In 1967 three epidemiology department chairs, Drs. Abraham Lilienfeld (the Johns Hopkins University), Milton Terris (New York Medical College) and Brian MacMahon (Harvard University), proposed a new society. Their goals were to create a venue for their graduate students to present their research findings and exchange ideas with senior researchers and to establish a meeting at which epidemiologists studying chronic diseases, infectious diseases and mental health could come together. The first meeting of the Society for Epidemiological Research took place in May 1968 in Washington DC.
