It is ironic to look back at the “Message from the President” Tom Martin, M.D., wrote one year ago. The title for his summary of our 2002 meeting in Atlanta was: “ATS International Conference succeeds in a difficult time.” We had worried that the terrorism of 9/11 would chill international travel, reduce attendance, and impair our ability to fulfill one of our principal missions: the communication of advances in the scientific basis for the prevention and treatment of lung disease. And, not incidentally, impair our ability to fund our work. Although we approach our centennial anniversary in 2005, the ATS is only in its fourth year as an independent organization, and the meeting provides nearly a third of our revenues. So its success will remain critical until we have built sufficient reserves to weather hard times. But it is now history that the meeting in Atlanta was a success, and we looked forward to a return of the less complicated days when our attentions could be focused only on planning the scientific, educational, administrative, and social events that make our Conference so successful.

But a simple run-up to the Seattle meeting was not fated. We had first worried that the war in Iraq would stall international travel, and breathed a sigh of relief when it seemed to be resolving quickly, with fewer ripples across the world than might have been expected. But then SARS broke out, profoundly inhibiting travel, especially across the Pacific, and also between Toronto and the United States.

It would be hard to overestimate the work Tom Martin devoted to ensuring our meeting in Seattle could be held safely. He made innumerable calls and e-mails to Julie L.Gerberding, M.D, M.P.H., Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and her staff, to public health authorities in Seattle, and to concerned members. Typically, what others might have seen only as a problem, Tom saw as an opportunity. With help from William Bishai, M.D., in our Assembly on Microbiology Tuberculosis and Pulmonary Infections (MTPI), Tom put together a special symposium on SARS. The speakers, from Guangdong China, Hong Kong, the CDC, and the Seattle Public Health Department, reflected the diversity of the expertise and nationalities of our membership. So did those who attended, overfilling the meeting room, with many watching video monitors hastily set up in the lobby outside the room. This scene was featured on local news programs. It showed the interest of international pulmonary physicians in their own education, packing an auditorium to learn the latest about a new condition. A nice symbol of what the ATS is about.

Despite our anxieties before the meeting, with pride in our membership, relief for our society, and gratitude to JoRae Wright, Ph.D., for leading the International Conference Committee, and to Fran Comi, ATS Director of Scientific Meetings and Conferences, and the entire ATS staff for making it possible, I can write again: “The ATS International Conference succeeds at a difficult time.” More than 14,000 attended, with nearly, 40 percent of attendees from outside the United States. More than 5,500 posters and abstracts were presented. The business meetings of the assemblies were as crowded and energetic as I have seen them, continuing a trend of several years. So it was possible to simply enjoy the Conference in the usual way. Highlights for me were the awards ceremonies (awardees are listed on p.6), Peter Ward’s Amberson lecture, Paul Selecky’s moving tribute to his mother on accepting the “Outstanding Clinican” award, and Leroy Hood’s visionary review of “New Systems Biology” during his President’s Lecture. In addition, probably like all who attend the conference, I delighted in running across the unexpected nugget. For me, it was a poster in a far corner of the open posters on Wednesday morning-- a report by Amy Pastva, from the University of Alabama, on the effects of aerobic exercise on immune responses in a murine model of asthma. It showed a way to study, at least in an animal model, the speculation that a decline in exercise among children might be contributing to the increase in asthma’s prevalence in western, urbanized societies. But the particular thoughts that this poster triggered are not important here. What is important is its illustration of why we attend the meetings: the high probability of learning something unexpected and interesting, of meeting someone who’s work you had not known about, of gaining a new insight, or of having a new idea.

We know no one can master all the knowledge, and we want to hear from each other. This is how ideas are born, when people from different backgrounds with different expertise and perspectives talk about a problem of common interest. And this, in turn, is the fundamental great reason for the existence of societies like the ATS. The vigor of our annual Conference, despite the anxieties of our “post-modern” world, is one proof that we are fulfilling our mission well.

So, start planning now to attend next year’s International Conference, in the sun of Orlando, Florida, May 21-26.