel was elected to chair the
meeting.
Table 6. Delegates at the 1st AOPS Congress (Business meeting) November 27th, 1986
Delegates
1. Representatives from national societies

2. Observers

Name
J. Fukuda
T. Hoshi
J.I. Hubbard
I. Irisawa
H. Iwane
S. Kurihara
Y LassL. Limlomwongse
S.K. Manchanda
C. Pholpramool
R. Rahamimoff
P. Tongroach
Y.R. Wang
J.A. Young
C.L. Zhang
C.F. Chen
J.C. Hwang
R.C. Jones
M.T. LinD. Moelock
T.O. Morgan
H. Rajikin
B.P. Setchell
R. Singh
45

CountryJapan
Japan
New Zealand
Japan
Japan
Japan
IsraelThailandIndia
ThailandIsraelThailand
China
Australia
China
China
Hong Kong
Australia
China
Indonesia
Australia
Malaysia
Australia
Malaysia

The meeting went very well and unanimous decisions were made to have succeeding
congresses of AOPS with a periodicity of four years, and to establish a regional internationalorganization named “The Federation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies(FAOPS)”. Representatives from 5 nations were proposed to be an adhoc committee to draft aConstitution and By-Laws. Prof. Chumpol Pholpramool representing Thailand was requested tocoordinate the formation of the committee and to draft the constitution to be amended at thefollowing meeting during the 1989 IUPS congress in Helsinki, Finland. Meanwhile, Prof. Dr.
Surenda Kumar Manchanda proposed to host the 2nd FAOPS Congress in India in 1990.
Foundation and Constitution
On July 12th, 1989, sixteen representatives from physiological societies in Asia and Oceania
met at Helsinki Fair Center, Helsinki, Finland (Table 7). Profs. S.K. Manchanda and C.
Pholpramool were elected as chairman and secretary, respectively, of the meeting. After minor
modification, the drafted Constitution and By-Laws of FAOPS, which is essentially based on
those of IUPS, was amended. It was also agreed that the legal seat/secretariat office should belocated in Bangkok. Prof. C. Pholpramool was again asked to draft FAOPS’ logo. A nominationcommittee for the officers and councilors of FAOPS comprised of Profs. M. Ito, B.K. Anand, J.I.
Hubbard, M.T. Lin, E-Up Chae, and C. Pholpramool were formed to prepare a short list of thecandidates for an election at the General Assembly. It was agreed that the first General Assembly(GA) of the delegates to amend the Constitution and By-Laws and the Council be held at the 2nd
FAOPS Congress in India hosted by the Federation of Indian Physiological Societies in 1990, theyear that FAOPS is officially established.
Table 7. Delegates at the FAOPS Foundation meeting on July 12th, 1989 at Helsinki Fair
Center, Helsinki, Finland
Name
B.K. Anand
E-Up Chae
P.J. Harris
J.I. Hubbard
M. ItoK.J. Kim
B.N. Koley
S. Kurihara
M.T. Lin
H.J. Liu
S.K. Manchanda
T.O. Morgan
C. Pholpramool
R. Rahamimoff
S. Sammueloff
A.P.M. Yusof

Society
Association of Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India(APPI)
Korean Physiological Society (KPS)
Australian Physiology and Pharmacology Society (APPS)
Physiological Society of New Zealand (PSNZ)
Physiological Society of Japan (PSJ)
Korean Physiological Society (KPS)
Physiological Society of India (PSI)
Japan Society for Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine(JSPFSM)
Chinese Physiological Society (CPS)
Chinese Physiological Society (CPS)
Association of Physiology and Pharmacology of India(APPI)
Australian Physiology and Pharmacology Society (APPS)
Physiological Society of Thailand (PST)International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS)
Israeli Physiology and Pharmacology Society (IPPS)
Malaysian Society of Pharmacology and Physiology(MSPP)

46

Country
India
Korea
Australia
New Zealand
Japan
Korea
India
Japan
China, Taipei
China, Taipei
India
Australia
ThailandIsraelIsraelMalaysia

The official date of FAOPS’ foundation is on November 11th, 1990 when GA of thedelegates from the Asian and Oceanic countries amended the Constitution and By-Laws andthe proposed candidates for the Council members to run FAOPS was approved. The
meeting took place at Asok Hotel, New Delhi, India.
Based on the 1st Constitution and By-Laws, FAOPS has two categories of members (nationalsocieties), regular (pay membership fee) and associate (no fee payment) members, and run byCouncil comprised of Executive Committee (President, 1st Vice President, 2nd Vice President,
Treasurer, Secretary) and six members (national representatives). The Council approved at the
GA has a term of four years and cannot serve for more than two consecutive terms. The first
FAOPS Council includes: Masao Ito (President); Surenda K Manchanda (1st Vice President);
Xiong-Li Yang (2nd Vice President); Chok Yung Chai (Treasurer); Chumpol Pholpramool(Secretary); John I Hubbard (New Zealand); W G Kim (Korea); Fereshteh Motamedi (Iran); Rami
Rahamimoff (Israel); Harbindar Jeet Singh (Malaysia); and John A Young (Australia). Fundingof FAOPS is obtained from membership fees and donations. The latter was kindly offered by the
Physiological Society of Japan (US$10,000). By the year 1992, FAOPS has 12 regular: The
Australian Physiological and Pharmacological Society (APPS); The Chinese Association for
Physiological Sciences (CAPS); The Chinese Physiology Society (CPS); The Federation of Indian
Physiological Societies (FIPS); The Iranian Physiology and Pharmacology (IPPS); The Israel
Society of Physiology and Pharmacology (ISPP); The Physiological Society of Japan (PSJ); The
Japanese Society for Physical Fitness and Sports Medicine (JSPS); The Korean PhysiologicalSociety (KPS); The Malaysian Society of Pharmacology and Physiology (MSPP); The
Physiological Society of New Zealand (PSNZ); The Physiological Society of Thailand (PST), and3 associate members: The Physiology & Biochemistry Subsection Myanmar Medical Association;
The Physiology of Sri Lanka; The Physiological Society of Vietnam. To achieve the main
objectives of FAOPS, 3 commissions with specific tasks were formed namely: Commission on
Physiology Education (chaired by R Rahamimoff); Commission on Research (chaired by J AYoung); and Commission on Fund-Raising (chaired by C Y Chai).
Activities and achievements
The main activity of FAOPS is its congress scheduled at a 4-years interval hosted by FAOPS
member society, which is proposed by the Council and approved by the General Assembly at thetime of congress. The potential host has to submit its proposal to the Council at least eight years
in advance, and confirmation to host the congress is made four years prior to the event. To
facilitate the preparation of its congress, FAOPS usually provides some seed money to the host.
At the early years, there was no or only few bidding to host, but in recent years the competition to
propose becomes more intense and professional. This reflects an increasing awareness of theimportant role of FAOPS in physiological sciences in the region and much interest from member
societies, which gradually increase in number.
In addition to the congress, FAOPS also supports some regional conferences on physiology
and related area including physiology teaching taken place between the congresses. Commissions
were appointed from council members to perform specific task such as commissions on
Physiology Education, Research, and Fund-Raising. Besides, FAOPS Newsletter has been
published and circulated in the FAOPS members to disseminate news and activities of the Council
and physiologists in the community since 1992. Originally, it was planned to publish thenewsletter at least twice a year. But it was proofed to be very difficult to obtain sufficient important
news from the member societies. Hence, except only during 2000-2001, there is only one

47

publication per year. Further, there has been discontinuation in some year due to the transition
period between councils, which results in a delay in the appointment of a new editor (Table 8). It
is hoped that more inputs, both academic and social events, from the members of FAOPS would
make the newsletter more frequent and regular in the future.
Table 8. Editors and the publication of FAOPS NewslettersYear
1992-1999
2000-2001
2002
2006-20092011-20142016-current

Vol.
1-8
9-10
11
13-16
17-21
22-

No./Vol.
1
2
1
1
1
1

EditorChumpol Pholpramool
Chumpol Pholpramool
Chumpol Pholpramool
Fereshteh Motamedi
Saeed Semnanian
Saeed SemnanianAffiliation with IUPSFAOPS became a regional member of IUPS since July 31, 1993. The relationship between
FAOPS and IUPS is indeed very well. Several members of FAOPS Council have been elected as
the Council members of IUPS especially the Executive Officers (Table 9).
Table 9. Members of FAOPS Council served in the IUPS Council
Name
Masao Ito
Akimichi Kaneko
Julie Y.H. ChanJohn A. Young
Chumpol Pholpramool
Saeed Semnanian
Yoshihiro Kubo
Xiaomin Wang

Position in IUPS Council
President
President
Vice President,
President
Council
Council
Council
Council
CouncilWritten by Chumpol Pholpramool
Further details can be found in FAOPS Newsletter vol. 18, 2012.

48

Year
1993-1997
2001-2005
2013-2017,2017-2021
1993-1997
1993-2001
2013-20172017-2021
2017-2021

FAOPS CONGRESSES:
PAST, PRESENTAND FUTURE

49

FAOPS Congress
FAOPS Congress is a platform for academic meeting in which physiologists in Asian andOceanian countries meet, discuss, and exchange their current knowledge, which may lead tocollaboration of those who share similar interest. It is one of the mean by which FAOPS promotes
the advancement of physiological sciences in the region. The Congress takes place at every four
years and is hosted by the member society that wins the bidding at the General Assembly eight
years ahead of the event. To facilitate the preparation, FAOPS usually advances some amount asseed money to a host. Although there is no terms and conditions for the seed money, it is expectedthat the host gives back some money after the final budgeting turns out in surplus. FAOPS also
encourages the host to allocate its budget to provide travel awards for the young physiologists so
as to facilitate them to attend the congress. From 1986 to 2019, there have been nine congresses,
the details of which are in the Table 10.
Table 10. FAOPS Congresses: past, present and future
Number Date
1
November 2629, 1986
2
November 1215, 1990
3

November 710, 1994

4

September 27October 1,
1998
September 2326, 2002

5
6
7
8
9
10

October 15-18,
2006
September 1114, 2011
November 2225, 2015
March 28-31,
2019
2023

Host Society
Physiological Society ofThailand (PST)
Federation of the Indian
Physiological Societies(FIPS)
Chinese Association for
Physiological Sciences(CAPS)
Australian Physiologicaland PharmacologicalSociety (APPS)
Malaysian Society of
Pharmacology andPhysiology (MSPP)
Korean PhysiologicalSociety (KPS)
Chinese PhysiologicalSociety (CPS)
Physiological Society ofThailand (PST)
Physiological Society ofJapan (PSJ)
Iranian Physiology andPharmacology Society(IPPS)

50

Venue
Participants
Imperial Hotel,~400
Bangkok, Thailand
Ashok Hotel, New NA
Delhi, India
Shanghai, China

540

Hilton Hotel,
Brisbane, Australia>500

Crown Princess~400
Hotel, Kuala Lumpur,
MalaysiaJW Marriot Hotel,
800
Seoul, Korea
Taipei, Taiwan
747
Centara Grand Hotel,
Bangkok, Thailand
Kobe Convention
Center, Kobe, Japan
Tehran, Iran

594
>2,1001st FAOPS Congress (1986)
The 1st FAOPS Congress (1st AOPS Congress) was initiated and organized by the
Physiological Society of Thailand (PST) and under the auspices of IUPS on November 26-29,
1986. The President (Chairman) of the Local Organizing Committee was Prof. Prasop
Rattanakorn, a renowned psychologist and a member of the Thai Parliament. Prof. Chumpol
Pholpramool was the Secretary. The meeting was very successful when considered it is the first
conference in this region. There were about 400 participants from many countries both within theregion and outside. Renowned physiologists such as Late Sir John Eccles, Late Prof. Masao Ito,
Prof. Erwin Neher, Late Prof. John A Young, and Late Prof. John I Hubbard were the keynote
speakers. The farewell dinner was organized at the famous out-of-town resort, the Rose Garden,
where the guests enjoyed not only delicious Thai food, but also were entertained by cultural showsthat riche in both beauty and excitement. The dinner closed with the celebration of the “RoyKratong Festival”. Many guests in that evening made encouraging comments to the organizer that
“this is the best social event ever”.
At this Congress, the idea to establish FAOPS was discussed and accepted. Then the name of
the 1st AOPS Congress was later changed to 1st FAOPS Congress. Therefore, it is not too
exaggerated to say that this is the beginning of FAOPS history.

Figure 3. General Prem Tinsulanont, Prime Minister of Thailand, presided over the opening
ceremony of 1st AOPS Congress.

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2nd FAOPS Congress (1990)
Grand success of the 1st FAOPS Congress triggered interest the Indian physiologists. The Late
Prof. Surenda K. Manchanda, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, proposed during thebusiness session at the 1st congress to host the second congress in 1990. There was no otherproposal, so the offer by Prof. Manchanda was accepted.

Figure 4. Opening ceremony of the 2nd FAOPS Congress.
The 2nd FAOPS Congress took place on November 12-15, 1990 in New Delhi, India. The
President of the Congress was Prof. S. K. Manchanda. The meeting was again successful.
Unfortunately, however, the number of participants and details of the scientific program are notavailable for the record. Nevertheless, this congress opens up a chapter for FAOPS. At thiscongress, the second draft of FAOPS Constitution & By Laws (the first draft was amended at themeeting in Helsinki in 1989) was approved, and the nomination of the officers and members of
the first council was accepted (see the Chapter on the History of the Foundation of FAOPS).
Therefore, the official inception of FAOPS is in 1990.

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3rd FAOPS Congress (1994)
At the 3rd Congress in New Delhi, the Chinese Association of Physiological Sciences (CAPS)
proposed to host the third FAOPS Congress in Shanghai. It was well accepted by the delegatesand later Prof. Xiong-Li Yang was appointed by CAPS to chair the local organizing committee ofthe third congress.
The 3rd Congress was held at the Shanghai Convention Center on November 7-10, 1994. In
spite of some difficulties at the time when China began to open her long-lasting closed door to theworld, the congress was again very successful in term of number of participants (540 persons on
the record) and speakers from 25 countries as well as the scientific program. The credit for the
success goes to Prof. Xiong-Li Yang and his team. It is worth to mention that the first hand-on
workshop on Physiology Teaching began at this congress in cooperation with the ADInstruments
in Australia. In addition, the company provided partial financial supports for the publication of
FAOPS Newsletters since the first volume till volume 11, during which Prof. Chumpol
Pholpramool was the Editor.
Another hallmark of this congress is the meeting of the 1st General Assembly (GA) of thedelegates from member societies, and the election of the Council, prescribed by the Constitution& By-Laws. The GA was call on November 8, 1994.

Figure 5. Opening ceremony of the 3rd FAOPS Congress.

