Dear Fellows

We are both delighted to have been selected as President and Vice-President of the Society for the next two years.  As Hazel Dockrell articulated a couple of years back, it’s an honour but also a daunting responsibility.  Hazel has built on the achievements of Brian Greenwood and David Molyneux, while injecting a great many ideas of her own, and we’re very grateful to Hazel for her guidance in the last few months (which we hope to be able to keep calling upon!).

The Society is special. If science can be thought of as a ‘virtuous circle’, then the Society spans a complete cycle – from Cell Biology, through ‘proof-of-principle’, spanning Experimental medicine and Clinical Trials, and beyond to Epidemiology, International Health, Health Policy and Social Sciences.  But it would be a mistake to see the Society’s role simply in scientific terms, since education and advocacy ought both to be addressed.  Undergraduates (mainly in the health professions, but also biomedical, and social science students) are increasingly demanding aspects of ‘Global Health’ to be included in their curricula.  Further, many young graduates (again, mainly the health professions but other disciplines too) want to spend time working in resource-poor settings.  These people are the future ‘core membership’ of the Society – they often work for NGOs, may not have much interest in research at this stage in their careers, but will usually return to the UK to pursue diverse careers after their stint in the topics.  Right now we don’t think that such young professionals are terribly well catered for by the Society, and we aim to change that (inclusion of material they find relevant in the Society’s journals might be a good start).  As to advocacy, British science and healthcare are going through what may be a prolonged spell of major financial pressure – it will be important that the authorities are reminded of the strength of British science, as it relates to Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, and that vital educational activities are seen as a priority.

We’re absolutely sure that the Biennial Meetings are the key to the Society’s future.  It will be important that these include the complete cycle of relevant scientific disciplines in their programmes, and that sections of the meeting are organised by outstanding scientists.  It will be equally vital that the meetings appeal to a young audience – both undergraduates and recent graduates.  We will be giving the next meeting at the University of Warwick our particular attention – and we are fortunate to have the professional help of the CEO and her team in making the arrangements.

The Society has invested in a new website, and this is the crucial outward face of all our activities.  We think it could probably be made even better, and we plan to spend some effort trying to achieve this – but we’ll be very reliant on Fellows for material (including images) for inclusion.

We two have worked together over more years than we care to remember – so there is a pattern of shared responsibilities.  Steve remains pretty exclusively focused on science, while Peter has undergone a metamorphosis and emerged as a Dean – it might be that our differing viewpoints could help us address the various science, education, healthcare and advocacy aspects of the Presidency.  We hope that we will be able to meet as many of you as possible during the next two years, at our meetings, at other international meetings, or in Liverpool, Warwick or London.

Peter Winstanley and Steve Ward.