American Physiological Society
non-profit professional society for physiologists
The American Physiological Society is a non-profit professional society for physiologists. It has nearly 10,000 members, most of whom hold doctoral degrees in medicine, physiology, or other health professions. Its mission is to support research and education in the physiological sciences. The society publishes 16 peer-reviewed journals, sponsors scientific conferences, and sponsors awards to further this mission.
Governance
Since it was founded in 1887, APS has had many notable scientists lead the organization, beginning with founder Henry Bowditch and continuing through its current president. APS is governed by an elected Board of Directors. The Board includes a president, immediate past president and president-elect, each serving a one-year term. Management of the affairs of the society is the responsibility of a full-time chief executive officer, who serves as secretary of the board. The society maintains a staff and offices in Rockville, Maryland.
History and activity
The American Physiological Society was founded in 1887 with 28 members.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “American Physiological Society” as non-profit professional society for physiologists. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as non-profit professional society for physiologists. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3487625. VIAF identifies the subject as 140114253. The Library of Congress control number is nr95031503. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1887.
Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “American Physiological Society”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow American Physiological Society primary sources, American Physiological Society archive and American research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “American Physiological Society”?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “American Physiological Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.