President's Update, June 2015

Robert C. Smallridge, M.D. ATA President

Dear ATA Colleagues:

As we enter the summer months preceding the 15th International Thyroid Congress (ITC), our committees have been busy finishing important assignments. I would like to specifically note the accomplishments of the Nominating Committee and the Awards Committee.

The Nominating Committee, chaired by Carole Spencer, PhD, has recommended an outstanding slate of candidates for whom members will have an opportunity to vote. First is the selection of our next President-Elect, and the candidates are Alan Farwell, MD and John Morris III, MD. Second is the selection of three new Directors, these being: Director (Basic Science) —Sheue-yann Cheng, PhD and Rebecca Schweppe, PhD; Director (At Large) —Yaron Tomer, MD and Andrew Bauer, MD; and Director (Surgeon) —Sally Carty, MD and Ralph Tufano, MD. Please be sure to exercise your voting privilege and select from among these fine candidates. I would also like to extend my thanks and appreciation to Hossein Gharib, MD, Erik Alexander, MD, and Martha Zeiger, MD, who have provided valuable contributions to the ATA and will be completing their terms on the Board of Directors in October.

The Awards Committee, chaired by Donald L. St. Germain, MD, has completed its task and selected the recipients of this year's awards from an exceptionally strong list of nominees. The ATA Distinguished Service Award will be bestowed upon Peter Kopp, MD, while the John B. Stanbury Pathophysiology Medal awardee is Sheue-yann Cheng, PhD. Both individuals have made major contributions to the field of thyroidology and to the ATA, and will be honored at the ITC in October. The final award this year is the Van Meter Lectureship Award, our oldest award intended for our youngest members. Established in 1930, the Van Meter recognizes outstanding contributions to research on the thyroid gland or related subjects, and is designated for an investigator who is not older than the age of 45 in this year. The tradition is that this awardee is announced at the time of the Van Meter lecture, which will be on October 19 at 1:00 pm. I hope all of you will attend and congratulate the Van Meter recipient personally. Also, it is important that members nominate deserving colleagues, so please take the opportunity to do so when the next call for nominations is published.

Several of our Guidelines Task Forces have completed their labors, and their manuscripts have recently been published in Thyroid. You can also find them accessible on the ATA website. A heartfelt thanks to the chairs, Samuel Wells, MD, Gary Francis, MD, PhD, Andrew Bauer, MD, Steven Waguespack, MD, Jacqueline Jonklaas, MD, and their task force members, who spent many hours over several years producing these valuable documents to help us in our daily practices.

Hopefully you are starting to get excited about the ITC at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort in Lake Buena Vista, FL (just outside of Orlando), October 18-23. The Abstracts submission deadline has occurred, and the Program Committee is reviewing all submissions now. We are also receiving strong registration responses from all our societies, the ATA, ETA, AOTA, and LATS. The ITC occurs only once every five years (the ATA hosts once every twenty years), and brings together a remarkably diverse audience from around the world. We want you there, so please register and don't miss out on an outstanding meeting.

I look forward to welcoming you to the ITC!

Sincerely,

Robert C. Smallridge, MD
ATA President