APSA Newsletter - Phi Psi » 2009 Fall, Volume 4, No. 1 » From the President

From the President

David Braun, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, APSA President

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Hello Everyone,

I am sure this is a very busy time of the year for everyone, but often we find that we are able to do something very positive even during such hectic periods. As you know, APSA has been growing, and is a dynamic organization thanks to the commitment of its members. As a rather new organization, this success is particularly welcome, and it tells us about the enormous potential of both the across-the-disciplines approach that physician-scientists advocate, and that of our own organization to contribute. I have written before about our major conferences, which succeeded beyond even our best expectations. For example, only two years ago, students at Mount Sinai worked with members of the APSA Executive Council to organize the APSA New York Physician-scientists Symposium. Two years ago, over 130 participants from 25 institutions attended the event. As well, world-renowned physician-scientists came to give keynote addresses and lead seminars. In the fall of 2008, at the next symposium that he co-organized, over 250 students from more than 45 institutions, including all the leading medical schools in the Northeast, attended. The event has been able to attract many notable speakers, including Nobel laureate Harold Varmus, Charles Sawyers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and Leon Rosenberg from Princeton. These annual symposia at MSSM are not only growing in national prominence and attracting top physician-scientists and ever growing numbers of MD/PhD students, but they are also making a seminal contribution to fulfilling the mission of APSA throughout the United States.