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4th FAOPS Congress (1998)
The proposal to host the 4th Congress in 1998 was made by the Australian Physiological andPharmacological Society (APPS) at the 2nd FAOPS Council meeting on December 12, 1992 at
Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (FAOPS Newsletter, vol. 2,
1993). Although the proposal was a joint meeting of FAOPS and the annual meeting of APPS,
there were concerns that travel may be a problem for young physiologists overseas since Australia
is quite a distance from the Asian continent. Besides, economic depression affected many
countries in the region. In spite of this concerns, the 4th FAOPS Congress, chaired by Late Prof.
John A. Young was held jointly with the Federation of Asian and Oceanic Neuroscience Societies(FAONS), APPS, and the Physiological Society of New Zealand (PSNZ) at the Hilton Hotel in
Brisbane from September 27 to October 1, 1998. Notably, there were about 500 participants (ofthese 180 attendants were from countries other than Australia and New Zealand) at the congress.
5th FAOPS Congress (2002)
The interest to host FAOPS Congress by its members gradually increases to the point that
more than one proposals were made for the 5th Congress. There were five societies indicated theirinterest to host the 5th Congress. The council had to screen for the potential candidates. Only twosocieties, Malaysian and Korea, were submitted to GA for making the final decision. Hence, a
process of bidding for hosting FAOPS Congress began in 1994 (FAOPS Newsletter vol. 4, 1995).
Prof. Cheah Swee Hung chaired the local organizing committee of the 5th FAOPS Congress,
which was held at Crown Princess Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on September 23-26, 2002. The congress
attracted about 400 participants. The highlight of this congress, besides its scientific program, isthe pre-congress workshop on Physiology Education, i.e. computer assisted teaching and problem
based learning. Many keen and devoted physiology teachers, i.e. Drs. R. Kemm (U of Melbourne),
M. Afandi Mohammad (U of Malaya), David Kwan (McMaster U), and Ann Sefton (U Sydney),
were recruited to facilitated and lead the discussion with participants.

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6th FAOPS Congress (2006)
Although the Korean Physiological Society (KPS) lost the bidding for the 5th Congress, its
persistent intention to host the 6th Congress in 2006 was successful. Prof. Ki Whan Kim chaired
the local organizing committee. The congress was held at the JW Marriot Hotel in Seoul on
October 15-18, 2006. Once again, the congress was success and attracted 800 participants, which
was higher than the previous congresses. Prof. Denis Noble, at the time was the President of IUPS,
gave the 43rd KAST Distinguished Lecture on “Physiology: its time has come!”, in which he gave
the meaning of the word “physiology” in Chinese language as “the logic of life”. The lecture
triggered a new hope for physiologists to play a leading role in unraveling the mystery of life andits functions.

Figure 6. Key persons at the opening day of the 6th FAOPS Congress.

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7th FAOPS Congress (2011)
Based on the normal cycle of FAOPS Congress, the 7th Congress was originally planned for
2010, but due to the timing coincided with the IUPS Congress, the Council then decided topostpone the 7th Congress to 2011. There has been no objection to this decision. The new cycle
was then started from the year 2011.
The 7th Congress chaired by Prof. Julie Y.H. Chan was held on September 11-14, 2011 in
Taipei. Prof. Shu Chien was the Honorary Chairman of the Organizing Committee. The theme ofthis congress is “Physiology: the continuum of genes to functions”. The congress drew a goodnumber of participants (747) and loaded with numerous invited lectures, symposia, and mostimportantly, poster presentations by young investigators.

Figure 7. Various activities at the 7th FAOPS Congress.

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8th FAOPS Congress (2015)
It has been almost 30 years since 1986 when the Physiological Society of Thailand (PST) hada chance to host FAOPS Congress again. The extension of the congress year from 2014 to 2015
appeared to be beneficial to PST since Thailand had political turmoil around that time. The
tentative venue had to be changed from time to time to be away from the city. Once a proposal
was made to move from Bangkok to Pattaya. However, feedbacks from many, mostly fromoverseas, were unfavorable since they were worry about transportation between Bangkok andPattaya. So the idea to move the venue was abandoned and the organizer finally decided to holdthe congress in the city center again. This time we chose the Centara Grand Hotel, which is thebest convention center in Bangkok. Fortunately, the political conflict had been solved by a military
coup that brought peace back to Thailand again. It was a big relief for the organizer.
The 8th FAOPS Congress was chaired by Prof. Chumpol Pholpramool and held on November
22-25, 2015 at the Centara Grand Hotel in Bangkok. The theme of the congress is “Translational
Physiology: Imagination, Inspiration and Innovation”. Three Nobel Laureates were invited to give
keynote lectures namely: Prof. Bert Sakman, Prof. Erwin Neher, and Prof. Aaron Ciechanover.
Named lectures given by distinguish scientists to honor the late renowned physiologists, both local
and international, were revived. A series of session was devoted to presentations and discussion
on Physiology Education. To facilitate attendances of the young scientists, 50 travel grants wereawarded to those who submitted sound abstracts for presentations. Almost 600 participants fromlocal and overseas were at the congress. The opening ceremony was presided over by Her RoyalHighness Princess Somsawalee. On the closing evening, most participants enjoyed their Congress
Dinner during a cruise on a luxury boat along the Chaopraya River. Many stayed for another night
to join the Thais cerebrating “Loy Kratong” festival.

Figure 8. HRH. Princess Somsawalee presided over the opening ceremony of the 8th FAOPS
Congress.

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Figure 9. Opening ceremony and group photos of the FAOPS Council.

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9th FAOPS Congress (2019)
The Physiological Society of Japan (PSJ) is the biggest society of all members of FAOPS.
Hence, the proposal to host the 9th Congress received warm acceptance by the Council as well as
unanimous approval from the GA in 2011. It is the first time for PSJ to hold FAOPS Congress.
The Congress, chaired by Prof. Junichi Nabekura, is jointly organized with the 96th Annual
Meeting of PSJ at the Kobe Convention Center on March 28-31, 2019 in Kobe. The theme of thiscongress is “Philosophy of Life: Function and Mechanisms”. The highlight of the scientificprogram is the plenary lectures given by Prof. Linda Buck, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or
Medicine (2004), Prof. Yoshinori Ohsumi, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine (2016), andProf. David Julius, who discovered TRP channels. At the time when this article is written, thenumber of participants reported by the Organizer is over 2,000, which is the highest ever. It is
expected to be a great success for PSJ.
In addition, a new chapter of FAOPS history begins here when the cerebration of the 30th
Anniversary of FAOPS will be made in conjunction with the Opening Ceremony of the 9th FAOPS
Congress. A deep gratitude should be given to the present Council of FAOPS, and the Organizer
and PSJ for recognizing the important role and significant achievements of FAOPS in promoting
the advancement of physiological sciences in the region.
10th FAOPS Congress (2023)
The bidding for the host of the 10th Congress took place at the GA in Bangkok in November
2015. The competition was between the Iranian Physiological and Pharmacological Society(IrPPS) and the Korean Physiological Society (KPS). After presentations of the well-preparedinvitations from both societies, the former won the vote of approval from the delegates. As the 2ndVice President of FAOPS during the term 2019-2023, Prof. Javad Mirnajafi-Zadeh is expected tochair the local organizing committee with great success. Let us look forward to joining the 10th
FAOPS Congress in Iran in 2023.
Prepared by Chumpol Pholpramool and Saeed Semnanian

59

STORIESFROMSOCIETY MEMBERS OF FAOPS

60

THE ORIGINS AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF
THE AUSTRALIAN PHYSIOLOGICALSOCIETY (AuPS)*
The Australian Physiological Society had its genesis in 1957, when the late W.V. Macfarlane,
then Professor of Physiology at the University of Queensland, spoke to P.O. Bishop at the
University of Sydney, J.C. Eccles at the Australian National University, and the late R.D. Wrightand the late F.H. Shaw at the University of Melbourne, about the need for the formation of anAustralian physiological society. All agreed that such a move was overdue, although it was not
until 1959 that definite steps to establish a society were taken. In that year W.V. Macfarlane, who
had moved in the meantime to the Australian National University in Canberra, undertook theplanning of a scientific meeting to be held in Sydney in May 1960. A draft constitution for the
proposed society was drawn up with the assistance of G. Sawer.
Over 26-28 May 1960, 126 physiologists and pharmacologists attended a meeting in the
Department of Physiology at the University of Sydney at which 84 scientific papers were read. A
business meeting was held on 26 May, attended by 49 scientists from Australia and New Zealand
who were active in the areas of physiology or pharmacology. Those present were invited toconsider the form to be taken by the proposed society and to consider the draft constitution. P.O.
Bishop, head of the host Department, took the chair and W.V. Macfarlane acted as secretary. The
name of the society chosen at this meeting was the Australian Physiological Society, but, in
1967, the word Pharmacology was included in the name, in recognition of the fact thatpharmacologists had been strongly represented and very active in the Society from its foundation.
The inaugural meeting appointed the first council consisted of eight members with W.V.
Macfarlane as National Secretary and P.O. Bishop as Treasurer. The subsequent National
Secretaries have been P.I. Korner, M.E. Holman, J.R. Hales, S.R. O'Donnell, J.A. Young, T.O.
Morgan, C. Bell, A.R. Luff, R.J. Lang, D.A. Saint, J.W. Lynch, R. Murphy, M. Watt and thecurrent is D.H. Hryciw. Subsequent treasurers, M.G. Taylor, A.J. Day, P.W. Gage, W. Burke, C.
Bell, A.L.A. Boura, D.I. Cook, C.E. Hill, D.G. Allen, C.B. Neylon, S. Bröer. P. Thorn, B.
Launikonis and current treasurer is A. Russell. In 1981, the Society departed from its previous
policy by creating the position of President. As its first president, it elected A.K. McIntyre;subsequent holders of this office have been W.J. Simmonds, P.I. Korner, M.E. Holman, M.J.
Rand, D.R. Curtis, J.A. Young, P.W. Gage, D.J. Adams, D Allen and current president G. Lamb.
In May 1970, the Council felt that the Society was stable enough financially for it to publish
its own journal, to be called the Proceedings of the Australian Physiological and PharmacologicalSociety. The first issue, which was produced by an editorial committee consisting of M.E. Holman,
A.J. Day and M.L. Mashford, contained the abstracts of the papers presented at the 10th Annual
General Meeting held in the Department of Physiology at the University of Melbourne in May
1970. In 1971, D.R. Curtis was appointed the Editor of the Proceedings; subsequent Editors havebeen J.A. Young, J.J. Carmody, D.F. Davey, J.M. Lingard, A.R. Luff, L.M. Aitkin and I.
McCance. In 1973 the position of Associate Editor was established and J.J. Carmody wasappointed. Subsequent Associate Editors have been D.F. Davey, J.M. Lingard, A.R. Luff, L.M.
Aitkin, I. McCance, D.F. Davey, A. Dinudom, D.F Davey and D.Allen. In 2005, the position of
Associate Editor was changed to Webmaster and D. Laver was appointed. Since that time, T.
Lewis, S. Potocnik, A. Ansselin, G. Wadley and C. Shaw took the position.

61

Since the early 1970s two scientific meetings a year were held by the Society, hosted by
Departments of Physiology or Pharmacology in one or other of the Australian Universities. From
1997, due to changing circumstances, in particular the proliferation of specialist societies, theSociety moved to hold only one annual meeting. The publication of two Issues of the Proceedings
annually was retained.
In August 1972, the Society hosted a South East Asian and Pacific Regional Meeting of theInternational Union of Physiological Sciences in the Department of Physiology at the University
of Sydney. In August 1983, it hosted the 29th Congress of the International Union of Physiological
Sciences at the University of New South Wales. In February 1988, it participated in the inaugural
meeting of the Australian Societies for Experimental Biology, a federation of the twelve leading
biological societies in Australia.
The Society has been seminally involved in the formation of the Federation of the Asian andOceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS), providing advice and financial support. The Society's
President, Prof J.A. Young was elected President of FAOPS in 1999. In 1998 the Society's 66th
Meeting was held in Brisbane in conjunction with the 4th Congress of FAOPS, the 2nd Congressof FAONS (The Federation of Asian-Oceanian Neuroscience Societies) and the Annual Meetingof the Physiological Society of New Zealand. More than 500 delegates attended: Prof D. Adams
chaired the Congress Organizing Committee and Prof E. McLachlan the International Program
Committee.
In 1990 the Society instituted the awarding of prizes at each meeting for the best presentations(oral and poster) by graduate students in physiology and pharmacology. These are at present
sponsored by SDR Clinical Technology and by Blackwell Scientific Publications. The Society isundertaking the national coordination of teaching initiatives in physiology and pharmacology,
particularly in relation to the use of computers.
In 2000, the Society began publication of the Program of the AGM and the Proceedings
containing the abstracts for the meeting on a revamped APPS website: www.apps.org.au. Hardcopies of this issue of the Proceedings were restricted to registrants of the meeting. The issues of
the Proceedings devoted to the Invited Lectures and Symposia began to be published on thewebsite alone. In 2001 a web based method of payment of subscriptions was also introduced. In
2003, the Society moved to an exclusively on-line Proceedings.
At the Annual General Meeting in Sydney 2003, the name of the Society was discussed, anda proposal to change the name the Australian Physiological Society once more was supported bythose present. In early 2004 a special General Meeting was held in Adelaide following a notice of
motion to change the Constitution to effect the name change. A quorum was not achieved at thismeeting, so a postal vote was conducted resulting in the proposed name being adopted. This
resulted in the Society once again operating under the original name - Australian PhysiologicalSociety. To avoid confusion with a number of other organizations with the abbreviation APS,
Council adopted the abbreviation AuPS. A new logo incorporating this abbreviation was
designed, and the Internet domain aups.org.au was registered.
In 2004, two new prizes for young members were introduced: Best PhD Publication and Best
Post-Doctoral Publication.
In 2005, the Newsletter was reinstated with a Newsletter Editor co-opted to Council. The
position of Associate Editor, which had been vacant for a number of years, was renamed toWebmaster and the first appointment to the new position was made.

62

At the 2006 AGM, the Editor's responsibilities, which had grown to cover a range of
information technologies, were split. An Associate Editor responsible for the Newsletter and toassist the Editor, and an IT Manager were appointed. In 2007 Constitutional Amendments
formalized these positions as members of Council appointed by Council. The publication of theProceedings was separated into the Editorial phase, managed by the Editor and Associate Editor,
and the production phase handled by the IT Manager.
At the 2009 AGM, the position of President-elect was proposed and ratified. This will comeinto action in during 2012 when the current President's term (elected in 2009) will be in its final
year.
*See also Macfarlane, W.V. (1977) Origins of the Australian Physiological Society,
Proceedings of the Australian Physiological and Pharmacological Society, 9, 1-5.

