Vol. 22

March 2016

President’s note
Dear Members of FAOPS:First of all, I do wish you and all yourloved ones have a very happy,
healthy and prosperous lunar newyear of Monkey!
I am extremely honored to have been
elected to serve as the 16th president(2015-2019) of our society on the 8th
FAOPS Congress (FAOPS 2015 Congress) hosted by the
Physiological Society of Thailand on November 22–25, 2015 at
the Centara Grand at Central World Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand.
This Congress was a great meeting, there were 594 participantsfrom 26 countries to attend this congress. I would like to use
this opportunity to thank again Prof. Chumpol Pholpramool andhis colleagues of the Physiological Society of Thailand. Their
great effort made this Congress successful and became one of
the long lasting memories for participants.

I also would like to take this opportunity again to appreciate
Julie Y.H. Chan, Yasunobu Okada, BR Park, David Cook,
Harbindar J Singh and the other members of the 15th FAOPS
Council ( 2011 - 2015) for their great contribution for the FAOPS
development in their term.
As we may know, FAOPS was found in November,1990 in New
Delhi, India. FAOPS is a unique organization comprising ofcountries located in Oceania region and across the 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 physiological science research; and to promote allother local physiological science level of development. The
founding president is Dr. M. Ito, a famous neurophysiologicalscientist over the world. Under the great efforts of many leading
scientists of FAOPS council members, FAOPS is gradually
growing up and getting stronger. The Federation has 2 kinds ofmembers, that is official (regular) members and associate ones.
Nowadays, officially members, include Australia, China, Chinese
Taipei, Japan, India, Thailand, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Iran,
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ISSN 0858-4354

www.foaps.org.my

Inside this issue
President’s note

Israel, Korea, Malaysia, andInterview: Prof. V.
someassociate
members.
Mohan Kumar
Spanning over 25 years, oursociety has a long and rich FAOPS Council Meeting
historyofscientific and General Assembly in
Bangkokbreakthroughs,
technical
innovations and professional
Report of the 8th
development,
well-organized
FAOPS Congress
operations, and fruitful strategic
14th Inter-Medical
developments.
School Physiology Quiz

1-2
3-7

8

9-16

17
in Indonesia
But we should be aware that wehave a long way to go for the
Meeting calendar 2016 18-19
establishment
purposesof
FAOPS, and there are more difficult works to do. The mostcritical bottleneck problems to constraint FAOPS development
are the number of members, lack of funds and lack of vitality.
How to solve these problems? During the 16th FAOPS new
council meeting, we have discussed what we should do in ourterm. We have reached a consensus, in order to accelerate thedevelopment of FAOPS, we should carry out reform andinnovation. The following 8 issues should be done as soon as
possible.

1. Strengthen ties with non-official member states, increase thestrength of the development of members, and pay attention to
attract enterprises to become our members.
2. Strengthen academic communication between basic
physiological scientists and clinical scientists and strengthen thefrequency of academic conferences, supports the special
academic meetings, such as focusing on the translational
medicine or precise medicine, andtraining courses organized by the
EditorMember States, and to promotescientific and research cooperation
Saeed Semnanian
between Member States scientists.
Editorial board
3. Strengthen education and training to
Hossein Azizi
promote the development of regional
physiological discipline.
Masoumeh Ghaemi
S. Mohammad Ahmadi
Zeinab Fazlali
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President’s note
4. Strengthen the construction of FAOPS website, run well thesociety’s publication - Newsletter, to explore the possibility tocreate the FAOPS official magazine, enhance the cohesion of thesociety.
5. Strengthen the learning of FAOPS history, cultural heritageand propaganda, and to improve the influence of the society.
Start the editing work of the society history books, and thebiography of the outstanding members who have madeimportant contributions to the development of the world's
physiology, in order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of theestablishment of FAOPS.
6. Strengthen the funds raised. Through the establishment of
FAOPS development foundation, to attract charitable funds andcorporate funds for the relief of developing countries
membership fees and support the development of the society.
7. Strengthen the cultivation for mid-young talents. Set up thefamous scientist or a corporate naming FAOPS Research awards
for Scientists and Young Scientist Award to promote thediscovery and construction of mid-young talents.
8. Strengthen the communication and cooperation with the Asia
Oceanic regional, international organization 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 researchand production.

