Greetings from the Past President of the International Epidemiological Association
Jorn Olsen, University of California, School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology, Los Angeles, USA 

Wednesday 26 August 2009, Welcome Reception

Jorn Olsen is Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, UCLA. He came to UCLA from Denmark in 2006 where he was head of the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre and was Principal Investigator of the Danish National Birth Cohort, a study among 100,000 pregnant women and their children. The aim of this study is to examine early determinants of health in a cohort that will be followed from conception to death. Most of Dr. Olsen’s research has been in reproductive health but studies have also been done on cancer and other chronic diseases.
Dr. Olsen has published more than 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals and his publications also include textbooks on epidemiology. He has been a member of the Medical Research Council in Denmark and serves as consultant for research councils in several countries. He serves on advisory committees for several research centers and on editorial boards for scientific journals and is Associate Editor of Human Reproduction.
Past president of the International Epidemiological Association 2005-2008.

Epidemic of Diabetes: Challenges and opportunities for epidemiologists
Andrzej Krolewski, Harvard Medical School, Joslin Diabetes Center, Section on Genetics and Epidemiology, Boston, United States of America

Thursday 27 August 2009 Morning

Dr. Andrzej Krolewski received his medical education at the Warsaw Medical University, Warsaw, Poland. After coming to the U.S. and completing fellowships in epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health and molecular human genetics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he established a laboratory of Genetics and Epidemiology at the Joslin Diabetes Center. Capitalizing on his access to the 16,000 patient population of the Joslin Clinic, he developed research on the epidemiology and genetics of diabetes and its late complications. He has published over 200 papers in this area. His current research focuses on three topics:
1) Genetics and epidemiology of diabetes
2) Epidemiology and genetics of diabetic kidney complications
3) Application of genetic, genomic and proteomic methods to epidemiological studies.
For the last 20 years Dr. Krolewski’s laboratory has been a center for training of many post-doctoral fellows who use epidemiologic and genetic methods to study the etiology of diabetes and its complications. He pioneered this field by teaching courses on this topic for 15 years at the Harvard School of Public Health.
Currently Dr. Krolewski is Senior Investigator and Head of laboratory on Genetic and Epidemiology at the Joslin Diabetes Center and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston. MA, USA.

Cancer Survival in five continents (CONCORD study)
Michel Coleman, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

Thursday 27 August 2009 Afternoon

Michel Coleman has been Professor of Epidemiology and Vital Statistics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine since 1995. He was Deputy Chief Medical Statistician at the Office for National Statistics from 1995 to 2004 and Head of the Cancer and Public Health Unit at the School from 1998 to 2003. He has previously worked for the World Health Organisation at the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon (1987-1991), and was Medical Director of the Thames Cancer Registry in London (1991-1995).
The interests of Dr. Coleman are trends in cancer incidence, mortality and survival, and the application of these tools to the public health control of cancer. He has published over 200 articles on these topics, including “Cancer survival in five continents: a worldwide population-based study (CONCORD)”, the first worldwide analysis of cancer survival, with standard quality-control procedures and identical analytic methods for all datasets. CONCORD provides survival estimates for 1.9 million adults (aged 15-99 years) diagnosed with a first, primary, invasive cancer of the breast (women), colon, rectum, or prostate during 1990-94 and followed up to 1999, using individual tumour records from 101 population-based cancer registries in 31 countries on five continents.

The 2009 influenza pandemic – unexpected beginning, uncertain future
Johan Giesecke, Chief Scientist, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, Sweden

Friday 28 August 2009 Morning

Johan Giesecke is Chief Scientist and Head of the Scientific Advice Unit at the newly established Stockholm-based EU Agency ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control). He is also Adjunct Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Karolinska Institute Medical University in Stockholm.
From a background as infectious disease clinician, he trained epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and before joining ECDC was State Epidemiologist for Sweden for 10 years. He has been active in the efforts to harmonise infectious disease surveillance and control within the EU, and during a one-year sabbatical to WHO Geneva in 1999/2000 he led the group working on the revision of the International Health Regulations.
Research interests include: epidemic modelling, HIV/STIs, and very late sequelae of acute infections. He has published some 150 scientific papers, has written a textbook on infectious disease epidemiology and co-edited another.

Life course epidemiology: concepts and examples from the British 1946 birth cohort study and other life course cohorts
Diana Kuh, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, MRC National Survey for Health and Development, London, United Kingdom

Friday 28 August 2009 Afternoon

Professor Diana Kuh is the Director of the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing and of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, the first British birth cohort study that has followed 5362 men and women since their birth in a week in March 1946. Diana is also the Principal Investigator for ‘Healthy Ageing across the Life Course (HALCyon)’, a collaborative research programme that brings together investigators on nine UK cohort studies to study lifetime influences on healthy ageing.
Since 1987, Diana has used data from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development to study how biological, psychological and social factors at different stages of life, independently, cumulatively or interactively affect adult health and function and premature mortality. Her research interests are in adult physical capability and musculoskeletal function and their change with age, women's health, cardiovascular function and wellbeing.
Diana is internationally recognised for the advancement of the field of life course epidemiology where she is the co-editor of the acknowledged key texts: "A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology" (2nd edition Oxford University Press 2004, with Professor Yoav Ben-Shlomo) and "A life course approach to women's health" (Oxford University Press 2002, with Dr Rebecca Hardy). Diana has published over 100 articles in a wide range of peer-reviewed journals. She was made Professor of Life Course Epidemiology at University College London in 2003. 

Notion of causality in epidemiology
Andrzej Zieliński, Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw, Poland
 
Saturday 29 August 2009 Morning

Professor Andrzej Zieliński was born In Radom, Poland on Nov. 27.1940. After completing his medical education in Medical Academy of Warsaw (now Warsaw Medical University) he started his scientific carrier in the Department of Physiology of the same institution. His field of interest was neuroregulation of circulation and respiration. Academic years of 1973/74 and 1979/80 he spend, continuing research in neurophysiology, as visiting assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology of Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich. USA. 
After his return to Poland in 1980 he temporarily quit his scientific carrier and started work as regional physician in Pruszków and then in the ward of internal medicine in the First Clinical Hospital of Medical Academy in Warsaw. In the meantime he completed his specialty board examination in internal medicine. 
His serious involvement in the problems of public health begin when he worked as attending Physician in New York in Spellman Center for HIV Related Diseases in 1991-1993 and later as a clinical v-director in the AIDS Center in Poland. In 1997-1998 he completed graduate study in SUNY at Albany School of Public Health earning master of science diploma in epidemiology in 1998. In the same year he was employed in the National Institute of Public Health-PZH. Since 2002 he is head of the Department of Epidemiology. 
His main field of activity is epidemiology of infectious diseases. He also publishes on epidemiological methods including problems of causality. His lecture on causality in epidemiology delivered in Warsaw Chapter of Polish Philosophical Society was chosen for publication in Ruch Filozoficzny, official journal of Polish Philosophical Society.