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President's Message
Winter Issue 2009
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President
Kenneth S. Ramos |
Strengthening Partnerships—We Are All In This Together
Since its founding in 1961, the Society of Toxicology has provided an open forum for the exchange of cutting-edge scientific investigations that help to inform the scientific community, policy makers, and the public. This scientific foundation is essential for the nation to sustain its priorities and commitments to safeguard human and environmental health. SOT’s academic, government, and industry members bring together wide-ranging perspectives that create an ideal platform to support the best science, and to promote our vision to “create a safer and healthier world by advancing the science of toxicology.”
For our Society, bridge-building must extend to the greater scientific community to include partners at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In late October, SOT Vice President Cheryl Lyn Walker, Vice President-Elect Michael Holsapple, and Executive Director Shawn Douglas Lamb joined me at a meeting with senior EPA leadership to create a Memorandum of Understanding that will enhance and promote our collaborative agenda into the future. EPA was represented by Stephen L. Johnson, EPA Administrator; George M. Gray, Assistant Administrator for the EPA Office of Research and Development; Charles M. Auer, Director, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics; Peter Preuss, Director, National Center for Environmental Assessment; Kevin Teichman, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science, and Bill Briggs, Director, Office of Public Outreach. The memorandum will be ratified in the near future.
Our relationship with the NIEHS continued to strengthen under the leadership of Sam Wilson and discussions will be held early next year to establish interactions with the incoming leadership team, headed by Linda Birnbaum. Anticipated updates on this transition will be presented at our next “Meet the Directors” session at the Annual Meeting in Baltimore. We have also initiated discussions with the leadership of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to identify shared visions and strategic priorities. Among the key elements being discussed is the NIH’s National Children’s Study, a federally mandated initiative that will examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to improve the health and well-being of children, clearly a goal that is closely aligned with the interests of many of our members.
In activating our strategic agenda to nurture existing and new partnerships, SOT seeks to advance the understanding of—and appreciation for—the role of toxicology in human health and disease prevention. As we expand these efforts, we are looking to our members for continued guidance. For instance, SOT will soon be launching a survey to our membership on issues related to toxicology. This survey is being conducted in partnership with the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), which is affiliated with George Mason University. STATS is a nonprofit research center whose mission is “to improve the quality of scientific and statistical information in public discourse and to act as a resource for journalists and policy makers on scientific issues and controversies." The development of the survey is being carried out in close collaboration with the Communications Committee, which is staffed by SOT’s Communications/Media Manager Martha Lindauer. The results will be reported in February and a discussion of the findings with SOT Council is planned for the 2009 SOT Annual Meeting in Baltimore.
On a separate note, an update of the NIH Center for Science Review’s Systemic Injury by Environmental Exposure (SIEE) Special Emphasis Panel (SEP) has been included in this issue, with special acknowledgement of the 12 SOT members who are serving on this panel of 19 scientists.
In closing, strong SOT partnerships represent an essential element in our maturation as a preeminent scientific society. As with other facets of life, the challenges that we embrace as a community are best met through the synergies that can only be realized through our collective efforts. After all, we are in this together!
Kenneth S. Ramos,
2008–2009 SOT President
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