April is here and with it all of the signs of spring - warmer temperatures, exuberant bursts of wildflowers (even in Houston), and that famous "lost" hour of sleep as we leapt ahead into Daylight Savings Time. As the orchids in my greenhouse emerge in beautiful seasonal blooms, particularly the phalaenopsis and early dendrobiums, I find myself thoroughly enjoying the activities associated with leading SRNT and revving up with the appropriate level of energy and involvement.

Here are a few of my current activities within SRNT.

1. Once the Bylaws revision and the reorganization of our leadership and committee structure are approved by the SRNT membership, the new Board will be addressing some consolidations, membership review, and opportunities for participation on committees. Brion Fox has concluded his three year term as Chair of the Policy Committee, a role he played with enthusiasm and accomplishment. We are extremely fortunate to have K. Michael Cummings, Ph.D. as our incoming Chair. Mike is Professor and Chair, Department of Health Behavior, Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo. He is the Principal Investigator of the newest TTURC and is considered one of our most senior scientists in tobacco control. His research includes studies of tobacco product marketing, the effectiveness of tobacco control policies on adult and youth smoking behavior, and consumer risk perceptions about tobacco products and nicotine delivery devices. Matthew S. Barry, M.P.A. will serve as Co-Chair; Matt is the Director of Policy Research for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. In this role, Matt provides expertise on smoking cessation, second hand smoke, smokeless tobacco, FDA regulation of tobacco products, and reduced-risk products to CTFK. He participates in numerous public health coalition working groups and has been a member of the policy work group of several national cessation programs.

Watch the SRNT list serve for opportunities to volunteer for committees - we are particularly eager to involve young investigators and members from the global community.

2. "Transdisciplinarity" and interaction with colleagues in related professional organizations: Spring also brings a variety of professional meetings in the U.S., in addition to our own annual meeting. I wrote in my first column about my belief in the growing importance of collaborating across disciplines to bring fresh and enriched approaches to many of the scientific questions we address, both in the basic science and clinical arenas. Attending meetings and networking outside of our own institutions is a great way to be stimulated in this direction. I always feel that I gain valuable experience in mixing with researchers and clinicians from disciplines that study tobacco or other substances, in terms of being exposed to other theoretical orientations, new technologies and methodologies. There is an opportunity to develop new collaborations and to gain access to new funding sources. The "tension" is always around having enough time to engage in such explorations while remaining focused on one's own ongoing research activities and professional demands. This year I attended the American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO) and the Society for Behavioral Medicine (SBM); I have been a long time member of both of these groups.

ASPO has an active Tobacco Interest Group, which Alex Prokhorov, M.D., Ph.D. a faculty member in my Department of Behavioral Science, currently leads. ASPO also sponsors the annual Joseph W. Cullen Memorial Lecture, for excellence in tobacco research, an award that has been given to multiple SRNT members. ASPO usually has an invited symposium on tobacco research, and paper and poster sessions that feature nicotine research in a transdisciplinary context. This is a particularly good meeting in which to hear the latest epidemiologic and genetic research on tobacco in a relatively small meeting context, about 400 attendees.

SBM was our parent organization and still features symposia, paper and poster sessions on smoking. The mixture of researchers and clinicians working in behavioral medicine gives a rich exposure to advances in understanding and treating a wide variety of diseases, conditions and lifestyle behaviors associated with adverse health outcomes. Ed Fisher, Ph.D. is the current President of SBM - he and I are seeking a means of formally reaching out to both organizations by a common mechanism at next year's annual meetings, perhaps through a shared symposium. SBM is approximately double our size, with 1800 members.

The American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) recently created a Behavioral Science Task Force, of which I am a member. The annual fall AACR Prevention meeting is beginning to feature more behavioral science research and has many sessions in basic science, epidemiology, chemoprevention, and translational science in cancer prevention.

Depending on our membership's disciplinary interest and specialization, the list of "sister" organizations is very broad. I'm certain each of our members could add several of their own, falling into basic science, clinical and public health venues, as well as by disease specialization. I think there is value in such "cross-fertilization" and hope we might attract additional members to SRNT in our own networking outreach.

3. Finally, upcoming in June is a special NIH conference that has been announced through the SRNT list serve (April 4, 2006, from John Hughes), but that I wish to highlight here. The NIH State-of-the-Science Conference on Tobacco Use: Prevention, Cessation, and Control is a "first." Sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Office of Medical Applications of Research (OMAR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the conference will "...stimulate a critical review of the available evidence and identify directions for future research. Conference proceedings will include presentations from recognized experts in the field on how effective prevention and treatment strategies can be developed and implemented across diverse segments of the population." Many of the speakers are SRNT members, including Gary Giovino, John Pierce, Tracy Orleans, Michael Fiore, Phillip Gardiner, Tim McAfee, Dorothy Hatsukami, David Sweanor, Scott Tomar, Caryn Lerman, Sharon Hall and myself. I will be speaking on "Chronic Disease and Co-Occurring Risk Behaviors." This conference has open registration and I hope some of our members will attend.

My very best wishes for a productive and enjoyable Spring, and I'll catch up with "y'all" again in August!