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President’s Message
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President
Michael P. Holsapple |
As I sit down to compose the President’s Message for the Winter Communiqué, we are nearing the end of 2010, which means that we are only a few months away from our next Annual Meeting. Not too surprisingly, the preparations for our 50th Anniversary Meeting are well underway. As many of you know, the abstract deadline was in early October. We received just a little shy of 2,500 abstracts, a fabulous number, which exceeded all previous records! If you were not able to submit in October, but would like an opportunity, the deadline for late-breaking and grace period abstracts is January 21, 2011. See the 50th Anniversary Annual Meeting Section of this issue of the Communiqué for more information. In the preliminary Annual Meeting announcement, you have already seen the solid scientific program (e.g., symposia, workshops, roundtables) and continuing education courses that the members of the Scientific Program Committee (SPC) and Continuing Education (CE) Committee, respectively, have put together Jon C. Cook and William Slikker, Jr., the SPC Chair and Co-Chair respectively, have taken full advantage of the fact that our meeting will take place in Washington, D.C., and have secured the commitment of some excellent plenary speakers. Francis Collins, the Director of the NIH, will open our meeting with a plenary lecture on Monday. Margaret Hamburg, the Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA), and Lisa Jackson, the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), will give plenary lectures on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. Finally, Professor Steve Jackson, the Head of the Cancer Research UK Laboratories from the University of Cambridge, will give the Annual Medical Research Council (MRC) Lecture on Wednesday. In addition to an unprecedented number of plenary lectures, the Meet the Director series on Wednesday will also offer expanded coverage with presentations by the following individuals: Paul Anastas, Assistant Administrator, Office of Research and Development, U.S. EPA; Linda S. Birnbaum, Director, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; Seymour Garte, Director of the Division of Physiological and Pathological Sciences, Center for Scientific Review; Jesse Goodman, Chief Scientist and Deputy Commissioner for Science and Public Health, U.S. FDA; John Howard, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; and Yvonne Maddox, Director of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, National Instituted of Child Health and Human Development. Be looking for additional details about their specific topics as this information becomes available.
You are also encouraged to keep your eyes open for announcements about a number of special events that are being developed as part of the celebration of our 50th anniversary. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight just a few. The Postdoctoral Assembly (PDA) will be sponsoring the 50th Anniversary Silent Auction, with the proceeds being donated to the General Purpose Funds within our Endowment. On Tuesday, March 8, at 4:30 PM, there will be a Member Celebration Meeting reflecting on SOT’s first 50 years of accomplishments and revealing member contributions to a time caspsule that will be archived and opened at SOT’s 75th Annuniversary Meeting. As yet another reflection of our commitment to our global strategy, the SOT leadership has recently reached out to our sister societies of toxicology from around the world about participating in the Global Gallery of Toxicology. Each society has been invited to display a poster showcasing their start date, history, key accomplishments and strategic initiatives, current activities, and upcoming meeting dates. Finally, the SOT is collaborating with the Smithsonian Institute to co-organize and co-host a seminar on toxicology on Saturday, March 5, entitled, “Poisons: When Good Chemicals Turn Bad.” This seminar, which will be open to the public, will feature an overview of, and the latest research in, the science of toxicology.
As I have done in previous Messages, I would like to highlight the reviews of components of our Strategic Plan, which were conducted during recent Council meetings. In July, Council members Michael P. Waalkes and Cheryl Lyn Walker reviewed Strategic Priority #1—Increase Scientific Impact. Their review started with the recognition that the SOT is a broad-based, multi-disciplinary organization where our members share the common goal of “creating a safer and healthier world by advancing the science of toxicology.” The SOT has instituted many prior activities to facilitate advancements in toxicology, and there are numerous avenues to promote scientific progress within the discipline, with the potential to enhance the impact of Toxicology as a seminal science for human, animal, and environmental health. Space will not allow me to describe all of the ongoing activities; but I would like to highlight a few, as an example of how our committees and task forces are increasing scientific impact. In my last Message, I remarked on some of the efforts underway by the Board of Publications and the Editorial Board of Toxicological Sciences that will serve to increase the scientific impact of toxicology. The Contemporary Concepts in Toxicology (CCT) Conferences Committee is working with various groups to identify strong, international topics that increase scientific impact and have strong global significance. Among some of their ongoing activities are the following: they are working with the U.S. EPA to develop a potential CCT on Green Chemistry; they are reviewing SPC submissions to identify topics for possible CCT meetings; and they are establishing the criteria for the $50,000 that has been committed to underwrite up to two CCT meetings each year. As the goal of the latter initiative is to create an incentive to increase the frequency of CCT meetings in order to elevate the science, the committee also will develop metrics to determine the effectiveness of this incentive program. The Education Committee is continuing to focus on core activities to increase the awareness and recognition for scientific achievements within toxicology. Specifically, they are organizing and will host a K–12 museum event in conjunction with the Annual Meeting, and they are working with the National Academy (Koshland Museum) and government agencies to feature information and hands-on activities reflecting the history of toxicology. Before leaving the discussion of our Strategic Priority to Increase Scientific Impact, I think it is important to note that one of the key objectives of this priority is to increase the impact of toxicology on human health and disease prevention. Because I don’t believe that the importance of disease prevention in toxicology has been extensively covered in previous editions of the Communiqué, I would like to take this opportunity to emphasize the role being played by the Disease Prevention Task Force (DPTF). The DPTF drafted several 2011 meeting proposals and endorsed a number of 2011 Annual Meeting sessions under the Environment and Disease Annual Meeting theme. The DPTF recently had a strategic planning meeting in which they developed a list of short-term and long-term tactical objectives to help educate the membership on why disease prevention is an important component of our strategic plan. After much discussion, the DPTF agreed on the following definition: Disease Prevention seeks to reduce causes and contributors to disease/disability by predicting harmful effects and preventing exposures to biologics, chemicals, and drugs. They believe that SOT contributes to Disease Prevention through the use of mechanistic and translational sciences, and effective communications. They discussed three levels of Disease Prevention: Primary prevention—predict exposure to risk; Secondary prevention—detect early exposure and resulting effects; and Tertiary prevention—respond to disease. The DPTF agreed that SOT should engage in the elements of primary and secondary prevention. It was their consensus that the Society should be more proactive and not reactive, and that we should make disease prevention a part of the overall philosophy for toxicological research. Among their short-term activities, they also discussed the need to educate study section reviewers on how toxicological studies are applicable to disease prevention; the possibility of soliciting manuscripts to ToxSci by creating a disease prevention or translational science section in the journal on the role that toxicology is playing in disease prevention; and the opportunity to work with the 2012 SPC to have a plenary speaker who could focus on disease prevention.