In order to promote the smooth development of the above 8tasks, the first council meeting of The 16th FAOPS has decided
to set up the following 5 subcommittees, that are: Organization
subcommittee,
Education
subcommittee,
Research
subcommittee, Finance subcommittee and International liaison
subcommittee. I do hope our members may see some results or
benefit from their work.
We have much to do in 2016 to ensure the continuing
development of our society. There are 3 main activities. May
you find out one you like to join?

Dear friends, we live in a fast-paced world. Our knowledge,
technological development and growth is increasingly linked toour ability to engage with multidisciplinary peers from all over
the world. We also find ourselves in direct competition withother professional societies and entities. We also facechallenges in our membership development, continued
education and societal outreach and so on. We should ask andanswer the question, what can FAOPS members do for theSociety and, in turn, what can the Society do for its members? Infact, these challenges are also our opportunities! To our current
members, I would like to thank you for being part of the FAOPS
family. If you are not a member yet, I invite you to join us, and I
promise you will benefit from being part of the new FAOPS.
Over my term, hopefully, I will keep you informed. Please don’t
hesitate to contact me by e-mail (xmwang@ccmu.edu.cn) if you
have any suggestions and ideas for building and improving ourSociety. I am looking forward to your active participation in ourefforts to make a difference to our shared future.

Thank you all for my opportunity to serve for FAOPS. I will do
my best to make the job well done.
The President, FAOPS

Dr. Xiaomin Wang
February 2016

Capital Medical University,
Youanmen, Beijing 100096, China
E-mail: xmwang@ccmu.edu.cn

The internship (approximately 2 weeks) of NIPS, Japan. (https://www.nips.ac.jp/eng/graduate/internship.html )5th Tehran IBRO School will be hold in Apr 30- May 11, 2016
in Iran (http://ibro.info/events/applications-now-open-foribroaprc-5th-tehran-school-of-neuroscience)
2016 International Conference of Physiological Sciences(ICPS2016) to be held in the China National Convention Center,
Beijing on September 25-28, 2016. (http://www.pcoonline.com/icps2016).

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FAOPS interview: Prof. V. Mohan Kumar, India
First of all, I would
like to have a brief
introduction,e spec iallyy ou re duc a ti on(andpersonal) profile.

I was born in a lower
middle class family,
with two elder brothers and no sisters. I
was educated in a local government school,
where the medium of instruction was the
local language (Malayalam). The school had
a mixture of students coming from very
affluent homes, and also those from very
poor homes. While at school, I was moreinterested in sports and games rather thanin studies.
After graduating from a local college, I wasfortunate in getting admission for postgraduation in Physiology at Madras
Medical College in Chennai. I was again
fortunate in getting admission for PhD at
the All India Institute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS) at Delhi, and I got a faculty positionat the same department, immediately aftergetting PhD. I retired from there as
Professor and Head of the department of
Physiology, AIIMS. After superannuationfrom AIIMS, I was made Emeritus Scientist
by Council for Scientific & Industrial
Research (CSIR), Government of India &Indian Council for Medical Research(ICMR). With these distinctions received
from CSIR and ICMR I joined the “SreeChitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences& Technology (SCTIMST)” in Trivandrum,
which is a Centre of Excellence under
Government of India, where I am
continuing as Visiting Professor. At
SCTIMST, I established a Comprehensive
Centre for Sleep Disorders.
Please give detailed answers to thefollowing questions:
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What factors in yourinfluence you most?

generallife

Luck guided my destiny. I am a great
admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, and I was
greatly influenced by some of theteachings in Bhagawat Gita. My parents
had taught me to do my work, to the bestof my ability, without thinking about thereturns that I may or may not get. I havealways admired people who feel forothers, though I have never been able toemulate their example.
How your family has influenced yourscientific work? How your family has
been influenced by your scientific work?

