Leading figures in epidemiology gathered at Michigan State University last weekend to discuss developments in the field and celebrate one of its heroes.
MSU’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics hosted the 86th annual meeting of the American Epidemiological Society, which featured talks from top experts on a range of health topics such as HIV, emerging diseases and the cancer risk from low-dose radiation, as well as broader explorations of university research and the future of epidemiology.
Highlights included the 28th Annual Harry A. Feldman Lecture, delivered by Georgia State University labor economist Paula Stephan on the topic of how economics shapes science; and the 15th Alexander Langmuir Lecture, given by University of Southern California epidemiologist Jonathan Samet on turning scientific data into sound public policy.
Much of the conversation turned to a guest who attended the meeting only in spirit: John Snow, a father of modern epidemiology who was born 200 years ago this month.
Snow’s reputation rests largely on his pioneering work in the 1850s that traced a London cholera outbreak to a contaminated water pump handle. The map he created during that effort hangs in epidemiology departments around the world.
In 2003 a group of MSU professors published what is widely regarded as the standard book on Snow’s life and work.