Jennifer Pollock, Ph.D.
(Photography: Steve Wood)Jennifer Pollock, Ph.D., professor in the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is the new president of the American Physiological Society. Pollock was elected by APS membership and takes office April 30, 2021.
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.
Pollock is the co-director of the Department of Cardio-Renal Physiology and Medicine and co-director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences TL1 Predoctoral Training Program at UAB. Pollock is also the director of the Kidney Pipeline Programs, which include the PRIME T32 training program, the UAB KURE R25 summer undergraduate research training program and the UAB PROmoTE R25 team science research training program. She earned her doctorate in biological chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Pollock has been an APS member since 1997. Past leadership roles include secretary-treasurer and chair of the Water & Electrolyte Homeostasis Section, member of the nominating and section advisory committees, and organizer of multiple conference and symposia programs.
Her honors include numerous awards for outstanding research and mentoring, including the American Heart Association Established Investigator Award, the American Heart Association Harriet Dustan Award for Outstanding Hypertension Research and the Lewis K. Dahl Memorial Lecture to the Council on Hypertension. She has received the APS Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award and the APS Ernest H. Starling Distinguished Lectureship of the APS WEH Section. Pollock became a fellow of the APS in 2016 and is a fellow of the American Heart Association.