As I end my term as SRSF president, I have been reflecting on the mission and accomplishments of the SRSF over the past 2 years. The primary mission of the SRSF is to support the development of early career sleep and circadian scientists and we do this through various funding mechanisms, including the flagship SRSF Career Development Award as well as scholarships for professional development courses and conferences. In the last 2 years, we added the undergraduate scholarships to SLEEP and the small research grant program to expand our trainee support.
I believe that the health and longevity of a field relies on a strong pipeline of trainees; without early career investigators, sleep and circadian science has no future. The strength of that pipeline depends, in large part, on our support. Serving as SRSF President has been very rewarding since it gave me the opportunity to help trainees in the Society that advocated for me as a trainee. We rely on financial contributions to provide these funding mechanisms and, although the idea of “fundraising” intimidated me at the beginning, I have been inspired by the incredible number of SRS members who have generously donated the SRSF (even during the pandemic). I am also heartened by the financial assistance provided by so many corporate partners who also clearly value trainees and the field of sleep and circadian science.
I want to thank the SRSF staff, Ms. Christine Davis for teaching me the ropes and being the driving force behind the SRSF initiatives and Mr. John Noel for his wisdom, guidance, and Herculean efforts to support the SRSF/SRS. I know the SRSF will be in excellent hands with Dr. Sai Parthasarathy, our next SRSF president, who will certainly continue to build the SRSF programs and partnerships. I hope to see all of you – in person – soon. Thank you again for all you do to support the field of sleep and circadian science and the Sleep Research Society Foundation.
Kristen L. Knutson, PhD