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A HISTORY OF THE RELATIONSHIPBETWEEN CAPS AND FAOPS
1. Introduction to the Chinese Association for Physiological Sciences (CAPS)The Chinese Association for Physiological Sciences (CAPS) (formerly known as The
Chinese Physiological Society) took the current name as of July 1956. The Society/Association
was founded in 1926 by the world-renowned physiologist Prof. Robert Kho-seng Lim, then Headof Department of Physiology, Peking Union Medical College. On 27th February, 1926, theInaugural Meeting of the Society was held in the Department of Physiology of Peking Union
Medical College. The founding members, 17 in all, included Profs. Robert Kho-Seng Lim, Hsien
Wu, Tsan-Quo Chou, Hengbi Zhu, Guohao Lin, Zhang-gi Ni, Qing Jiang as well as overseas
scholars who were then working in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Hong Kong. The latterincluded Profs. Heinrich Necheles, Bernard Emms Read, P.S. Evans Jr., Hugh Shaw Dunn
Garven, Herbert Gastineau Earle, Seiko Kubota, and Yasu Kuno. In this meeting, Prof. Kho-sengRobert Lim was elected as the Founding President of CAPS. The first Annual Meeting was heldin September of the same year. In January 1927, the Inaugural Issue of Chinese Journal of
Physiology was published. By 1937, the Society had held 10 annual conferences and had 113
members. Specialties of members spanned from the field of physiology to related disciplines
such as biochemistry, pharmacology, anatomy, microbiology, pathology, and clinical medicine.

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In July 1937 when the Sino-Japanese War broke out, academic activities of the Society wereforced to stop. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, CAPS held a meetingin Beijing in 1950 and formed a new Council. Since then, the Society actively resumed various
activities including journal publication, and the number of members also increased rapidly. In
1953, the Council of the Society decided to expand into a larger organization, which would
embrace scientists not only in the field of physiology but also biochemistry, pharmacology,
pathophysiology, experimental biology, and others. When the 13th General Assembly was heldin 1956, there were 1,269 members, and the Society was officially renamed as the Chinese
Association for Physiological Sciences (CAPS). At that time, there were already 22 chapters and
11 regional organizations. Six sub-committees for physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology,
pathophysiology, biophysics, and nutrition were also established. The Institute of Physiology of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences was delegated to run and publish both the Chinese Journal of
Physiology, renamed as Acta Pysiologica Sinica, and the new journal Progress in Physiological
Sciences.
During the "Cultural Revolution" (1966-1976), the activities of CAPS came to a complete
halt. It was not until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1977 that the CAPS Council could
reactivate activities of the Association. In 1978, CAPS held the 15th General Assembly alongsidea scientific congress in Qingdao. Publication of Acta Pysiologica Sinica and Progress inPhysiological Sciences resumed. With increase in workforce of physiological science andexpansion of academic and scientific activities into allied fields that are recognized ininternational arena, national societies of biochemistry, biophysics, pathology, pathophysiology,
and nutrition sprang up in time, led by members of CAPS at 1985. At the same time, CAPS
launched the journal Chinese Journal of Applied Physiology, the English edition Chinese Journalof Physiological Sciences and the internal magazine CAPS News Communication. CAPS also
became a member of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) in 1980 and theFederation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS) since 1990.
The General Assembly of CAPS is held every four years. So far, CAPS has held 25 General
Assemblies cum scientific congresses. Through Memorial Lectures, Physiologists’ Forums,
plenary/keynote lectures, special symposia, and other forms of communications, CAPS actively
promoted the exchange of science and the latest achievements in research, teaching andexperimental techniques of physiology. Through the leadership of many generations ofphysiologists, including Robert Kho-Seng Lim, Hengbi Zhu, Hsien Wu, Jun-qi Shen, Chengxia
Zhao, Yibing Zhao, Ssu-Chih Lia, Chiao Tsai, Te-pei Feng, Chih-chin Wang, Meng-qin Chen,
Xiongli Yang, and Tai Yao, CAPS and Chinese physiologists have gone from strength to strength,
contributing greatly to the development and achievements of physiological science and life
science in China. At present, CAPS has 2,114 members, 11 working committees and 21 subcommittees covering the disciplines of neurophysiology, circulatory physiology, respiratory
physiology, renal physiology, stress physiology, blood physiology, digestion and nutrition,
reproductive and endocrine physiology, comparative physiology, pain physiology, applied
physiology, motor physiology, and Chinese medicine. In order to build a strong and energetic
team of young physiologists, the Society established the Young Physiologist Committee in 1998.

65

66

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In 1927, CAPS invited eminent physiologists Profs. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Russia), Edward
Albert Sharpey-Schafe (UK), John Jacob Abel (USA), Frederick Gowland Hopkins (UK), Joseph
Barcroft (UK), Anton Julius Carlson (USA), and Emil Abderhalden (Germany) to be honorary
members. In 2003 and 2013, CAPS again invited renowned physiologists to be honorary
members. They are Profs. Shu Chien (USA), Denis Noble (UK), Tomas Hokfelt (Sweden),Robert J. Lefkowits (USA), and Pierre Magistretti (Switzerland), who have made outstanding
contributions in guiding and helping the development of CAPS.
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At the turn of this century, CAPS has increased the pace of internationalization. In
collaboration with multiple physiology societies around the world, CAPS hosted three
International Physiology Conferences that took place in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in Suzhou, and2016 in Beijing again. After over a decade of concerted effort and preparation, CAPS made a
successful bid at the 37th IUPS Congress in Birmingham, UK (July 2013) for hosting the 39th
IUPS Congress to be held in Beijing, China (August 2021).

69

70

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2. CAPS and Federation of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Society (FAOPS)
In 1986, several physiological societies in the region, including those of Japan and Thailand,
proposed the establishment of FAOPS. In November of the same year, the first Asian-OceanianRegional Physiology Congress was held in Bangkok, Thailand. The Preparatory Meeting of
FAOPS was held during the Congress and CAPS was invited as one of the founding member
societies. Two CAPS representatives, Profs. Chongli Zhang (a member of the CAPS Standing
Committee) and Yuruo Wang (Henan Medical University), attended the meeting as observers. It
was resolved in the meeting that FAOPS would be officially founded in 1990 in Delhi, India.
With the support of the China Association for Science and Technology, CAPS joined FAOPS asa member society, and nominated CAPS Vice-President Prof. Xiongli Yang to represent CAPS
in the FAOPS Council. The first Council Meeting of FAOPS was held during the 1990 Congress
held in Delhi. Prof. Masao Ito was elected as the President and Prof. Xiongli Yang was elected
as the Second Vice-President. It was also decided that the next FAOPS Congress would be hosted
by CAPS in Shanghai in 1994. [NB. Although FAOPS was officially founded in 1990, FAOPS
Council decided that, for the record, the congress held in Bangkok was named retrospectively as
the First FAOPS Congress.

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FAOPS Congress hosted by CAPS
To host the 3rd FAOPS Congress, the Standing Committee of CAPS entrusted the Shanghai
Institute of Physiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to organize the meeting. CAPS VicePresident Prof. Xiongli Yang was nominated as the Chairman of the Organizing Committee. The
Congress was held in Shanghai on 7-10 November 1994. There were 540 scientists from 26
countries and regions participating in the Congress, with nearly half of the participants from
Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The meeting was highly successful, receiving 460
papers of high scientific quality. The Congress was well received by scholars at home and abroad,for its meticulous organization and excited scientific exchange. Prof. Te-pei Feng, the Honorary
President of CAPS, even in ailing health delivered the welcome speech brimming with enthusiasm
and passion. This speech highly inspired the audience of Chinese and foreign scholars.
Meanwhile, Profs. Mengqin Chen, Yizhang Chen and Xiunri Yang represented CAPS in the
FAOPS General Assembly, during which Prof. Xiongli Yang was elected as the First VicePresident of FAOPS.

73

The participation of Chinese scientists in FAOPS Congresses
In September 1998, the 4th FAOPS Congress and the General Assembly were held in
Brisbane, Australia. CAPS was represented by its President Prof. Xiongli Yang, Vice-President
Profs. Zengqi Zhou and Yu Zheng. In this meeting, Prof. Xiongli Yang, having served two fullterms as FAONS Vice-President, stepped down but remained in the FAOPS Council as a member.
Over 30 Chinese scholars attended the Congress.
In May 2002, the 5th FAOPS Congress was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Over 50 scholars
from China participated in the meeting. Prof. Xiongli Yang was invited to deliver a plenary
lecture, and Prof. Ming Fan of CAPS was elected as a Council Member.
The 6th FAOPS Congress in 2006 was held in Seoul, South Korea. Considering theimportance of the continuity of FAOPS Council, Prof. Masao Ito, Head of the Nomination
Committee, strongly recommended Prof. Xiongli Yang to become the Secretary-General of
FAOPS.
In September 2011, the 7th FAOPS Congress was held in Taipei and was attended by 120
physiologists from Mainland China and Hong Kong. Prof. Xiongli Yang, Secretary-General of
the Congress, delivered a plenary lecture in the Congress.
In November 2015, the 8th FAOPS Congress was held in Bangkok, Thailand. Over 40
physiologists from Mainland China and Hong Kong attended the Congress. The General
Assembly held during the Congress was attended by CAPS President Prof. Xiaomin Wang, VicePresident and Secretary-General Prof. Yun Wang, Vice-Presidents Profs. Ying-Shing Chan andJunxia Xie, as well as Deputy Secretary Prof. Jun Chen. In the meeting, members of the General
Assembly unanimously endorsed Prof. Xiaomin Wang to be the 9th President of FAOPS (20152019).
CAPS leadership in FAOPS
Since joining FAOPS in 1990, three members of CAPS had served in the Council of FAOPS.
They are Prof. Xiongli Yang, as Vice-President (1990-1998), Council Member (1998-2002) and
Secretary-General (2006-2010); Prof. Ming Fan as Council Member for two consecutive terms(2002-2010); Prof. Xiaomin Wang as Council Member (2010-2014) and subsequently as the
President (2015-2019). These active involvements demonstrate the strong commitment of CAPSin physiological science in the region. There is no doubt that CAPS in the future will continue togive its strongest support to FAOPS in promoting the discipline of physiology within the AsianOceanian region.

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Prepared by Yun Wang, Ying-Shing Chan, Wing-Ho Yung, Xiao-min Wang

75

SIXTY YEARS POST-RELAUNCH OF
THE CHINESE PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY
IN TAIWAN (CPS)
Mei-Ling Tsai, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan,
Taiwan 70101
Establishment of the Chinese Physiological Society before World War II
To promote physiological research in China and facilitate communication between Chinesescientists and Western physiologists, Robert Kho-Seng Lim (Robert KS Lim, 林可勝) founded
the Chinese Physiological Society in 1926. Next year, the newly established Chinese
Physiological Society published its first issue of Chinese Journal of Physiology in English. The
Journal quickly established itself as a leading platform for such work in Asia between 1927 and
1937. Because of the Journal, Chinese Physiological Society in Mainland China built its
reputation. About the same period, medical education in Taiwan was established based on Japan’s
model. All professors from Japan, including two in the physiology section, were actively involvedin Society activities in Japan.
Re-launch of the Chinese Physiological Society in Taiwan after World War II
At the end of World War II, with the Japanese surrender in 1945, the National Defense Medical
Center (NDMC) was formed. Robert K.S. Lim in Mainland China was then appointed as the firstpresident of the National Defense Medical College. One year after civil war broke out in Mainland
China, most faculties in NDMC were relocated from Shanghai to Taiwan in 1948. Later,
Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan. In the first 10 years after World War II, Japanese
professors in Physiology gradually moved back to Japan. The vacancy was replaced by juniorfaculties. Many faculty members in Physiology needed to adjust the systemic changes of the
medical education in Taiwan from the Japanese to American system and focused on establishingthe infrastructure of teaching and research. When National Scientific Council (NSC) to beestablished in 1959, NSC offers national support to research and to further accelerate the progressof physiological research. In the same year, Ann-Cheng Liu, the head of Physiology at NDMC,
proposed a re-launch of the Chinese Physiological Society in Taiwan to meet physiologists’ needs
in research and teaching.
Transformation of Physiology research in the late 20th century
Ten-twenty years after the establishment of NSC, the Chinese Physiological Society was able
to promote physiological research, such as organizing physiological annual meetings. The formatof the annual meetings has been evolved over time when more and more physiologists completing
their doctoral training in other countries came back to Taiwan. They brought back updated
technologies to their physiological studies, including biochemical, cellular, and molecularanalysis. To continuously update their technologies, interdisciplinary collaboration becomes
common practices in physiological research. Therefore, physiological annual meetings wereconverted to a joint biomedical conference after 1984. The joint conference provided great
opportunities to physiologists. In the joint conferences, physiologists were able to meet the76

scientists in different fields and build collaborative networks with peoples in different research
institutes. Because of the joint biomedical conferences, collaborative efforts frequently appear in
our Physiology studies.
Impact of Medical Education Reform on Physiological education in the early 21st century
Taiwan’s medical education has been transformed to what was designed for American medical
education systems in 1960s-1970s. To meet American guidelines of the National Committee on
Foreign Medical Education and Accreditation (NCFMEA) in the 21st century, the Taiwanese
Ministry of Education launched the independent “Taiwan Medical Accreditation Council(TMAC)”. TMAC established its own guidelines based on Taiwan’s needs, the NCFMEA report,
the guidelines of World Federation of Medical Education, Australian Medical Council, andLiaison Committee on Medical Education US. The major recommendation from the initialaccreditation visits in 2000-2002 for the programs was to better integrate their preclinical andclinical medical training. In response to the TMAC recommendation, the medical program of all
medical schools in Taiwan underwent a series of changes in medical curriculum, including verticaland horizontal integration. Medical schools in Taiwan may develop different approaches totransform the curriculum. Some schools may develop block-based teaching by integrating one of
Physiological systems with the same system of other subjects and others integrate case- or
problem- based learning to subject (such as Physiology) teaching. Because of the changes inmedical curriculum, Physiology in the future may not stand alone as an academic subject inmedical curriculum. When Physiological education is gradually shifted to student-centeredlearning with the reduction of dictated teaching, it is important to promote scientific research inmedical education and explore how Physiological education plays a role in medical curriculum
reform.
Current state of Physiology as an academic discipline in the 21st century
NSC in the late 20th century focuses on theme-based team projects or National ScienceTechnology Programs. The funding agency encourages physiologists to transfer innovative
outcome or products to future industries for biotech or clinical use. Due to interdisciplinary
collaboration, Division of Physiology in the Department of Life Sciences is no longer consideredan academic subject only. Research emphasis may cover cell physiology, translational or clinicalmedicine. It is considered a concept to develop pathophysiological models or medical devices. To
accommodate current changes in the discipline of Physiology, NSC in 2014 was reorganized andbecame Ministry of Science and technology (MOST) to expand the Division of Physiology in the
Department of Life Sciences, promote the integration of Physiology with biotechnology, andboost research capacities through national science-technology programs, theme-based or missionoriented project. In the programs or projects, physiologists may contribute their state-of-art
technologies to future applications. High-throughput analysis such as genomic and proteomic
studies are commonly applied to Physiology-related studies through joint efforts and create newly
developed or designed products. Scientists from various training background provide multiple
approaches to enrich physiological knowledge and solve physiological or pathophysiologicalproblems. The boundary between physiologists and non-physiologist became vague.
Biggest accomplishment for Chinese Physiological Society in Taipei- Returninginternational communities as an adhering body or a full member
When Taiwan in 1972 seceded from United Nations, the changes of the political status caused
the difficulties for our society to join international communities as a national member. After 8year negotiation, International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) Secretary-General AGB
77

