Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., May 1, 2001–Steven J. Swoap, assistant professor of biology, won the 2001 Arthur C. Guyton Award for Excellence in Integrative Physiology. The American Physiological Society (APS) presented the $15,000 prize to him at its Experimental Biology Meeting in early April.
Using techniques from both molecular biology and physiology, Swoap is studying how muscle fibers change type as a result of exercise, examining the question of why muscles fatigue and deteriorate when not used. Swoap is also investigating how food intake affects blood pressure. He is interested in the connections between leptin (a hormone), body fat, and blood pressure.
The award recognizes independent investigators who are doing physiology research, through quantitative, integrative, or feedback control theory approaches. Recipients must be early in their careers and show great potential based on their research, including publications and grants. Swoap is 34 years old.
His research has been supported by several grants, including multi-year grants last year from the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health, totaling over $500,000.
His work has appeared in a number of journals, including the American Journal of Physiology, the Journal of Experimental Biology, and the Journal of Applied Physiology.
He has been at Williams since 1996, and has taught Physiology, Mammalian Molecular Physiology, and Biology of Exercise&emdash;which attracted over ten percent of the student body in its inaugural offering last year.
Swoap did his post-doctoral work at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He earned his B.A. from Trinity University in 1990 and his Ph.D. in physiology and biophysics from the University of California at Irvine in 1994.
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Published May 1, 2001
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