AAS President Message
Michael Gorga, Ph.D.

After serving two years as President-Elect of the AAS, I began my two-year term as President, effective at the end of the 2007 AAS Meeting.  I succeeded Roger Ruth, who ably served as President in this capacity for the past two years.  The Society thanks Roger for his service and commitment to its success.  Every two years, the Executive Board of the AAS selects the President-Elect from its members with the following constraint.  The Society’s membership comes from Audiology, Hearing Science, Otolaryngology, and Industry, all of whom are represented on the Board.  The Presidency rotates among these groups, and it is now the turn for a representative from Hearing Science to serve as President.  I look forward to working with our Executive Director, Wayne Staab, Ph.D., and the Executive Board in building on the success that the AAS has enjoyed over recent years.  Our next President will represent Otolaryngology.  Due to unforeseen complications in the election of President-Elect, Jay Rubinstein, M.D., The University of Washington-Seattle, and Karen Doyle, M.D., The University of California-Davis, each have graciously agreed to share the term, representing Otolaryngology, with Jay filling the first year and Karen filling the second year. 

As you know, the Society has no political or professional agenda.  Rather, its focus is on multi-disciplinary interactions among Audiologists, Otolaryngologists, Hearing Scientists, and Representatives from Industry.  Free from political and professional issues that necessarily occupy the energies of other societies, the AAS is able to devote essentially all of its efforts to two activities, namely the Society’s annual meeting and the publication of its Journal, Ear and Hearing.  In both regards, the Society has been successful.  In less than 10 years, our meeting has grown from an attendance that was under 100 to an attendance that is now approaching 400.  There are several factors contributing to the growth of the meeting.  The Society’s signature lecture, the Carhart Memorial Lecture, honors the memory of Raymond Carhart, Ph.D., who is considered the “Father of Audiology”.  We have been fortunate to have had outstanding scientists provide these lectures, and we expect this will continue indefinitely into the future.  Other factors contributing to the success of our meeting are its smaller size, intimate and casual atmosphere, focus on clinical and translational research, and the weather in Scottsdale, AZ in March. 

However, perhaps the most important factor contributing to the success of our meeting is the NIH Conference Grant that supports several activities, among them four translational research lectures, a focused special session on a particular topic of interest, a “pep talk” highlighting the importance of research to students, and as many as twenty scholarships for students and residents to travel to the meeting and present their research.  The activities supported by the Conference grant perfectly coincided with the theme of our meeting, which is to provide a forum for basic, translational, and clinical research directed at the diagnosis and treatment of disorders affecting auditory and vestibular function.  NIH Staff also provide a special session, in which they highlight opportunities for research funding through the NIH.  These sessions are especially helpful to students and new members of the professions who are interested in obtaining extramural support for their research activities. We are very appreciative of the financial support from the NIH and for the willingness of the NIH Staff to make themselves available to meeting attendees. 

The second area of focus for the Society is the publication of its Journal, Ear and Hearing.  The Journal has been well served for the past six years by its Editor-in-Chief, Mario Svirsky, Ph.D., who recently stepped down, and has been replaced by Brenda Ryals, Ph.D. The Executive Board has been fortunate to have Mario serve as the Editor-in-Chief, and thanks him for his many years of service and is equally pleased to have Brenda take the reigns as his successor.  The Journal continues to rank high in terms of Impact Factor and Immediacy Index, two metrics that are commonly used to define the success of a scientific journal.  The number of submission has increased over the years, which is a good sign for the journal, but creates issues related to the speed with which accepted papers appear in print.  Brenda and her Editorial Board, in collaboration with the publisher, Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, and the Executive Board, are looking into ways to assure timely publication. 

In summary, the AAS  has established its place as a Society that sponsors a meeting and publishes a journal that are entirely devoted to the advance of knowledge related to auditory and vestibular function and dysfunction.  If you have not already done so, please consider joining the Society, attending its meeting, and submitting manuscripts to its Journal.  We are certain that you will be pleased by what you will find when you do. 

On behalf of the Executive Board of the AAS,

Sincerely,

Michael P. Gorga, Ph.D.
President, AAS