My father had always believed that I will
be a great scientist one day. Though I
cannot claim that I am a great scientist,
my greatest sorrow is that he did not live
long enough see my achievements. He
would have been the proudest man in theworld if he had been alive when I was
making progress in my career. He diedwhen I was a young faculty member.
Talking about influence in scientific work, I
should give due credit to my wife fortaking care of home when I was spending
excess time in the laboratory. She also
helped me with the preparation of myscientific manuscripts, especially during
the earlier stages of my scientific career.
As I did not have primary education in
English, I had a lot of difficulty in
expressing in English.
What factors influenced you the most in
deciding to be a physiologist?

It was destiny that brought me to
Physiology. I applied for post-graduationin Anatomy at Madras Medical College,
Chennai, India. During the interview,

there were professors of Anatomy,
Physiology and Biochemistry sitting acrossthe table, apart from other officials. They
asked me why I want to become an
Anatomist. I told them that I want tobecome a scientist. Next question waswhat scientific work that I want to do? A
few days earlier I had read an article aboutparthenogenesis. It had dealt with some
new finding that the growth anddevelopment of an unfertilized egg can beachieved by some external mechanicalstimulation. I told them about it. After theinterview, when the results wereannounced I found my name among thecandidates selected for Physiology.
When and in what area of study did you
start your career?

Research or thesis was not part of thecurriculum during my post-graduation.
After post-graduation in Physiology in
1968, I joined for my PhD at the
Department of Physiology, at All-India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in
New Delhi, which was an important centreof neuroscience research, right from itsvery inception. Coming from a place where
I had no exposure to research, I was
thrilled to see the research work going on
there. I was placed under Prof Anand and
Dr Chhina for my doctoral thesis work.
Their research interests were primarily
neural regulation of feeding. So I had nochoice but to work on the topic of theirinterest. Though I finished my PhD in three
years, fastest one at that time, myresearch works were never published.
After PhD I got a job as a Lecturer inEnvironmental Physiology. Though myheart was in neurophysiology of sleep,
there was no position available inneuroscience. A job at AIIMS is something

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FAOPS interview: Prof. V. Mohan Kumar, India
that one cannot think of refusing. So I continued to work in
Environmental Physiology for about five years, without producing
any worthwhile publication.
My frustration was so bad that I had thought of leaving AIIMS,
several times. But I could never gather enough courage to do thatfor several reasons. Though I had worked very hard, I was neverallowed to publish any paper, or submit any research project toany funding agency, for nearly seven years, even after I became afaculty member. As I had no publication to my credit, it wasdifficult for me to find a good place to work. It was at that time, I
had an offer from Prof Mancia in Milan, Italy, to do intracellular
recording from cortical neurons in his laboratory. Though the
fellowship was very meagre, not even enough to make both ends
meet, I grabbed the opportunity. That was also the first time that I
was going out of the country. I had to live in a non-air conditioned
attic in Milan, with atmospheric temperature going below zero forseveral days during winter. There I had my first scientificpublication in Brain Research in 1979.
Could you please describe in brief your laboratory including theenvironment, the staff, and the students regarding their degrees?

The sailing was not very smooth even when I retuned to India witha few good publications. Though I was technically qualified toaccept students, no student was allowed to join me by the head ofthe department. The students had to accept someone else as
guide, and I had to be contended to remain as co-guide. I had two
students with me, Sujit Sikdar and Neelam Gandhi, who wereregistered under someone else as guide, and myself as co-guide. In
spite of all the obstacles, I was able to get a research grant frommy own institute (AIIMS) for Rs. 10,000/- (US$ 150/-) per year for
two years. I was determined to utilise that money to purchase one
micromanipulator, and establish a laboratory to record from single
neurons. Micromanipulator was available from a company inGermany and another one from Japan. The German one was very
costly, but the one from Narishige, Japan was costing a little morethan Rs. 20,000/-, in Indian currency. At that time Prof Oomura,
the renowned neuroscientist from Japan, visited the department.
He took keen interest in the work that we were doing, and used tospend sleepless nights with us in the laboratory. He came to know
about my desire to purchase the micromanipulator, and the
difficulty that I was having in terms of available money at thatpoint in time. When Prof Oomura went back to Japan, he talked toNarishige Company and arranged them to sell half the

