Beate Ritz

About Epidemiology: Since I decided several decades ago to change careers from medicine to epidemiology our profession has blossomed into the “Modern Epidemiology” that members of SER embrace and rely on daily. Our field is now grounded in solid methodology, established us firmly in the realm of causal reasoning, and we created a common language and an  identity no matter whether our job is setting up a response to Ebola, measles outbreaks, identify air toxics, or preventative strategies for head injuries. SER had and continues to have a large role in this professionalization. However, we also continue to face major challenges. Some first pronounced our ‘limits’ 20 years ago, implying that our discipline was devoid of useful tools. Our research methodology was further challenged by emerging ‘hard’ disciplines that discovered population research, such as genetics and the ever expanding ‘Omics’ fields. It is not surprising that many criticisms have also been voiced from within our own discipline. We are as susceptible to the dazzle of new instruments as anyone else, but we are also taught to be ever self- and peer- critical.  At this point, such a curious yet principled disposition may even be considered a professional character trait. This is in stark contrast to what I have been taught as a doctor, when asked to inspire confidence in patients above all, even when the data are weak. I believe firmly that one of the greatest assets of our epidemiological training is teaching students to embrace a voracious search for answers while considering all possible biases and a continuous questioning of the obvious in our data; these are critical elements of our scientific discipline.

About SER: When asking my mentors several decades ago how to best educate myself in epidemiology, their advice included the strong recommendation to attend an SER meeting.  Later came years during which I became more strongly engaged in my subspecialty as an elected official for the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology. However, as a teacher and mentor, I see the value of SER and our gatherings as a virtual and physical place for our young professionals to be part of a strong and supportive community dedicated to reshaping and promoting the core elements of our discipline. Our SER meetings are also an important place for meetings of the mind for those who have time to reflect on where we came from, where we are going, whether we can do so together and how we can weather changing funding climates and Universities. It will be a joy to contribute to professionalizing young epidemiologists who should find SER affordable and exciting and to give them ammunition for defending the usefulness of population sciences and to withstand temptations to turn ‘big data’ over to machines.  I hope to encourage them to see beyond NIH funding challenges and to be open to integrate across diverse fields proudly competently offering their epidemiologic expertise whether it involves molecular or electronic health record data and/or human or microbial communities. As SER president, I will encourage debates around these issues at our meetings and in publications.  Epidemiology can provide answers but it needs to defend its scientific rigor. With this in mind, I feel that the future of epidemiology is bright and SER continues to influence and shape the core of our discipline. It would be an honor to serve as SER as President in an era of challenges and emerging possibilities.

About me: I am Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health with co-appointments in Environmental Health Sciences and Neurology at UCLA; a member of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and the California Population Research Center. My primary research interests are occupational and environmental health effects from pesticides and air pollution to psychosocial factors. I study chronic diseases from adverse birth outcomes to neurodevelopmental disease (autism) and neurodegenerative disorders (Parkinson’s disease) and cancers.  With geographic information system (GIS) tools  I have generated exposure assessment models for air pollution and pesticide exposures and I conduct gene-environment epidemiology studies focusing on environmental toxins. I received the Robert M. Zweig M.D. Memorial Clean Air Award and the Service Award from the American Parkinson’s disease association, I am a Collegium Ramazzini and an American Epidemiology Society fellow, I served on multiple IOM committees evaluating Gulf War Illness, the U.S. EPA CASAC panel (Carbon Monoxide National Ambient Air Quality Standards) and on the Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants for the state of California.

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