NIH Stimulus Grant to Fund New Physiology Faculty Member

Madison, Wisconsin — Thanks to a $1 million stimulus grant from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Physiology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health will soon begin searching for a new assistant professor to join its ranks.

The award will give the department a big edge in hiring a promising young faculty member.

"Competitive start-up packages for new assistant professors often are as high as $1 million these days," says physiology professor Meyer Jackson, who wrote the grant. "This grant will cover the first two years of the faculty member's salary, and the remainder will be used to set up a laboratory for state-of-the-art research."

Jackson and colleagues will be recruiting a researcher who focuses on synaptic physiology, an area in which the department has strength and depth. Jackson and physiology professor Edwin Chapman are nationally recognized experts in the workings of synapses, junctures where communication between nerve cells takes place.

"With these funds, we'll be able to aggressively recruit someone at the top of the field," says Jackson. He expects to receive some 200 applications.

The physiology department currently has 17 faculty members.