Kovach and many others in 1980 came to Taiwan with feasible solutions. Later in 1990s, oursociety was able to return to IUPS under the name of Chinese Physiological Society in Taipei.
With the positive experience, our society began to participate in the organization of Federation of
the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS) and became a full member in 1991.
Since then, our members actively participated in FAOPS main congress through oral andposter presentations. Some were involved in FAOPS education workshops. After frequentinteraction with FAOPS members, the president (Eminy H. Y. Lee) of our society in her term
(2002-2004) convinced our council members to bid for FAOPS Congress. After 8-year
instillation, our society has been mobilized for FAOPS. Under the leadership of Julie Y.H. Chan,
our society was able to organize scientific programs, and social events for FAOPS Congress 2011.
In addition, two Satellite Symposia were offered: one on Alternative (Herbal) Medicine and theother on Applied Physiology. To encourage the active participation of new blood in Physiology,
travel awards were founded for young scientists and junior faculties in the region.
After returning to international communities, our society was able to organize FAOPS 2011.
The successful outcome of FAOPS2011 is an important turning point to our society. The
experiences open up new opportunities to us. Our society is about to organize bilateral symposiumwith regional members. More and more young scientists are willing to participate in regional
activities.
Great challenges for Chinese Physiological Society in the 21st Century
Now, Taiwan's birth rate is the world's 3rd lowest total fertility rate. After baby boomer in
1960s, the birth rate in Taiwan reaches the second peak in 1980s. Afterward, the birth ratecontinuously declines and reaches the lowest level in 2010s. With the reduction of birth rate,
Taiwan becomes an aged society. In 8 years, more than 14% of population in Taiwan have theirage older than 65 which was an official age limit for faculty retirement.
The dramatic changes in population composition impact personnel configuration in research
institutes. After 2010, The number of scientists at the age of younger than 34 keeps declining andthat at the age of older than 55 keeps rising. When the senior professors retire at the age of 65,
only fewer in-coming students or young scientists join the research projects. The shrinkage of
research personnel may limit the productivity in each research institutes.
One of the strategies to overcome the challenges is to recruite in-coming young scientists to
Physiology-related projects. After entering colleges, most students learn Physiology in their junioryears and are not aware of physiological studies at that time. If possible, increasing the social
publicity of physiological studies should be a good way to recruite local students. In addition to
local students, international students should be also recruited to strengthen the research capacities.
Since Taiwan is not an English-speaking country, the medium of instruction in learning
environment should be solved correspondingly.
The brain and mind sciences - the most exciting field in Taiwan for further collaboration
with the world
The field of Brain and Mind Sciences is considered the most exciting direction in the 21st
century. To integrate brain and mind sciences, we need the collaboration of scientists from various
fields, including neuroscience, psychology, psychiatry, cognitive science and artificial
intelligence. To make the research of brain and mind science in Taiwan so compatible to the world,
our funding agency creates a theme-based project office for brain and mind sciences. Julie YH
78

Chan from Physiology and Henry YH Sun from Molecular Biology are appointed as thecoordinators of the office. Many physiologists in our society focusing on neuroscience-related
studies may benefit from the highly competitive but innovative grants by initiating interdisciplinary collaboration and instilling new concepts to the outcome of the projects. There areinternational conferences organized by the office to promote the field of Brain and Mind Sciences.
Several renowned scientists are invited to share their experiences in the field.
Acceleration of regional interactions to reduce the barriers between countires
The Asian and Oceanian region is full of multiple cultures, religions, and natural resources.
Even political and economical statuses are so different among the countries. Regional
collaboration may be more efficient to maximize the benefit to member societies. Since
Physiological Education is the common focus, education symposium may provide a platform tolearn the differences and lower the barriers in culture, religion, and political status. The
establishment of travel award would be a feasible way to facilitate the mobility of young scientists.
Alternatively, a short course can be designed in the region to facilitate deep learning and develop
a dual degree in the region.

79

THE FEDERATION OF INDIAN
PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETIES (FIPS)[Website: http://fipsindia.org/]Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), Delhi, Present office of FIPS
1. Genesis of the Society
A meeting of some physiologists including the office bearers of different PhysiologicalSocieties of India was held in the Seminar room of the Department of Physiology, All India
Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi-110029 on 26th October 1990. The meeting was attended
by Dr. S.K. Manchanda (Convener of the Meeting). Dr. B.K. Anand (representing INSA National
Committee of IUPS), Dr. M. Habibulla (representing 1SCAP), Dr. M.L. Madan (Representing
SAPI), Dr. Usha Nayar and B.K. Karpoor (representing APPI), Dr. V. Mohan Kumar(representing AOPS). Though the PSI representatives could attend the meeting on that day, theyextended their full support to its decision.
The meeting, presided over by Prof. B.K. Anand, emphasized the necessity of having aFederation of Indian Physiological Societies, which would facilitate the scientific interaction
between Indian Physiologists and foreign scientists. The meeting also recognized that it would be
advantageous to have a unified approach to various problems of physiological sciences in the
country. It was further pointed out that, that a Federation of Asian and Oceania PhysiologicalSocieties is likely to be formed during the Second Congress of Asian and Oceania PhysiologicalSocieties (AOPS) during November 1990, and that the Indian Federation can be the adheringorganization for the same.
80All members present unanimously agreed about the need to form a Federation of IndianSocieties of Physiological and Allied Sciences. Everyone felt that the Federation should be of sucha nature as to allow the independent working of each Society that will affiliate with the Federation.
All members contributed their views on preparing a draft of the constitution of the proposed
Federation. It was agreed that this constitution would have to be approved by the different
adhering Indian Societies.
The Office Bearers of different Physiological Societies of India met again on 22nd and 27th
May 1991, at the Department of Physiology, AIIMS, New Delhi to review the progress. By thenthe constitution and its philosophy had been approved by the executive bodies of the Associationof Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India, The Physiological Society of India, Society ofAnimal Physiologists of Indian and Indian Society for Comparative Animal Physiology. An ad
hoc Executive Council of the Federation of Indian Physiological Societies (FIPS) was formed.
The council entrusted its President with the responsibility of getting the Federation registered with
the Registrar of Society in Delhi. On 20th September, 1991 the Federation of Indian PhysiologicalSocieties was registered under Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860 with S/22214 of 1991 as
its registration number with an explicit understanding that the office of the Federation shall remainin the union territory of Delhi.
Aims & Objectives: The purpose of the Federation is exclusively scientific, academic andliterary and no other. It is for the furtherance of these purposes that specific businesses and theobjective of this federation shall be:a) To encourage the Advancement of the Physiological Sciences in India.
b)To promote all such measures as will contribute to the Development of Physiological
Science in India (for example publication, arranging lectures etc.)c) To foster and encourage research in the Physiological Sciences in India
2. When and how FIPS joined FAOPS
Federation of Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS) was formed during theSecond Congress of Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (AOPS) in November 1990, andat that time Indian Federation (FIPS) joined as the adhering organization for the same.
3. Current Activities
FIPS organizes Annual Conferences at an interval of 2-3 years. In 2013 FIPS organized its 5th
Congress in the Department of Zoology, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India during 26th28th September, 2013 in collaboration with Indian Society for Comparative Animal Physiology(ISCAP), 6th Congress of FIPS in the Department of Physiology, University of Calcutta during 79th November, 2016, Kolkata in collaboration with the Physiological Society of India (PSI) and7th Congress in Defence Institute of Physiology and Allied Sciences (DIPAS), New Delhi during
7-9th November, 2017 in collaboration with Physiological Society of India (PSI). The next
Congress is likely to be held in collaboration with Physiological and Pharmacological Society ofIndia (APPI) possibly in Guwahati, Assam in 2019. In each FIPS Congress there are Inaugural
Session, Key Note Addresses, Plenary Lectures, Invited Lectures, Seminars, Oral Presentations,
Poster Presentation, Young Scientist Awards, etc., followed by Valedictory Session in presenceof different eminent and young physiologists of diverse background from the country and abroad.
The duration of the Congress generally consisted of three days.
Further in each FIPS Congress there is prestigious FIPS ORATION
81

Nobel Laureate Prof. Sir A.F. Huxley delivered the first FIPS oration on 16th March 1991. The
second, third, and fourth orations were delivered by Prof. Y. Oomura, Prof. Masao Ito, and Prof.
A. S. Paintal, respectively.
On 9th Nov 1998, FIPS Executive Council decided to rename the FIPS Oration as "S.K.
Manchanda Memorial FIPS Oration" to honor Late Prof. S.K. Manchanda for his contributions toPhysiological Sciences in India and FIPS in particular.
The meeting decided on the following rules for the oration: "S.K. Manchanda Memorial FIPS
Oration" will be the most prestigious award given by the Federation of Indian PhysiologicalSocieties. It would be awarded to distinguished scientists in the field of Physiology. The award
would be given to one Indian and one foreign scientist, working in any branch/discipline of
Physiology during the FIPS Congress, which normally takes place once in three years. The award
is given in the form of a plaque. In all the Congresses FIPS Orations are delivered by one eminent
foreign scientist and one India scientist.
4. Important Achievements
As mentioned above.
5. Contribution to physiology in the region
FIPS allows the independent working of its affiliated societies (PSI, APPI, SAPI, ISCAP) forthe promotion of overall development of Physiology in the country. FIPS organizes pre- and postCongress workshop, general workshop in different venues on different topics with hands-ontraining on recent developmental physiology for the young physiologists.
6. Contribution to FAOPSFIPS is a regular member of FAOPS and therefore there remains representation from FIPS ineach FAOPS Congress.
The write up is prepared by:
Dr. Amar K. Chandra,
Emeritus Professor: Department of Physiology, University of Calcutta
General Secretary: The Federation of Indian Physiological Societies (FIPS).

82

INDONESIAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY(IPS)
History on the formation of Indonesian Physiological Society
Several young physiology experts from some universities in Indonesia have met several times
and the idea occurred to unite them in a professional association. This was supported by the senior
experts in physiology at that time, Prof. R. Soetarman and Prof. Moch. Said from Universitas
Indonesia, Jakarta and Prof. J.A. Wibowo from Universitas Airlangga. The first meeting was heldin Yogyakarta (Central Java) to form the physiology professional association. The organizer andhost was the Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gajah Mada.
On December 25, 1964, physiology scientists attended a meeting held at Universitas GajahMada, Yogyakarta. Participants who attended came from Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta andSurabaya. The session took two days starting at 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. at night to develop thearticles of association and the bylaws. The meeting decided that Thursday, December 25, 1964, isthe day of the birth of the Ikatan Ahli Faal Indonesia (IAIFI)/Indonesian Physiological Society(IPS).
On December 26, 1964, was the establishment of a new professional association, namely the
Ikatan Ahli Faal Indonesia (IAIFI)/Indonesian Physiological Society (IPS).
The first IPS congress was held on October 30, 1969 in Bandung and the first core committeeof the Indonesian Physiological Society for the period of 1969-1972 was chosen with Prof.
Soedjatmo Soemowerdoyo as the chairperson and Soedijono Brotoprawiro as the secretary. This
committee included a plant and animal physiology expert, namely Prof. Djokowoerjo
Sastradipradja.
From then on, IPS national/international seminars are held annually with topics ranging fromthe fields of human/medical physiology, animal physiology, plant physiology, sports physiology
and physiology in Ergonomy.
IPS's core committee period lasts for 3 years alternating from one IPS branch to another.
The series of activities carried out regularly are the national congress every 3 years, national
and international seminars, symposiums, workshops every year in rotation from one branch toanother.
As an organization IPS has articles of association and bylaws, emblem, flag, hymn and IPS
Member Card.
IPS has been a full member of IUPS, however currently is an associate member of IUPS andalso an associate member of FAOPS.
IPS organization (2019-2021 period) has 5 areas, namely: organization, membership andcertification; international relations; strategic studies of education; studies of research, community
service, publication, dissemination and seminar; and cooperation and funding.
At present IPS has 20 branches (by province) and 7 commissaries (based on institutions incertain provinces) throughout Indonesia.
83

The latest IPS meeting, “The 17th Congress and the 27th International Seminar” took place in
Bandung, 28-30 June 2018 with the theme “Integrated Physiology for One Health.”
IPS core committee for 2019-2021 mainly comes from the Department of Medical Physiology
FMUI, together with members from various physiology experts from all around Indonesia. The
current IPS President is Dr.dr.Ermita Isfandiary Ibrahim Ilyas, MS, AIFO and dr. Sophie Yolanda,
MBiomed as the General Secretary.
How IPS joined FAOPS
When Prof. Martin Setiabudi was studying for his Doctorate at Mahidol University, he met
with Prof. Chumpol who invited IPS to become a member of FAOPS.
IPS joined FAOPS, but due to circumstances IPS has not yet been able to become a full
member of FAOPS, only an associate member until now.
IPS current activities
Annual scientific activities are carried out routinely in 2019 to 2021 in several IPS branches
that have been established at the last congress in Bandung, 2018.
At present in 2019, IPS's Semarang branch (Central Java), will carry out the annualinternational seminar and meeting. The local committee will contact several speakers from abroad,seek funding, disseminate information to attract participants from IPS members and non-members
throughout Indonesia.
IPS core committee will assist in the preparation of the implementation, by including several
core committee members as steering committee, helping to find sponsors and trying so that thepresentation results at the seminar can be recognized internationally.
Continuing the dissemination of IPS website activities, striving to produce IPS journals in
English that will be internationally recognized to assist IPS members’ publications.
Pursue the addition of IPS branches and commissaries throughout Indonesia.
Strive to become a full member of FAOPS this year, as well as IUPS in order to enhancecooperation in the field of physiology education and research.
Improve the existence of the organization by increasing information through websites andother online media.
Increase cooperation with various overseas experts to improve the quality and quantity of
research in the field of physiology in Indonesia and participation in international scientificactivities.
Form research working groups to develop research proposals that are in line with the problems
faced by Indonesians today and education working groups, especially for the role of physiology
in Faculty of Medicine which is gradually decreasing and sought uniformity in the provision ofphysiology materials in all educational institutions in Indonesia. The working groups consist ofvarious physiology experts from all around Indonesia.

