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President's Message
Winter Issue 2008
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Meet the 2007–2008
Society of Toxicology
President
George B. Corcoran |
December brings with it many of our best and most time-honored traditions. We take time from busy schedules to congregate with friends and family, to celebrate our customs, to reflect on the past, and to peer into the future. I know I am not alone when, each year, I make a short list of New Year's Resolutions that capture the changes I want to make, or feel I need to make. Some resolutions fall by the wayside, yet others endure and guide us to becoming the people we want to be. In a way, the members and leaders of the Society of Toxicology are in the midst of just such a process as we strive to create and implement our new Strategic Plan. Our goal for the plan is that it will embrace our friends and family, it will celebrate our most valued traditions, it will reflect what has worked well in the past and, most of all, it will capture a path that will ensure that our Society remains vibrant, relevant, and successful in the future.
Let me briefly update you on the status of our strategic planning. The last Communiqué described how the 3 strategy reports, as well as the considerable member input received to date, are the backbone of this planning process. During the spring, summer and fall of 2007, over four 2-day meetings, Council merged strategy reports with member comments, saw that there are areas of very strong agreement, and developed steps for moving these areas forward. Some consensus strategies involve forming new committees and others involve constituting temporary task forces. The next 6 months will see the formation of new committees in the areas of communications, current concepts in toxicology, funding, scientific liaisons, and awards nominations. There will be new task forces in the areas of needs assessment, data collection and assessment, and disease prevention. We are also actively interviewing candidates to fill a new Communications Specialist position. These areas have been identified by you and us as earning high priority and prompt action.
There are some planning areas of diverse opinion where the path forward is less clear. Additional member input will be vital for moving forward in these areas. Members are urged to comment on the draft consolidated Council Strategic Plan in early 2008 when it is posted to the SOT Web site and to participate again in a Town Hall meeting on the Plan in Seattle in March 2008. You will receive an e-mail reminder of these opportunities.
On a related subject, the 2008 Annual Meeting in Seattle is sure to be one of our best ever. See the article later in this Communiqué for more details. There will be a record number of abstracts (over 2,300). Some submissions are organized from among the 4 scientific themes and a track devoted to career development. The themes were selected by the Program Committee to support the feel of specialty meetings within a meeting. The themes include Developmental Basis of Disease, Nanotechnology, Oxidative Signaling and Redox Biology, Stem Cell Biology and Toxicology, and Career Development. For our 2009 meeting in Baltimore, the Program Committee plans to highlight the following themes for session and abstract submissions—Biomarkers, Epigenetics, Inflammation and Disease, and Neurodegenerative Disease. Due to the timeliness of this issue, Nanotechnology, will again be highlighted for the upcoming meeting. We hope that announcing themes in advance will result in the further development and effectiveness of this thematic approach. Watch your e-mail for the call for symposia, workshops, roundtable, and informational session submissions—due April 30.
The entire range of Council activities and initiatives is not well known to all members, and I thought it might be helpful to note some of the highest level activities. Your leaders have met recently with NIH Center for Scientific Review Director Antonio Scarpa, with National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Director Sam Wilson and Assistant to the Acting Director Sally Tinkle, and we are scheduled to meet soon with Food and Drug Administration Director Andrew von Eschenbach. Some of the goals of these meetings are to open channels of communication, identify areas of common interest and need, and establish new avenues for public-private partnerships.
The Nominating Committee has worked hard and effectively again this year to bring you a slate of outstanding members for your consideration as you select the next group of SOT officers and elected committee members. You will be receiving your ballot on or about December 31. Please remember to cast your ballot. As a member-driven Society, we can remain strong only if you and your fellow members actively participate in elections.
This Communiqué also includes an article reporting on the remarkable progress of the SOT Endowment Fund. The term remarkable is one that is widely overused today. It should be reserved for a truly extraordinary circumstance or event. My use of the term here is fully justified. In the less than 12 months that the Endowment Fund Board has been in existence, it has accomplished the exceptional, and promises to continue on in the same manner. Please be sure to learn more about the Endowment by reading onward.
Our Seattle meeting will once again feature an informal Soapbox Session, which was wildly successful last year in Charlotte. If you did not know about it, or simply missed it, I cannot urge you strongly enough to participate or simply attend and partake in what has become in some ways a vanishing art of our meeting - loosely organized informal interaction on the hottest professional topics. Read on to learn the who, what, where, when, why, and how of the 2008 Soapbox Session.
I close with what some consider one of my philosophical trademarks–that SOT is Almost Amazing (i.e., its most amazing years and zenith lay ahead). Recently, I returned from a meeting of the Council of Scientific Society (CSSP) Presidents, a society SOT joined about 10 years ago. The CSSP encompasses over 60 other scientific societies. As you may know, association membership and the health of professional societies have been spiraling downward for a number of years. I can say with great confidence that the SOT is on the forefront of many of the common issues facing scholarly societies, whether it be in the area of governance or in our commitment to the compelling professional issues of our time. With your active engagement and support, and with an effective strategic path forward, the future for SOT is bright.
You have my best regards and warmest wishes for a safe and happy holiday season.
See you in Seattle.
George B. Corcoran,
2007–2008 SOT President
Past President Corcoran's Messages
Summer/Fall 2007
Spring 2007
Past Presidents of the Society
Contacting
the President
The
SOT President would like to hear from you on issues related to the
Society of Toxicology and/or toxicological sciences in general.
Send all correspondence to:
Dr. George B. Corcoran
SOT Headquarters
1821 Michael Faraday Drive, Suite 300
Reston, VA 20190-5332
E-mail: corcoran@wayne.edu
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