SPC President’s Message

Greetings SER students and postdocs! Can you believe it’s already November? It feels like just yesterday, we were all having a hard time believing that summer was coming to an end. And yet, we have made the transition – we’ve traded in our beach outings for apple picking, exchanged iced tea for apple cider, and we have accepted four months of darkness at 5pm in exchange for one extra hour of sleep on a single Saturday night/Sunday morning (thanks daylight savings!).

Anyway, on behalf of the SPC board, we would like to extend a huge thank you to all who attended our SERexperts and SERjournal club events this fall. We’re super excited to wrap up our fall programs with SERdigital on November 10th. Join us as we welcome Dr. Thu Nguyen and Dr. Sandra Albrecht for their session titled, “Infodemic Inoculation – Lessons Learned and Future Directions”. If you haven’t done so already, make sure you register for that here.

Yes, we may be deep into fall, but in the words of a famous dragon-conquering epidemiologist, winter is coming! For some of you, this time of year means wrapping up assignments and gearing up for finals. Or maybe you have that one project or manuscript you said you would finish before the holidays that you’re not quite done with yet. In any event, if you’re like me, this time of year means one thing: SER Submission season! Submissions are now open for the Tyroler Student Prize and the Lilienfeld Postdoctoral Prize. If you have an eligible paper, please consider submitting (you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, right?). Abstract submissions are also right around the corner, so now is the time to get those abstracts in tip top shape. Submissions open up on November 8th; submissions will close for both the awards and abstracts on January 14th.

Finally, for all of my dissertating folks out there, have you taken a moment to look at the list of past participants of the SER Student Dissertation Workshop? If not, I encourage you to do so, and I ask that you please don’t miss out on your opportunity to have your name added to that esteemed list of Epi powerhouses! (Rumor has it, the key to their success was participating in the workshop). The deadline to apply is February 4th.

That’s all for now. As always, make sure you keep up with the SERcalendar for up-to-date information on all coming events. If you have thoughts on how we can better serve you, we always welcome the feedback. Please keep an eye out for the annual SPC survey which will launch shortly, and for anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out.

John R. Pamplin II
SER SPC President