84Follow up on efforts to certify the title of sports physiologist for IPS members who areinterested after the Persatuan Ahli Ilmu Faal Olahraga Indonesia (PAIFORI)/Indonesian Sports
Physiology Association is approved by the Indonesian National Professional Certification Boardof the Ministry of Manpower of the Republic of Indonesia to hold a certification examination to
obtain the Sports Physiology Certificate.
Major achievements
In 2002, the first teaching and learning workshop was held at the Indonesian PhysiologicalSociety Congress in Bali. The workshop will subsequently be held periodically to improve anddevelop the quality of teaching physiology in Indonesia to keep current with advancements inteaching physiology
In 2013, Adrian Hutber PhD, the vice president of Exercise is Medicine movement of theAmerican College of Sports Medicine was invited to the Annual Seminar in Jakarta to introduce
the Exercise is Medicine movement. Since then Exercise is Medicine has been one of the topics
presented at every annual IPS seminar,In the last 15 years, foreign scientists have been invited to speak at IPS's annual seminars
These last annual seminars were able to stimulate interest in young scientists to publish resultsof research at the cellular as well as the molecular levels
Working together with Elsevier in translating Guyton and Hall’s Textbook of Medical
Physiology. This translated version is very much needed for students and medical professionals
from various regions in Indonesia
Invite medical students from medical faculties of various universities in Indonesia to take partin Inter-Medical School Physiology Quiz competitions both nationally and internationallyContributions to physiology in Indonesia
Increase knowledge of students, teaching staff, and researchers in the fields of education,
research, and community service through regular scientific activities of physiology throughout
Indonesia
Increase and improve education in physiology of various universities in Indonesia
Contributions to FAOPS
Regularly participate in periodic scientific activities of FAOPS member countries
Strive for cooperation in the fields of education, research, and publications with experts fromvarious FAOPS member countries
Jakarta, 7 March 2019
Dr. Ermita Isfandiary Ibrahim Ilyas
President of IPS (2019-2021)
Senior Lecturer of Department of Medical Physiology, Medical Faculty,
Universitas Indonesia, Jl. Salemba Raya 6, Jakarta Pusat 10430, Indonesia
Email: ermitailyas@gmail.com
85

IRANIAN SOCIETY OF
PHYSIOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY(IrSPP)
History
Dr. Nematollahi was the pioneering and an outstanding professor in Physiology Departmentof Tehran University seeking some advice regarding how to found the Iranian Society ofPhysiology and Pharmacology (ISPP) from Professor Heymans, Faculty of Medicine, Gent
University of Belgium in 1956. Professor Giti was the next pioneer talking to Professor Houssay,then the Head of the International Confederation of Physiology (ICP), who grossly outlined how
the genesis of ISPP could occur to later join the ICP. It was not until 1967 when Giti and
Nematollahi got their acts together and officially submitted their request of giving life to the ISPP
in 1968.
Foundation of the Iranian Society of Physiology and Pharmacology was based on the highenthusiasm of the founders and their wishes to promote the human knowledge. The Society began
its executive activities such as designing the Society’s logo, preparing the membershipregulations, opening a bank account, establishing the location of the Society, obtaining a licensefrom the city hall, official registration of the Society and making efforts to join the internationalsocieties of physiology and pharmacology. The Society provides a forum for leadership andexchange of information to stimulate discussion and collaboration among physiologists andpharmacologists active in all aspects of their professions. In addition, the Society conducts
periodic symposia and cooperates with other organizations having similar or related interests.
Since its establishment, the Society began to organize congresses and meetings. The first ISPP
congress was held in November 1969 in Tehran University with 59 participants and 21
presentations. National meetings were organized every other four years from the very beginningof the ISPP inception. However, since the early 1990s, one scientific meeting is held biannuallyby the Society, in which well-known researchers and professors from Iran and oversea countries
have been invited for the talks.
Current activities
Until today, 24 congresses have been organized by the Society in Iran and we are honored thatsome of the eminent professors who have been members of the Society in their youth are still with
us and we are benefited from their experiences. In the last (24th) ISPP congress the better thepresentations were organized under specialized topics in 18 symposia and 19 satellite workshopswith more than 1,000 participants and about 800 presentations. Besides, because of the increased
number of participants and lecturers, the scientific quality of the congresses has also beenenhanced considerably.
The Society enjoys a high place in national and international venues and is considered among
the most active and productive scientific societies and with its permanent and affiliated members
is one of the largest scientific societies of the country.
We invite the young researchers that join the Iranian Society of Physiology and Pharmacology
to visit the virtual museum of the Society in order to see examples of the research instrumentationthat was available at the beginning of the establishment of the Society and the efforts of the86members during all these years. We also invite them to bear in mind the history of the Society andto take big steps on the way of improving this scientific society in future.
ISPP members are educated professionals who have a minimum of a Master's degree inphysiology, pharmacology and/or related sciences. The diverse membership represents
physiology, pharmacology, molecular and cellular biology, biochemistry, genetics, andimmunology. At the first General Meeting in 1969 membership was 25, ISPP currently has 450
active members.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

The aims of ISPP are:
To provide a powerful, unified forum and opportunity forphysiologists and pharmacologists to present and discuss current
research in their corresponding disciplines.
To promote and encourage the exchange of ideas and information
regarding all aspects of physiology and pharmacology.
To promote the advancement of teaching and research in physiology
and pharmacology within the academic environment.
To encourage and implement graduate programs to meet the diverse
interests and career opportunities in physiology and pharmacology,
regardless of age, gender, race or disability.
To promote the development and exchange of scientific information
between ISPP and other professional organizations with an interestin physiology and pharmacology.
To set the agenda, determine the direction, and make the decisions
about the future of the physiology and pharmacology profession.
To expand governmental and private funding of physiology andpharmacology research and training.

87

88

Association with FAOPS
Although the ISPP had not been involved in formation of the Federation of the Asian andOceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS), but it jointed FAOPS since its establishment and now
an officer of our society is a council member of FAOPS.
Important achievements
Iranian Society of Physiology and Pharmacology (ISPP) is a national nonprofit professionalorganization committed to the advancement of physiologists and pharmacologists. Founded in1968 in Tehran, the Society provides a forum for leadership and exchange of information tostimulate discussion and collaboration among physiologists and pharmacologists active in all
aspects of their professions. The ISPP also strives to establish an effective communication among
researchers and teachers. In addition, the Society conducts periodic symposia and cooperates withother organizations having similar or related interests. In year 2000, the Executive Council feltthat the Society was financially stable enough for it to publish its own journal, to be called“Physiology and Pharmacology”. “Physiology and Pharmacology” is the official English
publication of the ISPP and publishes full-length original articles in physiology, pharmacology
and related subjects. It is an open access journal, which means that all contents are freely available
without charge to the user or his/her institution.
Contributions to physiology in this region
ISPP provides the opportunity for all researchers in the field of physiology and pharmacology
in Iran and overseas country, especially from Asian and Oceania, to gather, meet each other andhave scientific discussion by holding the national and International Congresses of Physiology andPharmacology. In addition, ISPP is among the main organizers and supporter of IBRO Schools in
Iran, which are among the most competent Schools in the region and have had significant impacts
on progression of neuroscience in the West of Asia.
Contributions to FAOPS
Prof. Fereshteh Motamedi was elected as one of the council members of FAOPS in New Delhi
in 1990 to represent Iran. She had this position for some time and then became 1st Vice President
for 4 years and in the mean time she was the editor of the FAOPS newsletter. Then, Prof. Saeed
Semnanian was elected as FAOPS council member up to 2015 and the editor of the FAOPS
newsletter. And in 2015 Dr. Javad Mirnajafi-Zadeh selected as new Iranian council member and1st Vice President of FAOPS. ISPP will be the host for 10th FAOPS congress in 2023 in Tehran,
Iran.

89

THE ISRAEL SOCIETY FOR PHYSIOLOGYAND PHARMACOLOGY (ISPP)
Details on ISPP and its activities may be found at http://isphyspharm.org/.
The Israel Society for Physiology and Pharmacology (ISPP) was founded in 1962 following
the initiative of Prof. Jonathan Magnes, of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who also served asits first president. From the start, the mission of the Society has been to support research andadvance collaborations in the fields of Physiology and Pharmacology. The President and the
management of the Society are elected for 3 years and it is customary that each new President iselected from a different institution from the previous one, thus enabling active participation of all
Israeli universities in ISPP management.
ISPP joined FAOPS in 2008, following the invitation of Prof. Fereshteh Motamedi, theChairperson of FAOPS Public Relation committee at that time. Currently, the representative of
ISPP in FAOPS Scientific Council is Prof. Eitan Reuveny of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
ISPP is also a member of Federation of Israeli Societies for Experimental Biology (FISEB),International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR), The Federation of European
Pharmacological Societies (EPHAR), International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS), andFederation of European Physiological Societies (FEPS).
The ISPP is a common meeting place of Israeli scientists from academia, industry, andmedicine who are actively engaged in research, teaching and application of the disciplines ofphysiology and pharmacology. Research in physiology and pharmacology in Israel is conductedwithin a wide framework of establishments, which includes the country’s four medical schools(Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Be’er Sheva), faculties of biology or life sciences in the seven
universities, government research institutes (principally the Israel Institute of BiologicalResearch), research institutes of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), clinical hospital laboratories,
and industry. The main activities of the ISPP include the annual Society meeting, occasional
satellite meetings, and participation in meetings of FISEB as well as participation in meetings ofthe other collaborating Societies. The Society encourages collaboration between researchers fromdifferent institutions and countries, promotes young promising investigators by awarding travel
fellowships to students whose presentations own prizes at the Annual Meeting, and initiates orparticipates in other scientific activities in Israel and abroad.
The ISPP Annual Meetings feature plenary lectures supported by the Magnes Fund, whereby
an internationally renowned scientist is presenting his/her work in a Magnes Plenary Lecture. The
list of Magnes Lecturers over the years is a witness of reputation and quality of ISPP and its annual
meetings. The list includes Bert Sackmann, Richard Tsien, Arthur Konnert, Dario DiFrancesco,
Peter Agre, Clifford Woolf, Bruce Bean, Ehud Isacoff, Michel Lazdunski, Irwin Levitan,
Hermann Steller, David Julius, Michel Revel, Peter Jenner, Denis Noble, Marta Weinstock-Rosin,
William J. Betz, Geoffrey Burnstock, King-Wai Yau, Richard Tsein, Denis A. Baylor, Chris
Miller, Harald Reuter, Torsten Wiesel and Annette Dolphin.
Through its activity in the fields of physiology and pharmacology over the years, the ISPP has
significantly contributed to research in physiology and pharmacology and to the establishment ofhigh standards of biomedical research in Israel.

90

THE KOREAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY(KPS)
Brief history
1. Before 1945 (Year of the independency of Korea)
1) 1899.7.7: First proclaim physiology as subject in medical school rules from academic orderof Korean Empire2) 1908: Missionary doctors, Woodbridge Johnson and J Hunter Wells gave the physiology
lectures in Daegu and Pyeongyang, respectively.
3) Physiology was mainly educated in Severance medical school and Kyungsung Empire
Medical College (Kyungsung was an old name of Seoul).
4) Prof. Kap-Soo Lee was the first philosophical doctor in physiology awarded at Keio
University in 1930 and appointed as lecturer in 1931. He was the one of the founder of the
Korean Physiological Society but unfortunately was abducted to the North Korea during the
Korean war.
2. Before the Korean War
1) The chosun Physiological Society was founded at Nov 1945, and it was the first society
among basic medical societies in Korea.
2) The first president: Kap-Soo Lee, vice president : Jong Ryoon Lee, Total 15 members(Myung Sun Kim, Ki Yong Nam etc) were participated as promoters.
3) The chosun medical association was founded in 1947 and the Chosun Physiological Society
became sub-society.
4) In 1946, Lee Kap-soo and Kim Myung-sun participated in the promoter conference torevitalize society throughout the country.
5) In 1947, they established the Chosun Medical Association in order to organize theunification society and the first academic conference was held.
6) In 1949, the Chosun Physiological Society was renamed to the Korean PhysiologicalSociety and the Chosun Medical Association was also renamed to the Korean Medical
Association. The 3rd academic conference was held.
3. 1950 ~ 1953: the Korean War
1950 President Lee (6 invited), abducted during the Korean War
4. After 1954
1) 1954.6.20 The 6th Korean Medical Association Academic Conference (Place: Seoul
National University College of Medicine)2) 1957.6.9 The 9th Annual Meeting of the Korean Physiological Association and Academic
Conference (Venue: Seoul National University, School of Medicine, Department of
Physiology, Seoul National University)3) Annual meeting of the Korean Physiological Society was held every year.

914) The Korean Journal of Physiology was published from 1967 and it was merged with The
Korean Journal of Pharmacology and renamed The Korean Journal of Physiology andPharmacology from 1997.
5) The 70th anniversary meeting of the Korean Physiological Society was held in 2018.
Join the international physiological societies
1. The Korean Physiological Society joined the International Union of the PhysiologicalSocieties in 1965.
2. The Korean Physiological Society became a member of Federation of the Asian andOceanian Physiological Societies at July 1989 during 31st IUPS meeting held in Helsinki.
Current activities
1. Biannual meetings in spring and fall were held every year. In spring, the symposium is heldwith one subject, and in fall, the general meeting is held with various subjects.
2. In the 70th anniversary of the year 2018, 10 subdivisions were created as follows and thesymposiums were held based those subdivisions.
1) Ion channel research2) Physiome3) Neurophysiology
4) Cardiovascular physiology5) Exercise physiology6) Skin and epithelial physiology7) Stem cell physiology
8) Digestive Smooth muscle physiology
9) Metabolic physiology10) Mitochondrial physiology
Important achievements
1. The 6th FAOPS Seoul Convention was held with great success in October 15-18, 2006.
2. The national research foundation, main funding organization in Korea, supports to establish
the medical research center in the medical college, the dental college, and the oriental medicine.
Several members of KPS became a chief director of medical research center in 2018 and thosecenters will help the society activities greatly
3. The field of electrophysiology is world widely well known in particular. Many Drs who
have awarded degrees from Korea have played a major role in leading universities and research
institutes around the world.
4. The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology is now a major journal in the field ofphysiology and published bimonthly.
Contributions to physiology in this region
1. Since 1980, Korea and Japan has regularly held the joint academic conferences922. Korea and China held the conference entitled "International Conference on Brain-Gut
Peptides" in Nov. 1988.
3. Many young students from other countries entered the graduate school in Korea,
participated in research subjects, and made many excellent achievements. After awarding thedegree, they returned their home country and became a faculty and maintain close relationshipwith the Korean physiologist to continue the cooperative research.
Contributions to FAOPS
1. Since its inception, Korea served 1st vice president, 2nd vice president, and executive council
members.
2. The Korean physiologist actively participated in FAOPS from 1994, 3rd FAOPS held in
Shanghai, China.
3. Korea hosted 6th FAOPS at Oct 15~16 in Seoul.
4. Korea actively participated in FAOPS to continue academic exchange and to make apersonal relationship with other mem

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MALAYSIAN SOCIETY OF
PHARMACOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY(MSPP)
Brief history on the formation of MSPP
Malaysian Society of Pharmacology and Physiology was initially known as Malaysian Societyof Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics or MASPET, which was formed in 1976. Its
official base was the Department of Pharmacology at Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. Its
membership at that time mainly consisted of pharmacologists, physiologists and somepharmacists. As the number of physiologists grew in its membership ranks, it was decided thatthe name of the society be changed to better reflect its membership. In 1988, the society came tobe known as Malaysian Society of Pharmacology and Physiology (MSPP). It is now the premierrepresentative society of pharmacologists and physiologists in Malaysia.
Members of MSPP work in academia, industry and also health services and consist ofscientists and medically qualified personnel representing broad areas of pharmacology andphysiology including basic and applied aspects of both disciplines.
Contributions to physiology in this region
Over the years, the Society has played an important role in promoting research among its
members by providing a venue for interaction and discourse between its members. The Society
has been organizing its scientific meetings, which help provide a platform for researchers to share
their research findings and build networks and collaborations. It had on occasions also held joint
scientific meetings with the Malaysian Society of Vascular Biology and the Malaysian Society ofHypertension. In the recent years it helps organize a one-day session at the National Heart
Association of Malaysia annual scientific meetings.
Most of the early research by its members was on traditional medicinal plants that were uniqueto Malaysia. But in the recent years the research areas have significantly diversified and expanded
to include a lot of other areas in Pharmacology and Physiology, as evident from the range ofpresentations at its scientific meetings. The scientific meetings were originally held biennially
but with increasing interest and support, the frequency of the meetings was changed to an annual
event in the late 1980s. The scientific meetings are usually held over two days and will include
plenary lectures by distinguished speakers, from both local and overseas institutions, symposia
and free communications. Its 32nd Scientific Meeting was held in August 2018. These days thescientific meetings not only attract participants from within Malaysia to attend and share theirknowledge and findings, but have also attracted many participants from countries like India,
Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Kuwait, Nigeria, Australia and Finland.
The hosts and venues of the meetings were, until recently, rotated on a voluntary basis between
the departments of Pharmacology and Physiology from within the major Institutes in the country.
More recently, however, a bidding process has been put in place and bids to hold the annual
scientific meetings are now received from numerous public and private medical and science
institutes in Malaysia. Bids are made two years in advance and decided upon during the Annual
General Meeting that is usually held during the scientific meeting.

