Fall 2011 Newsletter
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Joseph Lynn Lyon University of Utah |
SER - A Brief Personal History
"As I wandered through the poster sessions at the Montreal meeting I reflected back to the 1973 meeting. As ever, it was enjoyable to see and talk with colleagues, friends and former students and hear of their lives. The energy and enthusiasm of the students were also wonderful. Chronic disease epidemiology has come a long way since 1967, and SER is a reflection of this journey.."
I attended my first SER meeting in June 1973, 6 years after its founding. It was held at a small hotel on the Berkley side of San Francisco Bay. The plenary session fit comfortably into a room with 100 chairs. Despite the small size, we heard Thomas Chalmers give his memorable talk on "Randomize the First Patient".
His talk set the tone of SER for me. I came to expect great speakers, new and interesting findings, a place for students to make their first ever presentations, and opportunities for very junior people like me to interact on a personal level with the major epidemiologist whose work I had only read.
SER began its existence in 1967 when three of the early leaders in the field of chronic disease epidemiology, Brian MacMahon at Harvard, Milt Terris at Columbia, and Abe Lilienfeld at Johns Hopkins created an organization where students could present their research ideas and findings and receive comments (and criticisms) from any and all who attended, in a friendly, constructive manner. This has been the underlying theme of SER annual meeting ever since.
It was a simple concept, but like many simple concepts it also captured a long overlooked need, and provide place for the nascent chronic disease epidemiology types to find friends and validate their methods and findings. Since 1967 chronic disease epidemiology as a discipline has expanded from a handful to thousands, and our meetings have reflected this expansion.
The student-friendly atmosphere in which SER began meant costs had to be low. The meeting date was always in the middle of June, the week after university commencement closed for the summer, because usually SER met in University classroom and housed most everyone, in dorm rooms.
This pattern was followed (with occasional exceptions such as the 1973 Berkley meeting and the 1981 meeting at Snowbird, Utah) until the 1987 meeting at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. SER found it had outgrown the founder's model for successful meetings. The accommodations for attendees were scattered over 20 miles, and somehow United Airlines over-booked every flight out of Hartford, Connecticut giving many attendees the opportunity for an unplanned (and less than memorable weekend) in Hartford.
The SER board, with great reluctance, decided we had to abandon the physical model put together by the founders, recognize the success of chronic disease epidemiology and the increase in the number of people wanting to attend the annual meeting, and look for a larger venue. Since 1987 our meetings have been held at hotels capable to accommodating up to 1000 attendees.
This transition was not without problems. The financial commitments necessary for a successful meeting at a hotel are much different from the university-dorm environment in which SER began. We had a steep learning curve, and nearly went bankrupt in the early 1990's until we realized we could no longer rely on the local hosts at our meeting site to make all the arrangements, but had to have a single person reporting to the SER executive committee who was responsible to plan and run our annual meetings. It was this transition in 1996 that provided us with financial stability that has allowed us to create the student caucus, and to be the principal financial sponsor of the three North American Epidemiology Congresses.
The other factor that increased the membership of SER occurred in the mid-1970's when we agreed to become a joint sponsor of the American Journal of Epidemiology. Membership dues increased, but you received a copy of the journal every month. This arrangement continued until 2001 when Johns Hopkins University and SER entered into an agreement with Oxford University Press to publish the journal. As part of this agreement SER had to take over the responsibility for the membership and journal subscriptions (collecting dues, renewing subscriptions, etc.).
As I wandered through the poster sessions at the Montreal meeting I reflected back to the 1973 meeting. There were more posters in one session than all the presentations at the 1973 meeting. As ever, it was enjoyable to see and talk with colleagues, friends and former students and hear of their lives. The energy and enthusiasm of the students were also wonderful. Chronic disease epidemiology has come a long way since 1967, and SER is a reflection of this journey.