Saxon Graham
Lecture At Buffalo Focuses On “Eras In Epidemiology: Embracing Our
Past To Chart The Future”
Talk Concludes On
Need For Creativity And Other Attributes For Successful Action
John Vena,
Professor and Founding Chair Department of Public Health Sciences
Medical University of South Carolina, and a former student and faculty
member at the University of Buffalo, delivered the Saxon Graham
Lecture on the occasion of the 100th anniversary
celebration held at the University in late May.
Vena brought together
a remarkable collection of previous work by major figures in
epidemiology and public health who were trained or affiliated with
Buffalo over the years. He presented snapshots of papers, photos,
quotes, and other memorabilia that helped the audience to better
understand the contributions of well-known epidemiologists such as
Morton Levin, Warren Winkelstein, Abraham Lilienfeld,
and Milton Terris as well as Saxon Graham who chaired
the Department of Epidemiology in the 1980’s and 90’s.
Graham
Subtitled Embracing
Our Past To Chart The Future, Vena’s talk recalled the ideas of Saxon
Graham about the importance of creativity in allowing epidemiology to
meet the challenges facing the field. Graham was President of the
Society for Epidemiologic Research in 1987 and he discussed enhancing
creativity in his presidential address at the meeting in Amherst that
year and in a subsequent paper in the American Journal of
Epidemiology. Graham was interested in learning about what stimulates
creativity and he highlighted the importance of exposing
epidemiologists to ideas from new sources.
Cause of Creativity
Graham stated in his
paper “creative production is often the result of the innovative
joining of two disparate elements already in the field or of elements
in the primary field with elements from the new field.” He recognized
that innovative epidemiologists would likely make errors in trying new
approaches and he worried about the role that excessive criticism and
skepticism in epidemiology might play in discouraging creativity.
Elements of
Achievement
Vena himself has long
been interested in the elements of creativity and achievement in
epidemiology and published a paper in 1999 on “Innovative
Multidisciplinary Research In Environmental Epidemiology: The
Challenges And Needs”. He revisited and modified some of the key
points from that work in presenting the concluding parts of his Saxon
Graham Lecture. Among the important qualities for action, according to
Vena, are the following: (slightly edited for inclusion here).
1. Being values
driven.
2. Being connected to
others and fostering intellectual interactions.
3. Being introspective
about how you can make a difference in this world.
4. Pacing yourself to
make time for self-renewal, and using contact with nature to
facilitate this needed renewal.
5. Having courage to
attempt the novel and a sense of humor to laugh at the mistakes that
will be made.
6. Pursuing the best
options when perspectives change.
7. Overcoming
adversity by learning the lessons which life experiences provide.
8. Envisioning
scenarios of a different future.
In his talk, Vena was
also keen to point out the importance of collaboration for success in
science. He pointed listeners to the NIH Field Guide on Collaboration
and Team Science (teamscience.nih.gov)
and quoted Henry Ford “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping
together is progress. Working together is success.”
Readers interested in
learning more about the productive history of the Buffalo Department
over the years can visit
https://bit.ly/2YfwNao to view the video of Vena’s presentation
which included more than 100 slides and pictures.
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