94

In addition to helping promote research activities, MSPP also helps promote teaching ofpharmacology and physiology. Many of its members are quite active members in medical
education groups. It helps organize annual refresher courses for young pharmacologists andphysiologists within the disciplines of pharmacology and physiology. In its endeavour to promote
pharmacology and physiology research and teaching within the country it has also introduced theannual teacher’s award in pharmacology and physiology and the annual young researcher award.
Contribution to FAOPSMSPP has been actively involved in FAOPS since the formation of FAOPS in 1990 and has
had a representative in the FAOPS Council ever since. Many of its members attend the FAOPS
Congresses. It also hosted the 5th FAOPS Congress in Kuala Lumpur in 2002.

95

THE PAKISTANPHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY (PPS)History of PPS
The Pakistan Physiological Society (PPS) is the only officially registered body ofphysiologists in Pakistan. It was founded in Karachi by Prof. Mahmood Ahmed, who was theFounding President. The Inaugural Convention was held at the Department of Physiology, Aga
Khan University (April 15-16, 1987) chaired by Prof. H.R. Ahmed, the Chair of the Organizing
Committee. It soon attracted all physiology communities in Pakistan, and biennial conferences
became a regular feature. PPS became an adhering member of the International Union of
Physiological Sciences (IUPS) at the IUPS congress in Glasgow (1993) and upgraded to becomea regular member at the IUPS Congress held in St. Petersburg, Russia (1997).
When and how PPS joined FAOPS
Like IUPS, joining of PPS to FAOPS was led by Dr. Arif Siddiqui when he was the General
Secretary of PPS (1997). Approval was accorded by FAOPS during its congress held in Brisbane(1998).
Current Activities
Since its inception, PPS has regularly organized its conference on biennial basis. Accordingly,
16th Biennial conference was held in December, 2018 at the College of Medicine & Dentistry,
University of Lahore, Lahore. One of the hallmark event organized was the International Teaching
Physiology Workshop with the theme “Teaching Physiology in the Developing World: Models
for Quality Learning” held in 1999 in collaboration with IUPS, at the Aga Khan University,
Karachi. Prof. Ann E. Sefton, Robert G. Carroll, Usha Nayar and many other renowned speakers
attracted participants from 17 countries. The event organized by Dr. Arif Siddiqui became
instrumental in initiating innovations in Teaching Physiology including Problem-based Learningin Pakistan. The Proceedings of the workshop was highly applauded and was published by Oxford
University Press and circulated worldwide with the sponsorship of Third World Academy of
Sciences.
Another hallmark of PPS is the launch of Pakistan Journal of Physiology (PJP), a biannual
publication, which is approved for publication on the Open Journal System and is recognized asa peer reviewed Y Category journal by Higher Education Commission Pakistan, and Pakistan
Medical & Dental Council. The editorial board of the journal includes Prof. Muhammad Aslam,Prof. Muhammad Ayub, and Dr. Alamgir Khan. PJP is accessible on line as well. PPS also holds
its website, What’s app Group, and Facebook page.

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PPS also had MOU with the Iranian Society for Physiology & Pharmacology for collaborationin research and conference participation. It participated in International Quiz Competition in
Physiology held in Kuala Lumpur and organized similar events at national level.
Actively participated in FAOPS Congresses, on behalf of PPS Dr. Arif Siddiqui has served as
Member, Executive Council, and FAOPS Committee on Education. He has also organized
Teaching workshops at FAOPS congresses held in Taipei (2009), Bangkok (2015), and Kobe
(2019), and also participated in scientific conferences.
Important Achievements
Providing a platform to physiologists in Pakistan and neighboring countries by organizing its
biennial conferences regularly. Teaching Physiology Workshop played a key role in adopting
innovations in Teaching and Learning of Physiology.
Publishing Pakistan Journal of Physiology, regularly that is not only providing a forum fordisseminating physiological research but also providing experience in developing the skills to run
the journal itself.
Contribution to Physiology in the Region
On behalf of PPS, Dr. Arif Siddiqui again masterminded the formation of a forum ofphysiologists at regional level and spearheaded the establishment of South Asian Association of
Physiologists (SAAP) with its Headquarter in Colombo. The forum provides an effective platform
for closer interactions and has been instrumental in establishing new collaborations andnetworking through biennial conferences regularly organized that so far been held in Islamabad,Bangalore, Colombo, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Lahore. Pre-conferences on Teaching workshops
are also hallmark of SAAP conferences sponsored by IUPS and UK Physiological Society besides
national bodies. Through SAAP’s platform seminars, and teaching and research workshops arealso being held in member countries.
The current Executive Council of PPS is Prof. Zafar Tanveer as its President and Prof. Tehseen
Iqbal as the General Secretary, who has committed to steer the society towards achieving its
professional target.
Prepared by Prof. Arif SiddiquiFounding Member: PPS
Member, Executive Council: FAOPS
Member, Education Subcommittee: IUPS
Vice Chancellor: Barrett Hodgson University
Karachi, Pakistan
Email: arifsiddiqui54312@gmail.com

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HISTORY OF
PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF NEPAL(PSN)
During IUPS 2009, Dr. Rita Khadka from Nepal met Prof. Arif Siddiqui from Pakistan. Prof.
Siddiqui suggested Dr. Khadka to establish Physiological Society of Nepal (PSN) and to apply
for membership of South Asian Association of Physiologists (SAAP). This was the first discussion
for the establishment of PSN. Then Dr. Khadka took the initiative. She discussed the concept with
Prof. B.H. Paudel from Nepal and circulated it to most of the physiologists in Nepal. Several
meetings were arranged at the Department of Physiology, B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences(BPKIHS). A team of physiologists, faculty members and postgraduate students, from BPKIHS
worked hard for making preliminary constitution and other essential documents and it wascirculated to most of the physiologists of Nepal. It was edited and finalized, and the first ad hoc
Executive Committee of PSN was formed. Prof. B.H. Paudel was made the President and Dr. Rita
Khadka, the Secretary General. An application was submitted to the government of Nepal on
November 10, 2010 for the registration of PSN as a professional body according to the land law.
The registering body asked for some modification and submission of some additional documents.
The process started. The late Prof. Shyamal Roy Choudhury from Kolkata India regularly
encouraged for the establishment of PSN. His contribution is unforgettable. Prof. K.K. Deepak
from New Delhi, India also encouraged and gave valuable suggestions for the establishment PSN.
PSN became regular member of SAAP in December, 2010 during 2nd Biennial conference ofSAAP held at Bangalore, India.

Top: from left; Prof. Bishnu H Paudel (First President of PSN),
Prof.T M Amatya (Current President), Dr. Rita Khadka (Vice President)
Bottom: from left; Dr. Mrigendra Amatya (Secretary General),
Mr. Rajan Pandit (Joint Secretary), Dr. Lava Shrestha (Treasurer)98Dr. Rita Khadka met Dr. Saeed Semnanian, Chair, Membership Committee, IUPS; Professorof Physiology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran in 2011 in Taipei, Taiwan during 7th
Congress of FAOPS. Prof. Semnanian suggested Dr. Khadka to apply to IUPS for its membership.
PSN became an Associate Member of IUPS in July 2013 during 37th Conference of IUPS held in
Birmingham, UK. Prof. Semnanian again suggested in 2014 for applying to FAOPS for its
membership. Prof. Harbindarjeet Singh, Secretary General, FAOPS, provided all essential
documents required for the application. Accordingly, it was done. PSN became an Associate
Member of FAOPS in 2015. Because of the devastating earth quack in Nepal and other problems
an application was again submitted to the Government of Nepal for the registration of PSN as aprofessional body according to the land law in 2015. The President, Prof. T.M. Amatya; theSecretary General, Dr. Rita Khadka; the joint Secretary, Dr Mrigendra Amatya; the Treasurer, Dr.
lava Shrestha; members, Dr. Ojaswi Nepal, Dr. Bipin Shrestha, Rajan Pandit, Prakash Limbu,
Grishma Nepal and other members worked hard for the registration of PSN. Rajan Pandit
significantly contributed for it. Dr. Sunil Dhungel, President, Neuroscience Society of Nepal(NSN) also helped so much. In 2016, PSN was registered in Nepal as a non-profit organizationaccording to the land law.

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THE PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
NEW ZEALAND (PSNZ)
History of the society
The Physiological Society of New Zealand was initiated in 1972 by Professor John Hubbard(University of Otago) and Professor Jack Sinclair (University of Auckland). The purpose of theSociety was to provide a forum for New Zealand-wide communication on research being carriedout nationally in the physiological sciences. This was achieved mainly through annual scientificconferences and then, as now, particular emphasis was placed on the participation of young
scientists in these meetings.
The Society currently has around 100 members. They work across research fields that range
from functional genomics to computational physiology and they make important contributions in
the trend toward integration that is now increasingly important in the medical and biomedical
sciences.
Current activities
Over the years, the format of PSNZ annual meetings has altered significantly. Since 2004, ourannual meeting has been held within the MedSciNZ Conference which is also attended bybiomedical and clinical scientists working in other closely related disciplines. MedSci is New
Zealand’s premier multi-disciplinary biomedical and medical sciences conference andincorporates the meetings of the Physiological Society of NZ and the NZ Society of
Endocrinology, as well as special interest groups from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, theInstitute of Biomedical Technologies and the Otago Centre for Neuroendocrinology.
Important achievements
In 2001, the Society hosted the 34th World Congress of the International Union of
Physiological Sciences (IUPS2001) in Christchurch. PSNZ has a combined meeting with theAustralian Physiological and Pharmacological Society (APPS) about every five years. The twoSocieties last joined forces in December 2012 in Sydney.
PSNZ recognizes excellence in Physiology research at all stages of a researcher career path.
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Triennial Medal
The Triennial Medal is made every three years in recognition of distinguished physiologicalresearch published by a member of the Society in the previous five years.
Excellence in Research Award is awarded every two years in recognition of sustained outstanding
research by a sub-professorial member.
New and Emerging Researcher Prize is awarded for best oral presentation highlighting
outstanding research by a post-doctoral fellow, research fellow, assistant research fellow, or early
career academic staff member.
The John Hubbard Memorial Prize is awarded in recognition of excellence in studies towards aPh.D.
Bullivant Oral and PSNZ Poster Awards is awarded for the Best Student Presentation at theSociety’s Annual Scientific Meeting.

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Contributions to physiology in this region
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The aims of PSNZ are:to enhance the quality of physiological and related research in New Zealand by providing anannual conference to optimize exchange of information between scientists and nurture theresearch abilities of postgraduates — the research scientists of the future;to establish links with similar research societies throughout the world;
to enhance the effectiveness of tertiary education in the physiological and related sciences by thesharing of teaching aids and strategies at a national level and by advocating responsible attitudes
to ethical issues related to the acquisition of biomedical and animal-based physiologicalknowledge and skills;
to maintain and encourage the responsible teaching of biological sciences in secondary andprimary education by acting as source of information for current school teachers and by providing
effective tertiary training of science graduates likely to become school teachers of the future;
to provide advice on career opportunities for those with graduate qualifications and to advertise,promote and foster career opportunities for those with postgraduate qualifications in physiology
and related disciplines;
to be a national body active in the provision to the government and the community of advice andinformation in areas of deliberation relevant to the physiological sciences.
Contributions to FAOPS
We are contributing speakers and symposium organization to the 9th FAOPS Congress being
held in Kobe, Japan. Past PSNZ President Professor Colin Brown is a current FAOPS council.

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BRIEF HISTORY ON THE FORMATION OF
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN(PSJ)
The Physiological Society of Japan (PSJ) was founded in 1922 when the first meeting wasorganized. At the first meeting, 37 papers were presented as free communications. Since then, theSociety's scientific meeting has been held annually except in 1944 and 1945 when all social
activities were suffered from tremendous difficulties resulting from the World War II. The
activities of the PSJ were quickly revived after the end of the war. The aim of the PSJ is topromote research in the physiological sciences by providing free communications to members andby actively committing itself to the national and international scientific communities. Besides an
Annual Meeting, the Society has 8 major regional meetings.

PSJ 1st meeting in 1922
The PSJ is a member of the Japanese Medical Association and contributes to the developmentof medical science including care and technology in the field of medicine through the research.
Also, the society is a cooperative science and research body of the Science Council of Japan.
The PSJ has been a member of the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) since
its founding in 1953. The PSJ has organized the IUPS World Congress twice: in 1965 in Tokyo(President: Genichi Kato) and in 2009 in Kyoto (President: Yasushi Miyashita). Masao Ito (1993–1997) and Akimichi Kaneko (2005– 2009) served as presidents of the IUPS. Yoshihisa Kurachi,with the recommendation of the PSJ, served as the First Vice President of the IUPS (2009-2013).