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micromanipulator during that year and the other half during thenext year. So, the micromanipulator became the first instrumentthat I purchased in my life. That it was the turning point in my life.
By then, I started publishing from India. With a few publications inhand, I started applying for extramural research projects from
ICMR and CSIR. I was fortunate in getting funding from them, andstarted accepting students as a full guide. After that there was nolooking back. I had several students and several publications.
These students actually made my career. I would not have become
what I am today but for them. It was extremely enjoyable for me
to work with such hard working, intelligent students. I can recallwith pleasure the long hours that I had spent with them in thelaboratory.
When the idea of becoming a scientist came to your mind forthe first time?

Though my father always believed that I will be a great scientist
one day, I never had any such dream in my younger days. As aschool boy, my greatest ambition was to become a good hockey
player or a tennis player. In spite of my sweaty hands (palmar
hyperhidrosis), I was fairly successful as a hockey player. I used tolove the cheering of crowd when I scored goals. But it all came to asudden end during my early college days, when I was almost bed
ridden for nearly a year with tuberculous pleurisy. After
recovering from the illness, when I went back to the play ground, I
realised that I cannot repeat my performance. There were nocheering from the crowd, and the silence from the gallery wasalmost killing. That forced me to leave games and startconcentrating on my studies. At that age and stage I never knew as
to what a scientist does, or how to become a scientist. All thesame time, during interviews etc, I also used to say that I want tobecome a scientist. Even now I do not know how to define ascientist. How is a scientist different from a good sculptor or apainter? Can we say scientist is one who publishes papers?
Probably not. So my honest admission is that the idea of
becoming a scientist never came to my mind.
How many hours a day do you work usually? Could you please
describe that how do you spend your working hours includingtime managing, education, meetings, lectures, travels andprofessional consulting?

Again, it is a difficult question to answer. In my younger days, I
used to spend much time in work. I used to love doing experimentswith my own hands. Even now I love working with my own hands.

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FAOPS interview: Prof. V. Mohan Kumar, India
My friends and students used to say that I have a good surgicalhand. Well, it is a God given gift, and I cannot claim any credit for
it. Anyway, that accounted for some amount of success in mycareer. I always plan my activities well ahead of time, whether it isteaching, meetings, or travels. I have never counted the numberof hours that I worked. Eating, sleeping and working occupied myentire day (and night). At times I used feel that I was not getting
enough sleep. I used to feel guilty, when I spent time watching TV,
or reading newspapers and novels. As I am a slow reader, I used totake more time than others in reading scientific articles. I always
believed in doing things properly. If I cannot do it properly I will
not do it.
What are the remarkable characteristics of a distinguishedscientist?

As I had expressed earlier, I do not know how to define a scientist.
But there are definitely certain qualities that a person should haveto be a successful scientist in today’s world. He should be
intelligent and hard working, and should be very good at humanresource management. Above all, he/she should be lucky enoughto be at the right place, in right time, with the right kind of people
above and below him/her.
What are the qualities that discriminate a prominent andsuccessful scientist from the less successful ones?

Achievements of a successful scientist are certainly much morethan many others. But that does not mean that all those who are
not very prominent and successful have fewer achievements. For
every scientist given distinction, there would be several others
who are equally competent, but not recognized. These unsung
scientists may not be lucky enough to be at the right place, in righttime, with the right kind of people above and below him/her.
More often they are not very good at human resource
management.
What advice would you like to give the young scientists for their
future careers?