At the September meeting, SOT Council members Lawrence R. Curtis and William Slikker Jr. reviewed Strategic Priority #3—Build for the Future of Toxicology. They noted that SOT currently addresses the needs of its membership by providing a variety of valuable activities; but they emphasized that it is necessary for the Society and the individual members to plan for the future and to be proactive. The use of emerging technologies, the integration of relevant and forward-looking training, and the implementation of a vibrant and relevant research enterprise are necessary to build for the future of toxicology. As was done during the Council reviews of the other strategic priorities, Drs. Curtis and Slikker discussed how the various committees and task forces are contributing to building for the future of toxicology. As was discussed in the last Communiqué, the Board of Publications has initiated the search for the next Editor-in-Chief of Toxicological Sciences. The Career Resource and Development (CRAD) Committee will conduct follow-up surveys to employers who utilized the on-site job bank at the SOT Annual Meeting, and will continue to work with the Professional Needs Assessment Task Force in the creation of a Job Market Survey to be distributed by the 3Q in 2010. The Committee on Diversity Initiatives (CDI) will explore mechanisms for increasing responsibility and future leadership; for recruiting high-caliber students, providing them access to established Tox-training programs and encouraging research internships; and for expanding the application pool of Gehring Student Diversity Awards. CDI will also continue to fund the Guest Lecturer program and to promote the availability of resources. Finally, CDI will plan and execute an Undergraduate Education Program in 2010–2011. The CE Committee will continue to create on-line courses and will work to increase the involvement of students and postdoctoral fellows in CE. The Education Committee will continue activities to encourage SOT members to serve as educators at all levels. Their major efforts will be to provide appropriate resources for undergraduate instruction to train future toxicologists; to align the graduate, undergraduate, and K–12 strategic plans with the SOT Strategic Objectives; and to identify emerging educational needs at upper K–12, undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate levels. The Education Committee also is exploring plans to develop an education summit with other committees and task forces to focus efforts. The Endowment Fund Board (EFB) will work with potential contributors to identify new Endowment Funds; will work with Council to identify programs to associate with the four General Purpose Funds; and will work with SOT Headquarters to create a marketing plan for the current Endowment Funds, including the creation of additional recognition methods. Importantly, the members of the EFB recognize that a new strategic approach is needed for the growth and sustainability of the various endowment funds. The PDA is planning to develop 3–4 career development webinars for 2010–2011 and to fully utilize ToXchange to communicate with their members. The PDA also will advertise and endorse the on-line Mentor Match program, and will organize one joint PDA and Student Advisory Council (SAC) strategic planning call to improve student and postdoc outreach for the Mentor Match program. As noted above, the PDA also will organize a silent auction in celebration of the SOT’s 50th Anniversary. Besides working with the PDA on the Mentor Match program, the SAC will organize the “Lunch with an Expert” at the SOT Annual Meeting, and like the PDA, the SAC will increase communication among its members through communities in ToXchange, and will develop three webinars on topics of interest to graduate students. Finally, the Research Funding Committee (RFC) will develop a strategy to exert a positive influence on those who make funding decisions/priorities. The RFC will engage Regional Chapters to assist with the identification of local issues that might emphasize the importance of toxicology, and ultimately provide funding opportunities. The RFC will continue to organize the Research Funding Resource Room and the Brown Bag Lunch at the Annual Meeting as mechanisms to increase interactions with funders. The RFC also will implement an outreach approach to encourage toxicologists to develop proposals that are more flexible, i.e., disease-oriented; to provide links to agency roadmaps; and to work with program offices at institute panels. The RFC plans to provide a clearinghouse for scholarship funding from industry, and to engage industry in a dialogue about advantages in training funding from industry. Ultimately, it was recognized by Council that a stream of talented and well-trained toxicologists is required if our future is to be secured.
Michael P. Holsapple
2010–2011 SOT President
Past Presidents of the Society
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