Outlook | A Quarterly Newsletter of the Society of Behavioral Medicine

2008 Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions One of the Best Attended!

Dear Colleagues,

Thanks to everyone who attended the 29th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California! We hope you enjoyed the meeting. We had over 1,400 abstracts submitted and over 1,300 attendees making this year's meeting one of the largest and most attended in the history of our Society! Keeping with the spirit of the mission of our society, the scientific sessions covered a broad range of topics within the field of behavioral medicine.

If you were unable to make it this year, there were a number of meeting highlights! The meeting kicked off with a full day of pre-conference workshops, seminars, and courses on a variety of topics geared toward both the scientist and practitioner, including meditation/yoga, NIH peer review, Bayesian modeling, behavioral medicine in clinical settings and behavior therapy. The Presidential Reception officially kicked off the meeting on Wednesday night and was hosted by SBM President, Dr. Peter Kaufmann. During the reception, we were honored to highlight student meritorious abstracts as well as submissions that received citations from the abstract reviewers. The meeting also featured a fascinating array of keynote speakers. Dr. Beverly Thorn packed the house in her engaging keynote address on translating research into practice. We got to hear many of the personal stories about some of the wonderful patients she works with in Pineapple, Alabama. Dr. James Sallis presented the Distinguished Scientist Master Lecture, where he discussed his Active Living Research program and had all of us dancing during this year's physical activity break, and Dr. Edward McAuley reminded us, in a very exciting lecture, of the quality of life benefits of physical activity. Dr. Gregory Miller presented cutting edge research in the fields of epigenetics and psychoneuroimmunology and showed how early life SES and adversity can be embedded in physiology and subsequently impact health outcomes. A special and riveting invited lecture was given by Jessie Gruman who shared how her own personal experiences as well as those of others who have received devastating diagnoses inspired her to write a book for the general public on how to cope with a devastating diagnosis. Then, Dr. Clarion Johnson flew us around the globe as he described his experiences battling occupational health issues in corporate medicine for the international company, Exxon Mobil. In addition to the exciting lineup of Keynote and Master speakers, we had a series of stimulating symposiums and paper presentations covering topics such as basic science to implementation, aging, biological mechanisms in health and chronic disease, health promotion in diabetes, and psychosocial interventions for chronic disease management, among others. Many of our symposiums and paper sessions were standing room only!

This year we combined the awards ceremony, Presidential Address, and the SBM Business meeting in the hopes that we could expose more SBM members to the workings of the Business meeting. A list of our award winners appears below. Although a "business meeting" may not sound exciting, it is an opportunity for members to become familiar and involved with the organization of SBM.

One really fun feature of the meeting this year was the between-session physical activity breaks, which allowed attendees to stretch out and even practice some dance moves. Even if you are not a dancer, at the very least this provided an opportunity for great camera phone shots of your colleagues "getting down" for use in your next departmental slide presentation!

We hope that you enjoyed the Annual Meeting and that you plan to attend next year in Montreal, Quebec, a new location for SBM that we believe everybody will really enjoy. We welcome feedback about how to improve future meetings, so please feel free to contact the Program Committee with your comments and suggestions. The 2009 Annual Meeting Program Chair is Dr. Sherry Pagoto and Program Co-Chair is Dr. Michael Diefenbach.

Frank Penedo
Frank J. Penedo, PhD
2008 Program Chair

Sherry Pagoto, PhD
2008 Program Co-chair

Award Winners

Distinguished Research Mentor
Michael Andrykowski, PhD

Distinguished Scientist
Tracy Orleans, PhD

Distinguished Service Award Recipients

Distinguished Service (pictured L to R)
Jasjit S. Ahluwalia, MD, MPH, MS (not pictured)
Linda C. Baumann, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN (not pictured)
Edwin Fisher, PhD
Rick Seidel, PhD
Peter G. Kaufmann, PhD (President 2007-2008, making awards)
Frank Penedo, PhD
Marc Gellman, PhD
David Wood

Early Career Investigator
Guadalupe Ayala, PhD, MPH

LifeScan Diabetes Award
Vicki Helgeson, PhD

Young Scholar Travel Award for Women and Cancer Research
Jada Hamilton
Gareth Lloyd
Valerie Tremblay

Distinguished Student Awards
Travel Scholarship: Hannah Faye Chua, PhD
Outstanding Dissertation: Michelle Segar, PhD
Excellence in Research: Lucia Leone


