Joe Leigh Simpson
Joe Leigh Simpson, MD
SRI President, 1998-1999
1998-99 was in many ways a pleasant year to be President. The 1990s were rather euphoric. The Berlin wall had fallen; economy was booming, benefiting from informational technology having generated efficiency. We were looking to the millennium with optimism. Everything seemed an anniversary!
The primary passion I brought to the SGI was to recognize more demonstrably the roles played by our members outside North America. All of us appreciated their contribution, but I considered maintenance and recruitment of additional “foreign” members essential. An international Committee was thus formed: [Andre Van Assche, Tom Eskes, Jelte De Haan, Bart Fauser, Arne Jensen, Dirk Kieback, Yuji Murata, Lesley Regan, Carlos Simon, Brian Trundinger]. This committee generated valuable recommendations, for example a more equitable room reservation timeline and abstract submission process friendlier to those across an ocean. I proposed and this Committee accepted that a Council member be elected from outside North America. Two SGI members from outside North America would be slated, with one elected by the entire SGI membership. Council later approved this proposal at the 1998 Interim SGI meeting in September, and the entire membership confirmed through a By Laws changes at the 1999 Business meeting. The ballot in 2000 resulted in Murray Mitchell being elected. Well into this century a “set aside” a non-North American Council member seems quaint. Our annual meeting first met in Glasgow and soon will reprise in Paris; Japan and Italy have hosted SGI meetings. President Petraglia was from outside North America, and the 2011 Nominating Committee Chair (Phil Bennett) is as well.
A second major initiative in 1998-99 was enhancing industry relationships. I had long lamented the de facto fire wall between Pharma/Biotech and academia. I thus formed (another, for doubtless not the first) Industry Committee, which first met at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) two months after the 1998 SGI. My aspiration was that industry exhibits would be staffed not by a traditional marketing team, but by our scientific and medical peers. A brochure enumerating industry research was prepared; space was allocated for a well-attended “meet and greet” forum at the 1999 SGI. Although a plethora of colleagues from Pharma and biotech loyally continue to attend SRI and interact with us, I still believe that greater attention would be salutary for our society. Witness, for example, the far greater scientific contribution of industry colleagues at major genetics and reproductive medicine meetings.
Initial steps toward better polity were also taken in several overdue. At the 1998 incoming Council meeting, I voiced concern over the operational budget and the “Research and Development” fund co-mingled into a single “Finance and Development” category. Notwithstanding our then comfortable largesse, Council at the September 1998 Interim meeting recommended a person dedicated for fund-raising under aegis of “SGI Foundation.” John Grossman was eventually tapped for this role and given title of Executive Director.
The 1999 meeting was a success. Program Chairman Michael Belfort oversaw 773 presented abstracts, three robust satellites, and the usual outstanding mini-symposia. Clare Francomano (NIH) and Bert O’Malley (Baylor) gave the keynotes in Atlanta.
It is always a special privilege for the President to bestow awards. The young Mark Evans was recognized for the President’s Achievement Award, his voluminous contributions to prenatal genetic diagnosis continuing to the present. The Distinguished Scientist Award was presented to Orlando J. (Jack) Miller, a true doyen in cytogenetics. Jack is a household name worldwide in human genetics, but not all know he is one of us – MD and Ob-Gyn residency at Yale, followed by four fellowships. The first two were at Yale: Brown Junior Fellowship between 2nd and 3rd years of medical school, and then a National Research Council Fellowship; Jack worked on granulosa cell tumors and luteomas in mice. Then our hero received a prestigious Population Council Fellowship to work at the renown Galton Laboratory, University College, London. At that time, training at the Galton Laboratory was THE imprimatur. Here Jack was truly introduced to human genetics and human chromosome research (1958-59). Jack returned to the States to take a Josiah Macy fellowship and join the Columbia faculty. Despite having previously performed his requisite share of hysterectomies, Jack was judged by our predecessors on the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) not to have sufficient continuing patient activities to remain eligible for board certification. No exemption or delay seemed applicable for extraneous pursuits like research training. Now we would, of course, consider such robust training visionary, the pathway to scientific excellence as indeed occurred.
Movement began toward modifying the SGI elections process. At the 1999 Business meeting, John Bissonette voiced several iconoclastic proposals, many now ensconced in one form or another. Following robust discussion the membership approved a motion to constitute an ad hoc committee to generate potential changes in the SGI election process. This has resulted in a formal Nominating Committee, the membership deciding in 2000 on five members with the Chair to be chosen from among Council. The entire membership is now solicited for potential nominees, to be directed to the Nominating Committee. Decision was made in 2000 to allow more than two Presidential candidates, subject to member comments received and the Nomination Committee taking into account the best interests of our Society.
In March 1999, I was privileged to have completed service as President, and honored to hand the gavel to Eli Adashi in preparation for the 2000 Millennium meeting.