President’s Message – April 2015

tlashTimothy L. Lash, SER President

 

Our 2015 annual meeting in Denver draws near, and the program is now nearly complete. Thanks to the creative energy of those who proposed symposia, and the organizational skills of those who have agreed to chair contributed sessions, we have arranged a program that includes a broad array of methodological topics and topics of current public health importance. New events to look for at the meeting, or new twists on regular features, include:

  • Revisions to the breakfast meetings, roundtables, and poster tours, all organized by the students and postdocs committee,

  • A fun run to be held jointly by SER and SPER Wednesday morning,

  • First ever meeting app for phones and tablets, allowing attendees to personalize their schedules, interact with one another, and submit real time reviews,

  • Meetings of the ad hoc committees that will be organizing program and social events for SER’s fiftieth anniversary celebration at the Seattle meeting (June 2017),

  • The Cassel Lecture, sponsored by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health, will be presented by Professor Judea Pearl,

  • First ever award for a paper prepared by a postdoc, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,

  • Two latebreaker sessions, organized for the first time by Charlie Poole and Matt Fox, following years of dedicated serving by Polly Marchbanks as the organizer of these sessions.

And speaking of awards, the awards committee has done an outstanding job this year of reviewing many nominations for each of the awards to select the 2015 winners from among the deserving candidates. Awards that will be presented at the annual meeting, and the 2015 winners, are as follows.

The Distinguished Service to SER Award recognizes an individual who has made multiple years of outstanding contributions to the organization. Award winners are selected by the leadership of the organization. The 2015 award will be presented to Joseph Lynn Lyons, who has served as SER’s secretary and treasurer for more than twenty years.

The Career Accomplishment Award honors an outstanding scholar who has made extraordinary contributions to the field of epidemiology, or an individual whose work has had a profound impact on epidemiology and shifted the way we practice epidemiology.   Career accomplishment and leadership impact on the field are core criteria that are used for selection of the annual awardee. The 2015 award will be presented to Louise Brinton, Branch Chief and Senior Investigator at the Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

The Excellence in Education Award recognizes substantial contributions to the field of epidemiology through one or more of mentoring, training, and/or teaching. Impact on the career trajectory of mentees, trainees, or students; quality of mentoring, training, or teaching activities; strength of nomination and recommendation letters are the core criteria that are used for selection of the annual awardee. The 2015 award will be presented to Enrique Schisterman, Senior Investigator and Chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

SER’s Brian MacMahon Early Career Epidemiologist Award is awarded annually to recognize early career epidemiologists who have already made substantial contributions to the field and are poised to become future leaders in epidemiology. Achievements may be in the area of research, teaching, mentoring or service.  This award is funded by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in honor of Dr. Brian MacMahon. The 2015 award will be presented to Sunni Mumford, an Earl Stadtman Investigator in the Epidemiology Branch at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

The Lilienfeld Postdoctoral Prize Paper Award is given to recognize outstanding epidemiologic research completed as a postdoc and in the preceding three years. The Lilienfeld Award honors Abraham Lilienfeld, MD, MPH, and is sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The 2015 winner, and inaugural winner, of this award is Ashley Naimi, currently an Assistant Professor at McGill University.

The Tyroler Student Prize Paper Award is given to recognize the best submitted paper by a student in a doctoral program with a concentration in epidemiology. The Tyroler Award honors Herman Alfred (Al) Tyroler, MD. The award is sponsored by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Gillings School of Global Public Health. The 2015 award will be presented to Hailey Banack of McGill University.

The Denver meeting will be the culmination of a terrific year of SER programming, which has included a very successful SERdigital meeting organized by the students and postdocs committee, and well attended SERtalks in Atlanta, New Orleans, Washington DC, and Chicago.

Please let us know if your institution would like to host a SERtalks event.

I look forward to seeing all of you in Denver a few months from now.