Spring/Summer 2008	Return to Outlook Main page >>
2008 Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions One of the Best Attended! Dear Colleagues, Thanks to everyone who attended the 29th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, California! We hope you enjoyed the meeting. We had over 1,400 abstracts submitted and over 1,300 attendees making this year's meeting one of the largest and most attended in the history of our Society! Keeping with the spirit of the mission of our society, the scientific sessions covered a broad range of topics within the field of behavioral medicine. If you were unable to make it this year, there were a number of meeting highlights! The meeting kicked off with a full day of pre-conference workshops, seminars, and courses on a variety of topics geared toward both the scientist and practitioner, including meditation/yoga, NIH peer review, Bayesian modeling, behavioral medicine in clinical settings and behavior therapy. The Presidential Reception officially kicked off the meeting on Wednesday night and was hosted by SBM President, Dr. Peter Kaufmann. During the reception, we were honored to highlight student meritorious abstracts as well as submissions that received citations from the abstract reviewers. The meeting also featured a fascinating array of keynote speakers. Dr. Beverly Thorn packed the house in her engaging keynote address on translating research into practice. We got to hear many of the personal stories about some of the wonderful patients she works with in Pineapple, Alabama. Dr. James Sallis presented the Distinguished Scientist Master Lecture, where he discussed his Active Living Research program and had all of us dancing during this year's physical activity break, and Dr. Edward McAuley reminded us, in a very exciting lecture, of the quality of life benefits of physical activity. Dr. Gregory Miller presented cutting edge research in the fields of epigenetics and psychoneuroimmunology and showed how early life SES and adversity can be embedded in physiology and subsequently impact health outcomes. A special and riveting invited lecture was given by Jessie Gruman who shared how her own personal experiences as well as those of others who have received devastating diagnoses inspired her to write a book for the general public on how to cope with a devastating diagnosis. Then, Dr. Clarion Johnson flew us around the globe as he described his experiences battling occupational health issues in corporate medicine for the international company, Exxon Mobil. In addition to the exciting lineup of Keynote and Master speakers, we had a series of stimulating symposiums and paper presentations covering topics such as basic science to implementation, aging, biological mechanisms in health and chronic disease, health promotion in diabetes, and psychosocial interventions for chronic disease management, among others. Many of our symposiums and paper sessions were standing room only! This year we combined the awards ceremony, Presidential Address, and the SBM Business meeting in the hopes that we could expose more SBM members to the workings of the Business meeting. A list of our award winners appears below. Although a "business meeting" may not sound exciting, it is an opportunity for members to become familiar and involved with the organization of SBM. One really fun feature of the meeting this year was the between-session physical activity breaks, which allowed attendees to stretch out and even practice some dance moves. Even if you are not a dancer, at the very least this provided an opportunity for great camera phone shots of your colleagues "getting down" for use in your next departmental slide presentation! We hope that you enjoyed the Annual Meeting and that you plan to attend next year in Montreal, Quebec, a new location for SBM that we believe everybody will really enjoy. We welcome feedback about how to improve future meetings, so please feel free to contact the Program Committee with your comments and suggestions. The 2009 Annual Meeting Program Chair is Dr. Sherry Pagoto and Program Co-Chair is Dr. Michael Diefenbach. Frank J. Penedo, PhD 2008 Program Chair Sherry Pagoto, PhD 2008 Program Co-chair Award Winners Distinguished Research Mentor Michael Andrykowski, PhD Distinguished Scientist Tracy Orleans, PhD Distinguished Service (pictured L to R) Jasjit S. Ahluwalia, MD, MPH, MS (not pictured) Linda C. Baumann, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN (not pictured) Edwin Fisher, PhD Rick Seidel, PhD Peter G. Kaufmann, PhD (President 2007-2008, making awards) Frank Penedo, PhD Marc Gellman, PhD David Wood Early Career Investigator Guadalupe Ayala, PhD, MPH LifeScan Diabetes Award Vicki Helgeson, PhD Young Scholar Travel Award for Women and Cancer Research Jada Hamilton Gareth Lloyd Valerie Tremblay Distinguished Student Awards Travel Scholarship: Hannah Faye Chua, PhD Outstanding Dissertation: Michelle Segar, PhD Excellence in Research: Lucia Leone