The Physiology Council of Iowa State University was formed in the 1970s to help coordinate the teaching and research efforts in the physiological sciences at Iowa State University. Originally an informal council of concerned faculty members, the Council formalized its organization through the creation of a constitution in 1976. Membership was open to professors and other qualified professionals engaged in the physiological sciences. The Council was governed by an Advisory Committee consisting of seven members.



By 1980, the Physiology Council was sponsoring several mini-symposia throughout the year. These consisted of an invited keynote speaker and three presentations on work being done at Iowa State. The council became inactive in 1984, but was brought back in 1991 by a group of faculty who recognized the benefits of the Council. These faculty members, Richard Engen, Stephen Ford, Murray Kaplan, Donald Beitz, Charles Drewes, and Rick Sharp, formed an ad hoc Advisory Committee in an effort to revive the Council.



By the spring of 1992, the reconstituted Physiology Council successfully organized a mini-symposium and that fall initiated the H. Hugh Dukes Club. The Dukes Club, named after Henry Hugh Dukes who, a veterinary student and longtime professor of veterinary physiology at Iowa State, was a dinner club. It was usually held at the Iowa State Memorial Union, where faculty and other professionals could gather to exchange ideas and listen to presentations on current research in animal and human physiology.