I am not a great person to give advice to future generation. I canonly share some thoughts from my personal life. If you havechosen a scientific profession, pursuit of science is not only yourwork. You should consider it as your religion. There is happiness
when one does some work with honesty and sincerity. The
happiness that one gets at the end of a successful experiment or a
project is immeasurable. Happiness that one gets after achieving a
Nobel Prize is probably less than that. So, if you have enjoyed yourwork, and if you are unable (or disinterested) in projecting
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yourself, and not received laurels, you have lost nothing. On theother hand, if Nobel Prize winner did not enjoy when he/she madethe discoveries, then he had achieved nothing in life.
What do you consider as your most important studies andcontribution to physiology?

My research studies on “Neurophysiology of Sleep” started after I
worked for a year in Milan, Italy, in 1977 with Prof. Mancia, who
was the disciple of Morruzi. I established the sleep researchlaboratory in the Department of Physiology, of AIIMS, New Delhi,
India and I had contributed towards the understanding of theneural regulation of sleep. The first fully telemetrically recorded
animal sleep recoding laboratory, was established by me at the
department of Physiology, AIIMS. I dedicated it to the memory ofProf Baldev Singh, the famous Neurologist, whose close personalrapport attracted me to sleep research.
Our holistic approach to the understanding of the brain function
revealed the importance of the preoptic-basal forebrain in several
visceral functions including sleep, reproduction
andthermoregulation. We also studied the neurotransmitters involvedin these interactions. The role of the noradrenergic system in the
preoptic-basal forebrain area was the focus of our study forseveral years. We were pioneers in undertaking neuraltransplantation and magnetic resonance imaging in experimental
animals. Based on several years of work, I concluded that thenormal sleep is an auto-regulated global phenomenon, and thatsleep and wakefulness result from the collective action of
hundreds of neurons with oscillating membrane potential.
How can we establish better links between basic and clinicalsciences?

I don’t believe that basic sciences and clinical sciences are different
disciplines. There are no compartments in science. Medical sciencecannot grow unless there is input from other sciences. Medical
scientists cannot make significant contribution, unless they havesome knowledge of other branches of science. That may be thereason why many major contributions in medical science are madeby people who started off their careers in other branches ofscience. Some people view this subject in a different way, ie how
to establish better links between basic scientists and clinicians.
There is nothing wrong in this thinking, as constructive
cooperation is always good. Some basic science departments haveestablished some laboratory facilities in their departments, which
provide service to the patients coming to the clinical departments.

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FAOPS interview: Prof. V. Mohan Kumar, India
There is nothing wrong in it, but you are not doing any service
either to the basic science or to the clinical science. You are only
trying to justify your existence. On the other hand, if you make useof the clinical material coming to you, to address some importantscientific question, then you are doing a good job.
What is your idea about allocating awards in general and which
one have been the most truly emotive for you?

