President’s Message – June 2015

Timothy L. Lash, SER President

My year as President of the Society for Epidemiologic Research has been far more work than advertised, and far more rewarding than advertised. We have accomplished a lot. One of the main highlights has been the launch of the new and vastly improved SER web site. The web site has enabled far more effective and efficient communication with our members, and has enabled seamless submission and evaluation of abstracts, workshop proposals, symposium proposals, and award nominations. We have also held successful SERtalks events in Atlanta, New Orleans, Chicago, and Washington DC, and we had the largest attendance yet at the SERdigital meeting organized by the Student and Postdoc Committee. We continue to curate a growing number of short videos on the SERexperts page, and we have an ever expanding list of readings on the SERplaylists page. All of this happened before we even get to the annual meeting in Denver.

This year’s annual meeting will itself have many new aspects. Our colleagues at SPER and the SPC , and many local volunteers from the Colorado universities, have worked closely with SER to organize the inaugural fun run for Wednesday morning of the meeting. More than 150 people have signed on. The University of North Carolina will sponsor the Cassel lecture by Judea Pearl, a year earlier than the usual rotation to accommodate the Congress of the Americas schedule. We will present the inaugural award for a post-doctoral paper, the Lilienfeld postdoctoral prize, sponsored by the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. And for the first year ever, all early career awards will come with sponsorship: the Tyroler student prize paper is sponsored by the University of North Carolina and the Brian MacMahon early career award is sponsored by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. We have developed and released the first ever SER meeting app, which we hope attendees will use to enhance their experience at the meeting. Finally, after a one year hiatus, we have received funding support from the US National Cancer Institute to support the doctoral student workshop.

In June, we say farewell and thank you to Maria Glymour, member-at-large of the Executive Committee, Germaine Louis, recent past-president, and Joseph Lynn Lyon, secretary and treasurer. Lynn Lyon has served SER as its secretary and treasurer for more than twenty years, so it is with particular admiration that we will bid him adieu. He will receive the SER service award in recognition of his outstanding commitment to the well-being of our society. We say hello to Jennifer Weuve, newly elected member-at-large of the Executive Committee, Bernie Harlow, president-elect, and Lauren Wise, who will take on a three-year term as the newly elected secretary-treasurer. Lauren’s last year on the Executive Committee will be served by Pam Factor-Litvak, who also stood for election as member-at-large this year. We thank her, Penny Howards, and Beate Ritz for running in this year’s election. Although they did not garner the majority of the votes, all elections were very close and we admire their dedication to the society exemplified by their willingness to run.

I sign off by thanking Suzanne Bevan, Courtney Long, and Peggy Christensen for their outstanding work to keep our society healthy and growing. The role of president may not have been exactly as advertised, but the quality, timeliness, and extraordinary effort that they make daily was exactly as advertised. When you see them in Denver, please take a moment to thank them yourselves.