11/24/2014 email from John M. Last to Victor J. Schoenbach Dear Vic Many thanks for your kind email. I appreciated and really enjoyed your text. We need more ‘big picture’ visions, more thoughtful attempts to blend epidemiological approaches to problem solving with the approaches of scientists and scholars in other disciplines. For example, we recently had a small-scale episode of terrorism perpetrated by a convert to Islam who shot and killed an unarmed sentry guarding the tomb of the unknown soldier here in Ottawa. He then stormed the parliament building, armed with his two-shot hunting rifle. He obviously was mentally disturbed, but unfortunately he was shot dead before anyone had a chance to interrogate him, find out where he got his crazy ideas about shooting elected members of parliament. Could that convert have been detected and his aims diverted to something more constructive? Could a social anthropologist have discovered the sources of his (presumably) disturbed, distorted view? Could epidemiologists have discovered how and by whom he was infected with his lethal ideas? In short, how, if at all, can societies like USA and Canada identify, detect, prevent deviant and violent behaviour among groups such as adolescent youth, whether recent converts to Islam, disaffected kids in underclass communities, recruits to law enforcement agencies, or others at risk of harming individuals and groups - such as school kids, as happens from time to time in the USA. The epidemiology of violence screams out for more study, aimed at identifying determinants and risk factors. Another group needing study are recruits to ISIS: we obviously can’t kill them all, and attempts to do so will lead only to more recruitment. I’ve attached a PDF of my Lilienfeld address to ACE. As best I can remember, I stuck pretty closely to this text as I spoke; by then I’d learnt from experience that if I didn’t follow a written text, I often rambled. I didn’t use the above example to illustrate a transdisciplinary approach, and didn’t go into detail about problems related to global change. Some of these are quite urgent. There’s never been such turbulent movement around the world as in the past 50 years or so; much of it is due to resource depletion etc, and it’s going to be greatly accelerated by climate change. Those migrating present us with several well defined and several very vaguely defined public health problems urgently in need of study. Best wishes, John John M Last, OC, MD Emeritus professor of epidemiology University of Ottawa Residence: 11A/300 Queen Elizabeth Dr Ottawa, ON K1S 3M6 CANADA Tel: 613-233-4859 oldwhitebeard@gmail.com (personal) jmlast@uottawa.ca (work) http://www.medicine.uottawa.ca/epid/eng/lastbio.html Blog: lastswords.blogspot.com ____________ On Nov 24, 2014, at 1:18 PM, Schoenbach, Victor J wrote: Dear John - Greetings from North Carolina. I hope that you are well. I am writing to ask two favors, hopefully not burdensome. At the last American College of Epidemiology meeting (shortly before your birthday, I believe) I made a short presentation in which I attempted to outline my ideas for a future direction for epidemiologic research. As I have done in the concluding lecture of my introductory course each year, I quoted from my notes of your remarks when you accepted the Abraham Lilienfeld Award, in 1997 (my notes are at the end of this email). I have taken the liberty of attaching the text of my presentation, and I would be most grateful for any comments or reaction you would care to share with me. Also, have you by chance published the remarks that you made in 1997. I am particularly interested in being able to cite your statement (if I got it down correctly), “There is a need for innovative, transdisciplinary approaches. Epidemiology is already transdisciplinary. Epidemiology is well placed to take leadership.” Warmest wishes, Vic Schoenbach P.S. I am working on writing a history of the UNC Department of Epidemiology. As I probe back into my early years in the field, I seem to recall being asked by Michel Ibrahim to attend a meeting with you and Anita Bahn, at which she expressed the need for a dictionary of epidemiology. That idea, which you so expertly executed, has been a great contribution to our field. I recently obtained the 6th edition. http://go.unc.edu/vjs http://go.unc.edu/sjae - Social Justice and Equality – In Search of John Cassel’s Epidemiology; A Consequential Future for Epidemiology (presented 9/8/2014) Please join me in supporting the David Lynch Foundation, www.davidlynchfoundation.org/schools.html Coming February 27: Reaching for the American Dream: Economic Mobility and Minority Health (36th Annual Minority Health Conference). More information and the video of the keynote from last year’s conference are on the web: http://minorityhealth.web.unc.edu Broadcast June 3 and now on the web: School-to-Prison Pipeline: from Perceptions to Solutions, the 20th National Health Equity Research Webcast: go.unc.edu/nherw ________________ Notes from: John M. Last Abraham Lilienfeld awardee American College of Epidemiology Annual Meeting, Boston, September 22, 1997 "In most of the world, inequity is leading to environmental damage and social destruction. Human imbalance is leading to increased misery. Poverty is the key." Are there reasons to rethink the aspirations for epidemiology and public health - to eliminate diseases and mortality? Is it wise to keep people alive twice as long as needed to perpetuate the species and in the process degrade the ecosystem? Global change is a great developing threat to life and forces us to reappraise our very aspirations. How does eugenics look to us now? How will people 50 years from now look back on what we are doing? How do we choose what to work on? When we practice epidemiology and disease control, what are we trying to do? Will the world be much better off if we eliminated cancer? When is death "premature"? What do we mean by living better? How long will it go on being better? There is a need for innovative, transdisciplinary approaches. Epidemiology is already transdisciplinary. Epidemiology is well placed to take leadership. ____________