Let me first give my answer to the second part of the question. The
most truly emotive award was the first award that I received, ie
B.K.Anand Research Prize in Physiology by the Association of
Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India for the year 1980 for
our paper published in Brain Research (Kumar VM, Sikdar SK,
Chhina GS, Singh B. Sensitivity of ventromedial hypothalamic units
to rostral and caudal brain stem reticular inputs. Brain Res. 1980
Sep 8;196(2):530-5). It was truly emotive for several reasons. It
was my first paper based on the work done in India. This paper isbased on the thesis work done for partial fulfilment of MSc degreeof my first student SK Sikdar. Sikdar was insistent that the paper
should have my name first. Though I felt embarrassed, I accepted
it with a sense of guilt. I have not got over it even today.
Coming to my idea about allocating awards in general, it certainly
helps one to prove his/her credentials. Some people go out of theway to get them. That is not good. This leads me to narrate anincident in my life. I almost received an award in 1978. That would
have been my first award. I presented a paper on “Intracellular
recordings from cortical neurons” during the annual conference of
Neurological Society of India held at Trivandrum in 1978. This was
based on my work done at Milan, Italy in the lab of Prof Mancia.
My paper was selected as the best paper presented during theconference. I did not know about it at that time. The decision of
selection committee for best paper award was placed before the
Executive Committee of Neurological Society of India, before
announcing the award publicly. Professor Baldev Singh who
happened to be present in the meeting opposed the decision of
the selection committee on the grounds that the work was done ina lab outside India. Prof. Baldev Singh was one of the founder
members of Neurological Society of India. He was one of the mostrespected senior neurologists of the country, and no one would
ever say a word against him at that time. Here I should introduce
to you the great personality called Professor Baldev Singh. Though
he started the department of Neurology at AIIMS in 1965, he left
neurology and joined the department of Physiology, AIIMS as
Emeritus Professor, to pursue his research interest. I was greatly
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attracted by the personality and attitude of Baldev Singh. Looking
back, I even wonder whether it was my interest inneurophysiology, or my admiration for Professor Baldev Singh,
which took me to sleep research.
Coming back to the story, when I reached back Delhi after the
conference, Professor Baldev Singh called me to his room and told
me what happened during the Executive Committee meeting of
Neurological Society of India at Trivandrum. I felt happy to knowthat my paper was selected as the best paper. More than that myadmiration for this great man only increased. He had the courageand conviction to oppose, on principle, an award being given to
one of his own loved junior colleagues. He told the story to theother faculty members of the department. But they were
extremely angry. One senior faculty member called me aside andtold me “Dr. Baldev Singh is a b----. He pretends to be your well
wisher. How can he stand in the way of your getting an award?” I
was shocked to find this kind of reaction from the members of thedepartment. I was dumfounded and I could not say anything to her
at that time as she was a senior faculty member. But I was not able
to forgive her for using such bad language against such a saintly
person as Professor Baldev Singh.
Now coming back to the point in discussion, did I lose anything by
not getting that award in Trivandrum? A big no is the answer. On
the other hand this incident drove home one important lesson in
my life. It is really immaterial as to what you accomplish andpublish while working in a foreign land. What is important is what
you do and accomplish in your own country, especially if you arefrom an under developed country.
I have seen several senior scientists canvassing, influencing andeven arguing with the members of judging panel for an award fortheir students. This is a very shameful thing for any teacher to do,but more disgusting fact is that many students are extremely
grateful to their teachers for influencing the judges for getting
them the awards. Is it worth getting awards in this manner? Such atendency among a few people brings down the credibility of theawards.
What is the most important scientific challenge you would liketo answer?

Now, my days are over. I cannot attempt to answer any scientificchallenge at this stage in my life. But there is no harm in dreaming.
Sleep regulation is a mystery, and it was a dream for me to unravel
this mystery.
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FAOPS interview: Prof. V. Mohan Kumar, India
Let’s have a flash back to the time of your early education, in this case did you choose your present field of study again?

As I had stated earlier, I never chose my career. Destiny brought me to Physiology. If the destiny brings me again to this p osition, I willagain choose to work on sleep regulation.
What are the most important questions you like to be asked about? If there is any, please talk about them.

What concerns me always is the non-recognition of ‘not so fortunate’ scientists, with good scientific achievements. Many a times,
differences in the achievements of a successful scientist and not so successful ones are very subtle, or even non-existent. More often, it is
the recognition that one gets, or does not get, that differentiates a successful and a less successful scientist. Unfortunately, it is theinability (or disinterest) to project oneself that lead to non-recognition of many less fortunate ones. While showering praises on thosegreat achievers, let us not look down upon those hard working non-achievers.

Prof. V. Mohan Kumar with his wife during the ceremony to honor
him with Life Time Achievement Award by the Association of
Physiologists and Pharmacologists of India at Jodhpur, Rajasthan,India during November 2015

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PAGE 7

FAOPS Council Meeting and General Assembly in Bangkok
The FAOPS Council met on 22 November 2015 at Centara Grand

Bids for the 2023 FAOPS Congress from Chinese Physiology Society,

Hotel in Bangkok. Amongst matters discussed included reports

Korean Physiology Society and Physiology Society of Iran werefrom the office bearers, the Organising Chairman of the 8 th FAOPS

presented. Following a closed ballot the Physiology Society of Iranth

Congress, the 9 FAOPS Congress (2019) Organising Committee,
Kobe, Japan, and the nominating committee. In addition, the issueof overdue membership payments was also discussed.

