Dr. Susan Barman Has Helped Raise the Bar for Women in Biomedical Science

By Chuck Carlson

It was Halloween 1975 when Susan Barman stepped on the Michigan State University campus as a Research Associate to work with Jerry Gebber with the intent of staying for two years.

She hasn’t left yet.

“I stayed a little bit longer,” she said with a smile. “I really liked what I was doing here.”

So, she stayed, and in the nearly 50 years since, Dr. Barman has established herself as one of the top physiologists in the nation.

“I came here to study how the brain controls blood pressure,” she said. “When I finished up my research (she has transitioned to teaching, directing the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, and committee service) I was still asking the question, ‘How does the brain control blood pressure?’ It’s very complex.”

Dr. Barman has been proud of her accomplishments and years of research. But that pride also extends to the fact that in a field long dominated by men, she was part of the vanguard of women who have made significant inroads in physiology, including serving as president of the prestigious American Physiological Society.

The organization was founded in 1887 but did not elect its first female president until 1974 when eminent physiologist Dr. Bodil Schmidt-Nielsen earned the distinction.

It wasn’t until 2001 that another woman was elected president, but since then, nine women have served in this role, including Dr. Barman in 2011.

At the annual APS Summit in April in Long Beach, Calif., organizers celebrated the 50th anniversary of Dr. Schmidt-Nielsen’s groundbreaking election. The APS also honored the ten women who followed her to the top spot with a photo and feature story in the July issue of The Physiologist Magazine.

Nine attended the conference, and seven were able to stay around for the group photo, including Dr. Barman.

“I can say I literally know every woman who has been president of the APS,” she said.

It was a particular honor for her to celebrate Dr. Schmidt-Nielsen’s accomplishment after she had the opportunity to meet her for the first time in 1998 at a conference in San Francisco.

“We just clicked,” Dr. Barman said. “I was going to interview her about the role of women in the APS, and I was supposed to be taking notes and I had a tape recorder. But it was more personal than it was about the Society. It was very, very nice.”

In the intervening years, they remained in touch, and when the subject of an APS award to honor women was suggested, Dr. Barman proposed that it should be named for Schmidt-Nielsen – which it was.

When Dr. Schmidt-Nielsen attended the inaugural Bodil M. Schmidt-Nielsen Distinguished Mentor and Scientist Award ceremony in 2004, she introduced her daughter to Dr. Barman.

“She said, ‘This is the person who is responsible for this award,’” Dr. Barman said. “That was always very touching to me.”

Dr. Barman won the award in 2020.

To this day, Dr. Schmidt-Nielsen remains a towering figure for women in the field of physiology.

“She opened the door,” Dr. Barman said. “It took a long time before it got fully pushed open, but she was the first one.”

But Dr. Barman wasn’t far behind in that objective. She had always loved physiology and when she decided to pursue her graduate degree at Loyola University in Chicago, her application was rejected due to what school officials called a “female problem.”

“There had been a female graduate student in the program who was taking forever to get through it and that was their role model,” Dr. Barman said.

She applied again and was accepted.

“I was going to prove it to them,” she said. “And when I finished there, the chair of the department said, ‘If every applicant was a Sue Barman, I would have filled the class with women.’ And he’s the one who had rejected me.”

Now, almost 50 years later, Sue Barman has proven a lot. Dr. Anne Dorrance, the PhmTox Department chairperson, knows first-hand just how valuable Dr. Barman has been.

“I could go on for days about how amazing Sue is and how thankful I am that she is part of the PhamTox Team,” she said. “It’s not unfair to say that many women scientists break barriers; what makes Sue exceptional is her unwavering commitment to helping others succeed. She has mentored many early-stage faculty, including me, through promotion and tenure. She is also an outstanding department and university citizen, she does a tremendous amount of service for MSU, and by doing that, she helps others by lightening their load.”

An iconic member of the MSU Pharmacology and Toxicology Department and College of Human Medicine faculty, Dr. Barman was named “University Distinguished Professor” in 2021 among other accolades over the years.

Of course, she still loves physiology, and while technology has helped the field make huge strides over the years, she says simply, “Fundamentally it’s still studying the body parts and how they function.”