Prestigious Awards Recognizing Excellence in Physiological Research Announced

Rockville, Md. (Dec. 9, 2024)–The American Physiological Society (APS) is pleased to honor two exceptional member-researchers with the 2025 Physiology in Perspective: The Walter B. Cannon Award and the Henry Pickering Bowditch Award lectureships. These awards recognize the lifetime achievement of an established researcher and the physiological research excellence of an early-career researcher, respectively.

The Society’s executive cabinet announces George Brooks, PhD, FAPS, as the 2025 Physiology in Perspective Walter B. Cannon Award Lectureship recipient. This lectureship is the most prestigious award that APS bestows.

The executive cabinet has also announced Audrey J. Stone, PhD, as the 2025 Henry Pickering Bowditch Award lecturer. The lectureship is awarded to a regular APS member who is 42 or younger and eight years from the start of their first faculty or staff research scientist position beyond postdoctoral training. The recipient is recognized for original and outstanding accomplishments in the field of physiology.

This year’s awardees will each deliver a lecture at the American Physiology Summit in April 2025.

About the Recipients

George Brooks, PhD, FAPS, is a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at University of California, Berkley.  He is a longtime APS member who has produced decades of exercise physiology research. Brooks’ extensive body of research focuses on metabolic adjustments to exercise. His work has advanced the understanding of the pathways and controls of how lactate is produced and cleared before, during and after exercise, as well as after carbohydrate consumption. Lactate is a preferred fuel source, the major gluconeogenic precursor and a signaling molecule. This foundational research is valuable for improving health outcomes for patients with injuries and infections, including traumatic brain injury, heart failure and inflammatory conditions. Brooks previously presented the prestigious Adolph Distinguished Lecture for the Society’s Environmental & Exercise Physiology Section.

Brooks will speak at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 27, 2025, at the closing session of the 2025 American Physiology Summit. 

Audrey Stone, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at The University of Texas at Austin and has been a regular APS member since 2013 and student/trainee member since 2009. She is an exercise physiologist specializing in the autonomic control of circulation during exercise, with continuous funding from the NHLBI since 2019. Stone’s primary research focuses on the effects of type 1 and type 2 diabetes on the exercise pressor reflex. Her research group was the first to determine the exercise pressor reflex is exaggerated in type 1 diabetic rats and this response evolves as the disease progresses. They also determined that diabetes-induced inflammation contributes to exaggerated blood pressure responses during exercise in type 2 diabetes. Understanding the mechanisms behind these blood pressure spikes during exercise in individuals with compromised cardiovascular systems—who often use exercise as part of their treatment—is crucial for developing safe and effective therapeutic strategies for those with diabetes.

Stone will speak at the Summit on April 24, 2025, at 2:30 p.m.

“The Cannon and Bowditch award recipients embody the pinnacle of excellence in the field of physiology,” said APS President Tim Musch, PhD, FAPS. “Past Cannon award winners have conducted leading-edge research, addressing critical questions about life, health, and disease. Previous Bowditch lecturers, while being early in their careers, have demonstrated remarkable potential in their respective areas. On behalf of the APS members and the physiology community, I extend my congratulations to George and Audrey and look forward to their presentations at the American Physiology Summit.”

Physiology is a broad area of scientific inquiry that focuses on how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function in health and disease. The American Physiological Society connects a global, multidisciplinary community of more than 10,000 biomedical scientists and educators as part of its mission to advance scientific discovery, understand life and improve health. The Society drives collaboration and spotlights scientific discoveries through its 16 scholarly journals and programming that support researchers and educators in their work.