The

Officer’s reports from 2011-2015 were presented and accepted

was selected as host for the 2023 FAOPS Congress.
The nominations for membership of the Council for the term 2015

– 2019 were presented by a member of the nomination committee
approved at the General Assembly

unanimously by the Council members. Members were informedthat FAOPS income up to October 2015 was USD 9,485.95 and theexpenditure was USD 28,271.55 (this includes USD 20,000 support

FAOPS Council 2015 – 2019thprovided to 8 FAOPS Congress). The Cash Balance at OctoberPresident: Xiao-Min Wang (China)

2015 was USD 58,289.33. Member societies were reminded tomake the necessary arrangements to settle the overdue payments

Past-President: Julie YH Chan (Taiwan)

as soon as possible. A request from the Federation of Indian

1st Vice President: Javad Mirnajafi-Zadeh (Iran)Physiological Societies (FIPS) for a waiver of their outstanding

2nd Vice President: Yoshiro Kubo (Japan)

payment from 2004 - 2015 was discussed. In its appeal, thepresident of FIPS had indicated that FIPS had been non-functional
between 2004 and 2012. After a lengthy discussion, the Council

Secretary-General: Harbindar Jeet Singh (Malaysia)
Treasurer: Anuwat Dinudom (Australia)

agreed that FIPS should pay all dues accrued from 2012 onwards.

A skype discussion was held with the President of IUPS and theCouncil Members:

need for more collaborative activities between FAOPS and IUPS in
the promotion of teaching and research in physiology in the region,

Suchinda Malaivijitnond (Australia)

and in particular the direction of physiology was discussed.

Chae Hun Leem (Korea)

Professor Arif Siddiqui (Pakistan) and Prof Mei-Ling Tsai (Taiwan)

Israel Sekler (Israel)

were entrusted the task of looking into ways of enhancing visibility
and efficiency of FAOPS and greater collaboration in the promotion

Arif Siddiqui (Pakistan)of teaching and research in physiology within the member

Shashi Bala Singh (India)

countries.

Colin H Brown (New Zealand)

A total of 28 delegates from member societies attended the

Mei-Ling Tsai (Taiwan)

General Assembly, which was held on 23 November 2015 at
Centara Grand Hotel in Bangkok. Office bearer’s reports were
presented and unanimously accepted and endorsed by thedelegates.

The decisions of the FAOPS Council meeting were

presented and endorsed by the delegates at the General Assembly.
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PAGE 8

Report of the 8th FAOPS Congress
The 8th FAOPS Congress (FAOPS 2015 Congress) was hosted by the Physiological Society of Thailand on November 22nd – 25th, 2015 at theCentara Grand at Central World Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand. In this 4-day event, we had 1 keynote lecture and 2 plenary lectures from Nobel
Laureates (Bert Sakman, Erwin Neher, and Aaron Ciechanover, respectively), 4 named lectures, 6 special lectures and 24 symposia. We also
had Teaching in Physiology Workshop which includes 2 keynote lectures, 2 special lectures and 4 symposia. All scientific programs werearranged such that 6 sessions ran in parallel each day.

We were able to receive a gracious kindness from Her Royal Highness Princess Soamsawali to preside over the opening ceremony of FAOPS
2015 on Sunday November 22nd. The local organizing committees, privilege sponsors, keynote, plenary, named and special lecturers had anhonorable opportunity to take a special group photograph with the Princess.
There were 376 abstracts submitted including 99 abstracts from invited speakers, 49 abstracts of young scientist award recipients (35 oral
and 14 poster presentations), 228 abstracts for general participants (45 oral and 183 poster presentations). The abstracts were published in
the Journal of Physiological Sciences with additional 5 full papers. All abstracts and full papers were strictly reviewed by experts in related
fields.
From our list, 594 participants from 26 countries registered to this congress. The number of registrants from each country ar e, inalphabetical order, as follows; Australia (11), Brazil (1), China (50), Egypt (1), France (2), Germany (9), Hong Kong (2), Hungary (1), India (3),Indonesia (12), Iran (17), Israel (2), Japan (130), Korea (25), Kuwait (1), Malaysia (12), Myanmar (16), New Zealand (1), Pakistan (1),Singapore (7), Sri Lanka (4), Taiwan (31), Thailand (238), Turkey (2), United Kingdom (2), and United States (13). We also had 24 nonregistered participants and 104 registered exhibitors (including 77 Thai and 27 foreigners). In total, we had 722 persons attended at the
FAOPS 2015 congress.
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We were able to get supports from many granting agents such as Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), Bangkok Bank ,Chaopraya University, Federation of Asian and Oceanian Physiological Societies (FAOPS), International Union of Physiological Sciences(IUPS), Journal of Physiological Sciences and 25 exhibitors.