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PSJ hosted IUPS 2009
When and how PSJ joined FAOPS
The PSJ is one of founding members of FAOPS. The idea to establish the collaboration among
Asian and Oceanian countries had initially been proposed by Professors Thirayudh Glinsukorn
and Chumpol Pholpramool, Thailand. For such purpose, they planned to organize the first
International Meeting of this region in middle 1980s. Professor Masao Ito, who was serving as a
Professor of the University of Tokyo and as a Secretary General of the PSJ, supported their idea
and helped to organize the first Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (AOPS) meeting in
Bangkok in 1986. During the AOPS meeting, establishing the FAOPS had been discussed byrepresentatives from Asian and Oceanian countries including Prof. Ito as a representative of the
PSJ. Then, the draft of the Constitution of the FAOPS was made and proposed at the IUPS meetingat Helsinki in 1990. The draft was approved and the first Council was also amended. The PSJ
became one of the founding members of the FAOPS and Professor Ito became the first President.
Since then, the PSJ has been full member of FAOPS.
Current activities of the PSJ
The PSJ has 2,846 members in total, as of September 2018. Most of the members belong toacademic research institutions related to medical science, life science, health science,
pharmaceutical science and so on. The research activities of the PSJ members are mostly
supported by grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(MEXT) distributed by the Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences (JSPS). The JSPS also
provides fellowships to graduate students and postdoctoral students, including those from foreigncountries. Research grants are also provided by the Japan Agency for Medical Research andDevelopment (AMED) and private foundations. A list of summaries of recent breakthrough papers
published by PSJ members can be viewed at the ‘Science Topics’ section of the PSJ website:
http://int.physiology.jp/en/sciencetopics/103

The PSJ has established Society Awards to support young researchers and female researchers.
These awards include the Promotion Award of the Physiological Society of Japan for Young
Scientists and the Irisawa Memorial Awards. The awardees have actively contributed to theprogress of physiological sciences in Japan and worldwide.
The PSJ organizes an annual meeting once a year. The latest 95th Annual Meeting of PSJ was
held in Takamatsu on March 28th through 30th, 2018 with more than 1,600 participants including
80 from overseas 17 countries. For supporting young researchers affiliated to the Asia Oceania
area, the Travel Grant Award (50,000 JPY) was awarded to 5 authors. Due to the Taiwan Eastern
Earthquake that occurred on February 6th, 2018, the PSJ supported the participation fee ofparticipants from Taiwan who registered in advance. The Best Presentation Award was given to
the best presenter of each oral sessions and undergraduate sessions. As an outreach activity, themeeting invited students from elementary, middle and high schools and gave them an opportunity
to make poster presentations of their research works. Three among 21 presentations received"Excellent Future Scientist Award." The school students were also provided an opportunity tomeet overseas researchers. A total of 46 students participated and enjoyed communicating with
16 overseas researchers. The 96th Annual Meeting will be held in Kobe, Japan at the same time
(March 28th ~ 31st, 2019) as the 9th FAOPS Congress. In addition, seven regional subcommitteesof PSJ hold local meetings once a year.
The PSJ publishes two journals: The Journal of Physiological Sciences, an international peerreviewed journal published bimonthly in English, and The Journal of The Physiological Societyof Japan, published quarterly in Japanese.
To provide an opportunity to acquire a wide range of knowledge required for teaching
physiology, the Education Committee of the PSJ has organized an educational lecture course inphysiological science at the annual meetings. The PSJ members who take part in the lecture course
can earn points towards certiﬁcation as a “Physiology Educator.” More than 400 members havebeen certified as of 2018. The PSJ supports the Physiology Quiz in Japan that is run andparticipated by college students.
Important achievements
The PSJ has achieved various areas by continuous huge efforts of individual PSJ members as
below.
The international meetings: The IUPS World Congress was held twice in Japan, Tokyo in
1965 and 2009 in Kyoto. IUPS2009 in Kyoto was really a successful meeting, there were nearly
4,000 participants from around the world. FAOPS2019 in conjunction with 96th annual meetingof the PSJ is held in Kobe on March 28-31, 2019. Nearly 2,000 participants have been alreadyregistered in January, 2019.
The annual meetings: The annual meetings of the PSJ have been held in not only capital city
but also local areas of Japan on the end of fiscal year (usually late March). The 95th annual meeting
was held on March 28th ~ 30th, 2018 in Takamatsu, Kagawa (see also the meeting described in theformer section). The total number of the attendees in this annual meeting was approximately 1,600
including 80 attendees from 17 countries. All oral presentations with several exceptions such as
educational presentation) are in English since 2006 because of welcoming non-Japanese
researchers from around the world. The annual meeting of the PSJ gives a good opportunity toencourage international friendships and collaborations in each country.
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The International/domestic Journals: The Journal of the Physiological Sciences (JPS) (former
The Japanese Journal of Physiology (1950-2005)) publishes peer-reviewed original papers,
reviews etc. in English. JPS is edited by the JPS and published by Springer Nature. The highquality papers have been published, and recent impact factor is 2.757. For the PSJ members, theJournal of the Physiological Society of Japan in Japanese has been published quarterly.
Education: The Education Committee of the PSJ has established ‘Physiology Educator’ssystem to qualify the ability of teaching skills and knowledge as an educator of physiology in thefield of basic/clinical medicine, nutrition, sports etc. Physiology Quiz in Japan (PQJ) for
undergraduate students was held in Tottori University on May 19th-20th, 2018. Total 15 teams
from 11 universities, including oversea teams. Of course, all quiz questions and answers are in
English. This event is very important to encourage the interest of undergraduate students inphysiology.
Contributions to Physiology in this region
It was 1922 in Tokyo, when the first meeting of physiological society of Japan (PSJ) was held.
Since then, the PSJ has held its domestic meetings annually, except in 1944 and 1945. In 2013,
the PSJ held the 90th anniversary meeting in Tokyo, where messages from the presidents of morethan 30 physiological societies in the world, including most Asian societies, were received. Now,
our participants are not only from Japan, although it is still called “domestic meeting,” but oversea
countries, including many Asian countries. This is partially because the official language of themeeting has been English since 2006, according to our globalization policy, which facilitates theparticipations of oversea physiologists. The annual PSJ meeting has held many joint symposia forregional countries, such as Korea-China-Japan joint symposium. Most recently, the joint
symposium has been expanded, such as in our 95th meeting in Takamatsu, to Japan-China, JapanAustralia, Japan-Taiwan, or Japan-Korea joint symposia. These symposia were held
independently during the meeting days in Takamatsu, because of its large number of participants,
but they were all to prepare for FAOPS 2019 in Kobe.
The official Journal of the PSJ, The Journal of Physiological Sciences, has also served to theregional physiological community (see also the content of the journal described in the former
section). Most importantly, the Journal has published the proceeding of FAOPS 2015 in Thailand
as its supplementary issue. The Journal will also publish the proceeding of FAOPS 2019 in Kobe.
Accordingly, the Journal has served as platform for the PSJ to serve for the promotion ofphysiological research and the mutual understanding among international physiologists in thisregion.
Contribution to FAOPS
When FAOPS was launched, PSJ made an initial funding (USD10,000) and membership dues
(USD3,000) for start-up. In addition, because PSJ has the largest number of members among
FAOPS member societies, we have kept contributing financially to manage FAOPS. Needless to
say that many PSJ members have attended all FAOPS meetings as speakers of various scientificand educational sessions since the AOPS meeting. We have proposed many symposia in many
areas in the physiological sciences. We strongly believe that such effort may have encouraged
young scientists of Asian and Oceanian countries to engage in research in our areas. In addition,
we have contributed to develop the FAOPS by helping organizing and managing the council.
Professor Ito had been the President until 1998. Then Professor Akimichi Kaneko, Keio
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University had been served as a secretary general from 1998 to 2006. Following Prof. Kaneko,
Professor Yasunobu Okada, the National Institute of Physiological Sciences (NIPS), had served
as the President from 2006 to 2011. He had remained in the council as a Past-President until 2015.
Then, at present, Prof. Yoshihiro Kubo, NIPS, has been serving as the 2nd Vice President since2015. Then finally, PSJ will host 9th congress of the FAOPS (FAOPS2019) in Kobe from March
28th to 31st, 2019. We expect 2,000 participants from Asian and Oceanian regions. There will be
3 plenary lectures, 10 special lectures and more than 70 symposia and workshops. Pre-congressworkshop on Physiology Education will be held in the same venue. Following the FAOPS2019,
there will be a NIPS/Thermal Biology Training Course at NIPS, as a post-congress program.
Together with these satellite events, FAOPS2019 will be the largest FAOPS congress throughout
the FAOPS history. We hope that all participants have fruitful time by attending scientific andeducational sessions. Overall, through these PSJ efforts for FAOPS, we sincerely hope tocontribute further international collaboration through FAOPS activities.

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A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
THAILAND (PST)(1971 – 2018)
Brief history on the formation of the Physiological Society of Thailand (PST)In 1971, Professor Dr. Dithi Chungcharoen, one of the leading physiologists in Thailand, wascontacted by the International Union of Physiological Sciences (IUPS) to announce its Regional
Meeting in Sydney to physiologists in Thailand. This inspired him that Thailand should have acommon body for academic activities of physiologists in Thailand. Therefore, the first conferenceof Physiology for all Thai physiologists was held on March 20, 1972 at the Faculty of Medicine
Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, organized by a committee from many institutes all over thecountry. In the following year, the second conference was hosted by the Faculty of Science,
Mahidol University and held on March 26, 1973 when leading physiologists agreed upon the idea
to form a society so as to be an official body for contact with an international organization such
as IUPS.
Thereafter, the Physiology Conferences were held annually with a rotation of host institution.
Not until in October 1979 when the “Physiological Society” was legally formed. However, thename was later changed to “The Physiological Society of Thailand”, (abbreviated as PST) in 1982.
The objectives of PST are to: i) support teachers in physiology and related disciplines; ii)
promote research and advancement of Physiological Sciences; iii) disseminate knowledge andserve as a platform for continuing education for the members; iv) facilitate social interactions andunity among physiologists and their related scientists; and v) be a center for co-ordinations andcollaborations with international organizations. The governing body of PST comprises 4 executive
committees including the president, secretary-general, treasurer and registrar, and 5 ordinary
members as representatives from different institutions. The committee is appointed from generalelection at the annual meeting, and has a term of 2 years.
The Current Committee of the Physiological Society of Thailand:
Associate Professor Upa Kukongviriyapan
Associate Professor Terdthai Tong-un
Assistant Professor Roongtawan Supabphol
Assistant Professor Wattana Watanapa
Associate Professor Vitoon Saengsirisuwan
Associate Professor Phronprom Yoysungnoen
Associate Professor Thamolwan Suanarunsawat
Assistant Professor Anusorn Lungkaphin
Assistant Professor Pasakorn Watanatada

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President
Secretary
Treasurer
Registrar
MemberMemberMemberMemberMember

The Advisory Board Committee of the Physiological Society of Thailand
Professor Chumpol Pholpramool
Professor Pawinee Piyachaturawa
Associate Professor Supatra Lohsiriwat
Associate Professor Prasong Siriviriyakul
Professor Duangporn Werawatganon
When and how PST joined FAOPS
In 1984, Professor Dr. Thirayudh Glinsukon and Professor Dr. Chumpol Pholpramool took
the office of PST as the President and Secretary-General, respectively. They envisaged thebenefits of exchanges of information and especially collaborations among physiologists in theregion and decided to organize the first meeting of physiologists in Asian and Oceanic countries.
It took the PST for almost 2 years in the preparation for hosting the international conference. This
includes contacting and persuading leading physiologists to join the meeting. Perhaps, one of thekeys to success of the meeting was the idea to set up an international organization for physiologists
in the region. So, PST successfully organized the 1st Meeting of the Asian and OceanianPhysiological Societies in Bangkok, Thailand during November 26-29, 1986. We may claim thatthe meeting was a grand success. It gave most participants a good and impressive memory of bothscientific and social atmospheres. Beside several scientific programs taken part by many
renowned physiologists such as Sir John Eccle, Prof. Masao Ito, Prof. Erwin Neher and manyothers, a business session was set up for the discussion on the formation of the Federation of the
Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS) by representatives from physiology
societies in the region. There was a consensus that the federation should be formed and PST took
the lead in the foundation of FAOPS. In addition, Prof. Dr. Chumpol Pholpramool was appointed
as a key person to set up FAOPS (see the “Foundation of FAOPS” for further details).
PST current activities
PST has always aimed to support teaching and research in physiology and related subjects
among its members and related academic societies. We also have been a central point of contact,
coordination, and exchange of knowledge in physiology with local and overseas educational
institutions. So the PST current activities include:
•
•
•
•
•

•
•

Annual meeting on Physiological and Biomedical Sciences which includes academic,
cultural and unity supporting activities.
Annual training and workshop on different hot topics of Physiological and Biomedical
Sciences.
Publication of the Journal of Physiological and Biomedical Sciences, online biannually.
Publication of Newsletter, in trimester fashion, reporting local and international meeting
activities as well as promotion of career and news from individual members.
Facilitation for all medical schools in Thailand to join any international activities such as
the annual Inter-Medical School Physiology Quiz at the University of Malaya, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia.
Providing awards to graduate students and young scientists for their outstanding
presentations at the PST annual meetings.
Provision of funding, total or partial, for our members to join any international meetings
especially as a speaker or representative.

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•
•

Encouraging an opportunity to host any international Physiological and Biomedical
Sciences Congress.
Supporting the website of PST, which contains information about the history of society,regulations, membership, organization, and its activities, as well as journal and newsletter.

45th Physiological Society of Thailand Annual Meeting
December 6-8, 2017, Khon Kaen, Thailand.

36th Physiology and Pathophysiology Annual Training and Workshop
May 21-23, 2018, Bangkok, Thailand.
Important achievements of PST•••

Serving as a professional society for active physiologists from various educational
institutions all over the country.
Organizing the Annual Meeting of the PST since 1972. On a rotating basis, the Annual
Meeting is hosted by the educational institutions from every region of the country. The
meeting includes keynote sessions featuring national and international guest speakers,
plenary and symposia sessions, oral and poster sessions. PST provides a number of awards
for the best oral and poster presentations given by graduate students.
Providing the Physiology and Pathophysiology Training Course starting from 1983 until
present, with cooperation of the educational institutions in the country.

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•

•
•

-

Establishing and publishing an online peer-reviewed biannual journal. The journal
officially names Journal of Physiological and Biomedical Sciences (http://www.jpbs.org/index.php).
Publishing a Newsletter, in trimester fashion.
Hosting international physiological congresses;
1st AOPS Congress which was held with grand success in Bangkok during November 2629, 1986. There were almost 300 participants from 17 countries, with many renowned
physiologists including Sir John Eccle, Erwin Neher, Masao Ito, John Hubbard, and John
Young to name a few.

1st AOPS Congress, November 26-29, 1986, Bangkok, Thailand.

1108th FAOPS Congress which was held with again great success in Bangkok during November 2225, 2015. There were nearly 600 participants from 27 countries, with 3 Nobel laureates, interesting
lectures and symposia, including nearly 400 oral and poster presentations.

