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Greetings SER Students and Postdocs! The 2021 SER Annual Meeting is fast approaching! Registration is now open for the conference as well as the pre-conference workshops. New this year, for each workshop instructors have noted the target audience, and they are staggered in time through August to ensure attendees can participate in multiple workshops if they so desire. The conference program is also available online, so all you type A planners out there can begin plotting your course immediately. In the weeks leading up to the Annual Meeting, the Student and Postdoc Committee (SPC) is organizing several short meet-and-greets. You can check out the topics and register here. Log in for a short break and get to know your future epi colleagues and friends. In other news, I would like to highlight some results from our 2020 SPC survey provided by Internal Affairs Chair Rebecca Barry. Top reported reasons for SER membership were to submit an abstract, to receive a member discount, and to gain additional methods training, with 63% paying for membership out of pocket. The majority (54%) of respondents attended the 2020 meeting, with the biggest reason for not attending being lack of funds (62%). For the 2021 […]

It is with a mixture of melancholy and relief that I hammer out the last of my regular newsletter messages as President of SER.  Summer 2020 to Summer 2021 has been a year of some accomplishments, some disappointments and some stubborn optimism for all of us. I am sure that you all share my profound hope that this month’s annual meeting will be the last, best, 100% virtual SER meeting we will ever attend together.  The line-up for June 22-25 includes many exciting features, sessions and events, including some unmissable plenary talks from invited speakers, award winners and the outgoing President himself. I would like to take this moment to highlight two of these talks that are most anticipated.  For the first plenary session on Wednesday June 23rd, the keynote speaker is Marc Lipsitch, Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of Harvard’s Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics.  Marc is a Rhodes Scholar and Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine, and one of the world leaders in cutting-edge epidemiological approaches to the study of SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well being active in social and traditional media in outreach and public […]

To SER members: Last summer, we described the mission of our committee and our vision for diversity and inclusion within SER in American Journal of Epidemiology (https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/189/10/1049/5864887). We are reaching back out to you in this annual meeting edition of SERnews to report on What Have We Done for You Lately?  Suffice it to say, this has been quite the year. One year ago, we were all learning to adjust to the realities of the COVID-19 era. Since then, we have had to figure out new ways of moving forward. For our committee, this entailed new ways of advancing our mission to foster the diversity of our membership and working towards the engagement of all members. Our committee members have been hard at work on a redesigned Diversity & Inclusion Survey that we plan to roll out prior to this year’s annual meeting. The results of this survey will be critical to our understanding of the diversity of our membership, members’ experiences at SER, and measuring our progress in enhancing the inclusiveness of our activities. This is where you can play a part in contributing to D&I. When you receive an invite to participate in the upcoming survey, please ACCEPT! […]

Hello SER Students and Postdocs! Spring has officially sprung, and SER has lots of amazing programming to look forward to in the upcoming months. Join us April 21 from 12-1 PM EDT for the Student and Postdoc Committee’s journal club, where we will discuss the article “Identifying cardiovascular severe maternal morbidity in epidemiologic studies” with the author Isabelle Malhamé. On May 12 from 12-1 PM EDT Martha Werler and Wendy Nembhard will hold a discussion on #MeToo. The purpose of this webinar is to recognize sexual harassment in our field, consider the consequences, and identify corrective ways forward. This session will be interactive, presenting data and anonymous stories collected via survey from SER members. In addition to the upcoming seminars, as SER members you have access to a wealth of fantastic archived online content. For example, the Education Committee hosted an event entitled “Adapting to the pandemic job market,” where presenters brought their experiences in academia, government, and industry to virtual interviewee strategies for higher education positions as well as non-academic tracks (the recording can be found here). Or if you’re interested in listening to SER experts discuss a timely public health topic being, the Diversity and Inclusion Committee hosted […]

It falls on me to be the bearer of bad news, although it lessens the sting to know that this comes as no real surprise to anyone.   Travel, hospitality, and the many dimensions of daily life – from childcare to university reimbursements – have not yet returned to such a state that we can depend on them in June.  Those of us who closed our eyes and anticipated the warm Pacific breeze on our faces must wait until summer of 2026 for that sensation (our San Diego hotel contract is not canceled, but merely postponed by 5 years).  Many thanks to the nearly 1100 of you who responded to our recent survey, effectively supporting this reluctant decision in something of a landslide.   Nearly 60% of respondents indicated that they would only attend a virtual meeting, and another 20% offered that they would attend regardless, but preferred the virtual format under the circumstances.  A hybrid meeting is substantially more expensive, and with only a small number of people indicating that they would come in person, it seems impossible to justify the large additional cost that is ultimately subsidized by a majority who will not benefit from it. Faced with this reality, […]