There are many activities alongside the congress such as a FAOPS Council meeting on November 22nd, “the Japan night towards
FAOPS2019” held by the Japanese Physiological Society on November 23 rd, a General Assembly of FAOPS delegates on November 23rd, a
FAOPS New Council meeting and a Congress dinner on the River Cruise on November 24 th. On the last day of the event (November 25th),
the subsequent host for the FAOPS 2019 and the new council members of the FAOPS were announced at the closing ceremony. To invent a
new tradition of FAOPS congress, we had made a FAOPS flag, which will be exhibited at the congress site during its activity andpassed on from the present to the next host. The flag was then handover from the Physiological Society of Thailand to the
Physiological Society of Japan, the host of FAOPS 2019, at the conclusion of the FAOPS 2015 Congress.

We received a very good feedback from many participants who enjoyed and impressed for both scientific and recreation
activities during the congress and expressed their impressions that this congress will be one of the long lasting memories for
them.

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14th Inter-Medical School Physiology Quiz in Indonesia
Date: 29-30th of July, 2016
Venue: Faculty of Medicine Universitas Gadjah Mada and Grha Sabha Pramana Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Program Highlights

 Main quiz competition: written test and multiple phases of oral quiz
 Refresher course by Prof. Susan M. Barman, Ph.D (Professor of Neuroscience, Michigan State University; One of the Authors of Ganong’s
Medical Physiology) with the title of “The Role of The Brain in Sympathetic Activity and Blood Pressure”

 City Tour
 Cultural Night

Eligible Participants
All undergraduate university students are welcomed and invited to participate. One university team consists of a minimum of 3 to a
maximum of 5 student participants. The total number of participants is limited up to 70 teams.

Registration Fee* (per participant)
Early bird (USD 50): 1 September 2015 - 31 March 2016

Late registration (USD 65): 1 April - 1 May 2016
*Registration fee includes accommodation and food (for students).
*For accompanying lecturers, registration fee of USD 50 per person is mandatory. The
fee includes refresher course, food and transportation from listed hotels to venue.

Contact us:

Committee: imspq2016@gmail.com
Prof. Dr. Cheng Hwee Ming: hmingcheng@gmail.com
Facebook page: IMSPQ Indonesia 2016

Organized by:
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine Universiti Malaya, Malaysia

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Meeting Calendar 2016

http://www.physiology2016.org/

http://www.pptr2016.org/

http://www.feps.org/haber_detay.php

http://www.phycs.org/
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Meeting Calendar 2015

http://www.physiology2016.org/

http://www.iasp-pain.org/Yokohama16/

Student Application
 Pre– and post-graduate student applications: Students looking for physiologicalresearch and clinical positions abroad FAOPS newsletter intends to facilitate the exchange of pre and post-graduate

students within the Asian and Oceanic region. To facilitate the exchange, FAOPS
newsletter has opened a new category by the title: “Student application”
 Pre-and post-graduate students are entitled to email an application (free ofcharge) to FAOPS newsletter for participating in a scientific and/or clinical setting
abroad.
 Team leaders are invited to browse through these applications and contact thestudents by email to host a foreign student in their institute.

FAOPS e-newsletter
Telefax: +98 21 82884520

Email: faopsletter@gmail.com
ssemnan@modares.ac.ir

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