Dr. Caroline Rickards awarded Presidential Service Award by the American Physiological Society
Dr. Caroline Rickards, professor of physiology and anatomy at UNT Health Fort Worth,
has been awarded the 2026 Presidential Service award by the American Physiological Society for outstanding service to APS and the broader physiology community.
Each year the APS executive board presents the award to an APS member who has served the Society extensively throughout their career by participating in volunteer activities like leading committees, editing publications or conducting outreach to the scientific community or public.
Rickards’ substantial list of service to the Society includes chairing the Women in Physiology Committee and serving in multiple roles on the Environmental and Exercise Physiology section steering committee. She has also been a regular reviewer for several APS journals and was recently invited to serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Physiology. Since joining the Society in 2006, Rickards has participated in the annualAPS Summit every year, including organizing and chairing nine scientific sessions.
“It is a great honor to be recognized with the Presidential Service Award from the American Physiological Society. I have been privileged to work alongside so many outstanding colleagues and staff who have been part of my 20-year journey with APS,” Rickards said.
“I look forward to continued contributions to this incredible scientific society and its mission: ‘Physiology: The science life depends on.’”
Rickards has held faculty positions at the College of Biomedical and Translational Sciences at UNT Health since 2012. She was recently named graduate advisor for the Integrative Physiology Discipline for the college’s research-based graduate programs.
As director of the Cerebral & Cardiovascular Physiology Laboratory at UNT Health, her research focuses on the regulation of brain blood flow and oxygenation during stressors that challenge cerebral perfusion such as traumatic hemorrhage, cardiac arrest, and stroke. Her research team has a unique translational approach to this research, employing both human and animal models of cerebral hypoperfusion, and developing novel interventions to treat these conditions. This work has been supported by grants from the American Heart Association, the US Department of Defense, and the National Institutes of Health.
The American Physiology Society is a multidisciplinary community of nearly 10,000 scientists and educators from around the world, driving collaboration and spotlighting scientific discoveries in physiology and related disciplines.
Rickards received the award at the 2026 American Physiology Summit last week in Minneapolis.