Scott Kirkton, associate professor of biology, was elected chair for the Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology group of the American Physiological Society.

He assumed his duties at the recent Experimental Biology Meeting in San Diego, Calif.

Kirkton is one of 12 section chairs who help advise the APS, a nonprofit which fosters education, scientific research and dissemination of information in the physiological sciences. Other sections include Cardiovascular, Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Gastrointestinal and Liver.

He is the only section chair from a liberal arts college; the others represent medical schools or research institutions.

As an animal physiologist, Kirkton and his research students investigate fundamental questions about how changes during an animal’s life history impact biological processes. Specifically, they use insect models to examine how development alters the biochemistry, morphology, physiology and biomechanics of respiration and locomotion.

Kirkton earned his bachelor of science degree from Denison University and his Ph.D. from Arizona State University. He was also a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral researcher at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. He joined Union in 2006.

Founded in 1887, the American Physiological Society has more than 10,500 members. It is based in Bethesda, Md. on the campus of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.