8th FAOPS Congress, November 22-25, 2015, Bangkok, Thailand.
Contributions to physiology in this region
The PST encourages its institutional members in the country to organize an international
conference in physiological and biomedical sciences, and invites physiologists from many
countries, especially from the Southeast Asian Countries to participate in the conference. In
addition, PST promotes its member to join any international activities relating to physiology. To
strengthen the discipline of physiology in Thailand, the International Graduate Program in
Physiology has been set up in many universities in Thailand. The study program also provides
scholarships and research funding for physiology staff from neighboring countries.
Contact Address: The Physiological Society of Thailand, Department of Physiology, Faculty of
Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, 2 Prannok Road, Bangkok-Noi, Bangkok 10700,
Thailand. Tel: (+66) 2419 7577 E-mail: pst.secretary@gmail.com Website: http://www.pst.or.th/111

APPENDIX112

FAOPS CONSTITUTION (Revised 2011)
FEDERATION OF THE ASIAN AND OCEANIAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETIESARTICLE I: Name and Seal
I (1). The Federation shall be known as THE FEDERATION OF THE ASIAN AND
OCEANIAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETIES and shall have an abbreviation as FAOPS.
I (2). The Federation shall have a seal which consists of the device of a circle with the letters
FAOPS arranged inside a map showing only contours of Asia and Oceania in the centersurrounded by the words “FEDERATION OF THE ASIAN AND OCEANIANPHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETIES 1990” arranged within the perimeter.
I (3). The legal seat of the Federation is at the Secretariat Office.
ARTICLE II: Purposes
The purposes of the Federation are exclusively scientific, educational, literary, and no other,and in furtherance of only those purposes, the particular business and objectives of said Federation
shall be;(a) to encourage the advancement of the physiological Sciences,(b) to facilitate the exchange and dissemination of knowledge in the field of physiologicalsciences and related fields,(c) to foster and encourage research in the field of physiological sciences in Asia and Oceania,(d) to promote the Congress of the Federation of the Asian and Oceanian PhysiologicalSocieties (FAOPS Congress),(e) to promote such other measures as will contribute to the development of physiologicalsciences in Asia and Oceania.
ARTICLE III: Composition of the Federation
III (1). The Federation shall be composed of member of organizations which in turn may bephysiological societies or other societies of scientists in related fields. Groups of physiologists
still unestablished as organization in Asian and Oceanic countries are also eligible formemberships provided that their applications are approved by the General Assembly.
III (2). The Federation shall have a General Assembly which is its deliberative body and shallbe composed of a Council and delegates, which are representatives of member societies.
ARTICLE IV: Membership
IV (I). The Federation shall consist of the following members;– regular members– associate members113

– supporting members– honorary members
IV (2). Regular and associate members are physiological societies or other societies of related
fields, and group of physiological scientists in Asian and Oceanic countries. Each regular member
shall pay annual dues at a rate determined by every four years by the General Assembly uponrecommendation by the Council.
Associate members shall pay a nominal due as determined by the Council. They may send
observers without votes to the meeting of the General Assembly.
IV (3). Supporting members are commercial companies, foundations or other bodies who wish
to contribute financially to the Federation.
Membership will be obtained by invitation from the President or the Secretary and uponrecommendation of the Council. A supporting member shall pay an annual subscription to theFederation at the amount determined by the Council.
IV (4). Honorary members are individuals who have made outstanding contribution tophysiological sciences and to the objectives and the work of the Federation. Upon
recommendation of the Council an individual may be elected Honorary member by a two-third
majority votes of the delegates to the General Assembly.
ARTICLE V: General Assembly
V (1). The membership of the General Assembly shall consist of delegates appointed by eachregular member; the officers of the Federation and the other members of Council. In addition todischarging such duties as may be prescribed by the Constitution and By-Laws of the Federation,
the General Assembly shall act as an advisory body in matters pertaining to the generalmanagement of the Federation.
V (2). The number of Delegates representing a regular member shall be related to the numberof physiologists represented by the regular member as set forth in the By-Laws. The number ofphysiologists claimed by a member is subject to review by the General Assembly.
V (3). The President and Secretary of the Federation shall be the Chairman and Secretary,
respectively, of the General Assembly.
V (4). There shall be regular meetings of the General Assembly at such times as the Congressof the Federation shall meet. In any session of the General Assembly, one third of the delegatesshall constitute a quorum.
V (5). The term of a Delegate to the General Assembly shall be determined by the member
society which he (she) represents and the term of each Delegate shall be considered continuing
until a new Delegate is appointed by the member societies of the Federation. The appointment of
a new Delegate should be reported to the Secretary at least two months in advance of the meetingof the General Assembly.
V (6). Decision in the following matters requires a two-thirds majority of the General
Assembly:a) admission of members,114b) expiration of membership,c) changing the Constitution or By-Laws,d) adopting a new Constitution or By-Laws,
V (7). Selection of the location for a FAOPS Congress shall be determined by majority voteof the General Assembly. This decision can be altered by Council only in case of an emergency
occurring between meetings of the General Assembly or when there is evidence that the hostsociety or country is unable to support the Congress.
ARTICLE VI: Council
VI (1). The Council, to be elected by the General Assembly, shall be composed of twelve
thirteen (amended 25.09.2016) individuals, all of whom shall be members of societies
representing regular members of the Federation. However, the first Council shall be nominated.
Five of the eleven individuals shall be the officers of the Federation.
VI (2). With the exception of the officers, there shall be no more than one member of theCouncil from any one society. The elected Council members shall be elected as individuals andnot as society or national representatives. Council members are not, therefore, entitled to nominate
others to represent them or vote for them in their absence.
VI (3). As the legal representative of the Federation, the Council shall have, hold andadminister all the property, funds, and affairs of the Federation. With the exception of theSecretary and Treasurer, the Council members shall take office immediately after the election.
VI (4). The term of office shall be for four years and no Council member may serve more than
two consecutive terms, except that they may serve a third term if elected as an officer.
VI (5). The Council may recommend appropriate action in matters reserved under V(6) forfinal decision by the General Assembly.
VI (6). There shall be a regular meeting of the Council at the same time as the FAOPS
Congress shall meet. Additional meetings, to be called special meetings, may be convened by theofficers at any time. A special meeting must be called on written demand of the majority of theCouncil members.
VI (7). The Council shall fill any vacancies occurring on the Council between meetings of theGeneral Assembly, and the individuals so appointed by the Council shall serve for the unexpired
term of the individuals whose position they have filled. The individuals filling the vacancy may
be elected to one additional term on the Council.
ARTICLE VII: Officers
VII (1). The officers of the Federation shall be a President, a Past-President, a First-andSecond-Vice Presidents, a Treasurer, and a Secretary. These officers, except the Past-President
and Second-Vice President, shall be elected by a majority vote of the General Assembly.
VII (2). The Past-President shall be the President whose term is expired and/or, by the rule,cannot be renewed. The term of the Past-President is four years.
VII (3). The Second-Vice President shall be the President, or the Chairman of the localorganizing committee, of the host society for the next Congress.
115VII (4). The duties of the officers shall be such as usually pertain to the offices they hold and,in addition, any other duties as may be assigned by the General Assembly or Council.
VII (5). The First-Vice President shall fulfill the duties of the President should the President
become unable to discharge them. Should the First-Vice President be unable to function as
President, the Second-Vice President should fulfill these duties.
VII (6). The officers shall be elected for a term of four years, and shall not be eligible for morethan two consecutive terms. An officer appointed to fill a vacancy occurring between meetings ofthe General Assembly shall hold office for the unexpired term and may be elected one more term.
VII (7). Consecutive service as an ordinary member of the Council and as an officer shall not
exceed 12 years. When either a Treasurer and/or Secretary are elected by the General Assembly,
their predecessors shall continue in office until 31 December next after the election, unless theGeneral Assembly shall decide otherwise.
Amendment (25.9.2016)
President upon completing his/her term could be appointment as the Past president byagreement at the General Assembly even if his/her term in the council has exceeded the maximum
12 years.
ARTICLE VIII: Commissions
Council shall recommend the establishment of Commissions dealing with specific aspects ofphysiological sciences, subject to the approval of the General Assembly. The duties of suchcommissions shall be as set forth in the By-Laws.
ARTICLE IX: Other Associations
The Federation shall endeavour to be closely associated with the International Union of
Physiological Sciences.
ARTICLE X: Finances
X (1). Each regular member shall pay annual dues to the Federation at a rate determined every
four years by the General Assembly upon recommendation by Council.
X (2). Any constituent member which fails to pay annual dues for two consecutive years shallbe warned by the Treasurer and its delegates shall by that fact be thereupon deprived of the rightto vote. Any constituent member whose subscription is in arrears for three years shall be reportedby the Treasurer to the next meeting of Council, and the termination of the membership shall beconsidered by the Council.
X (3). In the event a member should resign or cancel its membership, or be requested on thevote of the General Assembly to resign, or its membership is terminated by article X(2), suchfunds received from that member as are allocable to the current or former years shall be retainedby the Federation.
X (4). The financial year of the Federation shall be from January 1 to December 31 inclusive.
All memberships shall be renewable and dues payable as of January 1. All new members shall be
liable for their dues for the ensuing year on the first day of January after their election.
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X (5). If necessary, the Federation may provide a partial financial support as seed money topromote the organization of its Congress. This decision shall be made by the Council.
X (6). In event of dissolution or termination of the Federation, title to and possession of all theproperty of the Federation shall pass forthwith to such organization dedicated to similar purposes
and the General Assembly of the Federation shall deem best qualified to carry on the functions of
the Federation.
ARTICLE XI: Dissolution
The Federation shall be dissolved by the General Assembly. The decision of which requires a
two-thirds majority of the quorum constituting two-thirds of the regular members.
ARTICLE XII:The above constitution shall become effective with the formation of the Federation at theSecond Congress of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies in November 1990.
BY-LAWS
ARTICLE I: Elections
I (1). A Nominating Committee, which consists of not less than 5 members, shall be appointed
by Council not less than 6 months in advance of the meeting of the General Assembly.
I (2). The Nominating Committee shall propose a list of candidates, one for each position on
Council (including officers), having ensured that each nominee is willing to serve. This list should
be distributed to every member of the General Assembly at least 2 months in advance of themeeting.
I (3). The names of additional candidates shall be added to the list if their nomination isapproved by a majority vote of the Delegates present at the General Assembly.
ARTICLE II: Meetings
II (1). At least two months in advance of a meeting of the General Assembly or the Council,
the Secretary shall notify society members of the Federation or the individual members of theCouncil, of the date and place of such a meeting, and such notice shall further set forth a proposed
agenda of the meeting.
II (2). Delegates not appointed at least one month in advance of the meeting of the General
Assembly must be approved by majority vote of the General Assembly before they are entitled tovote.
II (3). Unless specifically provided otherwise in the Statutes, one-third of delegates at theGeneral Assembly, of the Council, and of the Executive Committee shall constitute a quorum, andthe decision made by these bodies shall be by simple majority of the members present and entitledto vote. In case of a tie vote, there will be a second vote. The Chairman of the meeting shall havea vote, and a further (casting) vote when there is a second tie.
ARTICLE III: Number of Delegates

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:

The number of Delegates to the General Assembly shall be determined by the following rules
for up to 100 physiologists 1 delegate
for 101-300 physiologists 2 delegatesfor 301-600 physiologists 3 delegatesfor 601-1000 physiologists 4 delegatesfor 1001 or more physiologists 5 delegates

ARTICLE IV: Commissions
IV (1). The Council shall appoint a chairman of each commission to serve for four years,
renewable. The Chairman shall, in turn, select members of the commission with adequate
international representation subject to the approval of Council. Such commissions shall assist theOrganizing Committee of a Congress in the generation of the Congress program and shall fulfill
the aims and objectives of Commissions as defined by the Council.
IV (2). The Federation shall provide initial organizational expenses and sustaining fundings.
The funds in possession of such commission shall be the property of the Federation and shall be
accounted for annually.
ARTICLE V: Finances
V (1). When the Federation provides a partial financial support to its Congress, a return of theseed money from the organizer is required provided that a surplus is made.
V (2). The Federation shall receive 5 per cent of the registration fee of its Congress from theorganizer.
ARTCLE VI: Admission of Members
VI (1). A qualified candidate for membership shall submit a letter of intent to the Secretary,
who in turn recommends to the Council for admission.
VI (2). Admission of all categories of members by the Council shall be reported to the General
Assembly at its regular meeting.
ARTICLE VII: Expiration of Memberships
VII (1). Memberships shall be terminated by;
1. a) failures to pay annual dues for three consecutive years, except the Council
recommend otherwise;
2. b) a letter of resignation by the member submitted to the Secretary.
VII (2). Termination of all categories of membership shall be recommended by the Council to
the General Assembly for approval.
LISTS OF MEMBERSHIP
Regular Members
1. The Australian Physiological Society (AuPS)
2. The Chinese Association for Physiological Sciences (CAPS)
3. The Federation of Indian Physiological Societies (FIPS)
4. The Iranian Physiology and Pharmacology Society (IPPS)
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5. The Israel Society of Physiology and Pharmacology (ISPP)
6. The Japanese Physiological Society (JPS)
7. The Korean Physiological Society (KPS)
8. The Malaysian Society of Pharmacology and Physiology (MSPP)
9. The Physiological Society located in Taipei, China (PSC)
10. The Physiological Society of New Zealand (PSNZ)
11. The Physiological Society of Thailand (PST)
12. The Physiology Association of United Arab Emirate (PUAE)
Associate Members
13. The Indonesian Physiological Society (IPS)
14. The Physiology & Biochemistry Subsection Myanmar Medical Association (PBMMA)
15. The Physiological Society of Pakistan (PSP)
16. The Physiological Society of the Philippines (PSPh)
17. The Physiology Society of Sri Lanka (PSSL)
18. The Physiological Society of Vietnam (PSV)
History of the Foundation of FAOPS
The initiative idea to formulate an international organization of physiologists in Asia andPacific was originated by Profs. Thirayudh Glinsukon and Chumpol Pholpramool, who were thenthe President and Secretary General of the Physiological Society of Thailand, respectively, when
the Thai society organized the 1Ist Congress of the Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies(AOPS) in Bangkok in November 1986. A consensus was reached by delegates from 11 nationalsocieties to join in an international body to be known as Federation of the Asian and OceanianPhysiological Societies (FAOPS), and Prof. Pholpramool was requested to prepare the draft of theConstitution and By-laws, which was later accepted at the time of IUPS Congress in Helsinki in
1989. At this meeting a nominating committee comprising Profs. M. Ito, B.K. Anand, J.I.
Hubbard, M.T. Lin, E-Up Chae and C. Pholpramool was appointed to propose candidates forcouncil members.
The third meeting of the delegates was held at the time of the 2nd AOPS Congress in New
Delhi in November 1990 when the present Constitution and By-Laws and the first Council wereapproved. FAOPS is, therefore, officially functioning as of November 1990.
List of the first FAOPS Council
Officers:
President M. Ito (Japan)
First-Vice President S.K. Manchanda (India)
Second-Vice President X.L. Yang (China)
Treasurer C.Y. Chai (Taipei, China)
Secretary C. Pholpramool (Thailand)Members:
J.I. Hubbard (New Zealand)
W.G. Kim (Korea)
F. Motamedi (Iran)
R. Rahamimoff (Israel)
H.J. Singh (Malaysia)
J.A. Young (Australia)119120