Wendy Hood, Chair (chair.dcpb@sicb.org); Jason Podrabsky, Past-Chair; Lisa Treidel, Secretary (secretary.dcpb@sicb.org); Danielle Levesque, Program Officer (dpo.dcpb@sicb.org); Jessie Karr, Student/Postdoctoral Representative (jkarr@umass.edu)

Updates from the DCPB Leadership

After 2 years of discussion, it’s time to cast your vote for the Division of Physiology (DPHYS) bylaws, transition plan, and election schedule. This will replace the bylaws of the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (DCPB) and the Division of Comparative Endocrinology (DCE) upon DPHYS becoming official. The Division of Physiology will officially be in place for the 2027 SICB meeting. Thank you all for your suggestions as we began to envision and plan for this merger. It’s exciting seeing this come to fruition. Please vote below.

In other news, we look forward to seeing many of you at the American Physiological Society Comparative Physiology meeting in Orlando, Florida, September 17-20. SICB has partnered with APS. Through this partnership, SICB members may register for this meeting at the APS member rate. You can learn more about the conference here: APS Comp Phys 2026.

We also want to let you know that Royal Society Publishing has recently published a theme issue of Philosophical Transactions B under the ‘Subscribe to Open’ 2026 initiative. The issue, Embracing Variability in Comparative Physiology: Why It Matters and What to Do with It, was compiled and edited by Gail D. Schwieterman, Emily A. Hardison, Chris M. Wood, and Warren Burggren. Articles are FREE to access at www.bit.ly/PTB1946. I’m sure this will be of interest to many of our members.

Whether productive, relaxing, or both, we hope your summer is everything you are hoping for. We look forward to seeing you all again in January in Pittsburgh, PA.

Wendy Hood, DCPB chair

Vote to create the Division of Physiology (DPHYS)!!!!

The time has come for you to cast your vote on the division bylaws to create a Division of Physiology (DPHYS). If supported by SICB membership, the Division of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry (DCPB) and the Division of Comparative Endocrinology (DCE) will be merged into a single division. You can view: 

• The proposed DPHYS divisional bylaws: https://sicb.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/SICB-DPHYS-BYLAWS_Final-1.pdf 
• The proposed DPHYS transition plan: https://sicb.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Division-of-Physiology-Transition-Plan_Final.docx.pdf 
• The proposed transition election schedule: https://sicb.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Transition-Election-Schedule_fixed.pptx.pdf

To vote on the merger, please use this link. 

 

SICB 2026

SICB 2026 in Portland, Oregon, was one for the books! Some of the highlights included:  

• There were over 200 contributed talks and posters highlighting exciting, field-advancing work in comparative physiology, biochemistry, and endocrinology. 
• The George Bartholomew award recognizes an early-career investigator for outstanding contributions to the fields of comparative and integrative physiology. This year’s Bartholomew award was given to Dr. Michael Moore, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado Denver. Dr. Moore’s work integrates physiology, ecology, and behavior in dragonflies to better understand the processes shaping species’ ecological limits and to predict how they will respond to climate change. We thank Sable Systems for their sponsorship and continued support of this honor.
• A joint social, hosted with the Division of Comparative Endocrinology (DCE) and the Division of Ecoimmunology and Disease Ecology (DEDE), celebrated both Dr. Michael Moore, the 2026 George Bartholomew awardee, and Dr. Catherine Marler, the 2026 Howard Bern Lecturer. There was a great turnout with tons of tasty appetizers and desserts!
• DCPB and DCE Student/Postdoctoral Affairs Committee representatives (Jessie Karr and Samuel Lane) also organized an in-person mentorship program. They paired up over 60 mentors and mentees who met up in person throughout the meeting. We are excited to continue supporting and growing this mentoring program at SICB 2027.

 

Best Student Presentation Winners 2026

We would like to congratulate the DCPB Best Student Presentation Winners of 2026! In addition, thanks to all our engaged judges who volunteered during the meeting! 

 

Best Oral Presentation Winner: Caroline Terry 

Caroline is a 5th-year PhD Candidate in Dr. Wes Dowd’s Marine Environmental Physiology Lab at Washington State University’s School of Biological Sciences. Her dissertation work investigates the mechanisms underlying a non-additive interaction between high salinity and heat in the supratidal copepod Tigriopus californicus, in which higher salinities increase thermal tolerance. She connects whole-organism physiological responses, such as metabolic rate and activity, with molecular responses, such as changes in protein and metabolite abundance, to better understand how this interaction occurs.

 

 

Best Poster Presentation Winner: Yeaeun Park

Yeaeun Park is a second-year PhD student in Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University, advised by Dr. Peter Piermarini. Her research focuses on the electrophysiology of ion transporters, primarily using voltage-clamp techniques. Currently, she is investigating how ion transporters in coastal copepods (Eurytemora carolleeae) adapt to freshwater environments. Yeaeun also obtained an MS from the Piermarini Lab. Her master’s thesis explored how the thermal activation of the TRPA1 irritant receptor influences repellent responses in mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti).