2021 Distinguished Scientist of the American Heart Association

The Distinguished Scientist designation honors American Heart Association professional members who have made extraordinary contributions to cardiovascular and stroke research. The American Heart Association’s Distinguished Scientists are a prominent group of scientists and clinicians whose work has importantly advanced our understanding of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. This award was created over 10 years ago to recognize American Heart Association members for significant, original and sustained scientific contributions that have advanced the association’s mission “Building healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.” Recipients of this prestigious award are honored during the Presidential Session at American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. We would like to congratulate the 2 receipts under the councils that Hypertension represents. Congratulations to Italo Biaggioni, MD, PhD, FAHA on behalf of the Hypertension council and Ernesto L. Schiffrin, MD, PhD, FAHA on behalf of the Hypertension & KCVD council. In the profiles that follow, we would like to highlight their accomplishments and congratulate them on being named the 2021 Distinguished Scientists.

Representation of women plenary speakers at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting

ObjectiveTo determine whether women have been equitably represented among plenary speakers at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting by counting and categorizing speakers and comparing outcomes to AAN membership and US neurology workforce data.MethodsLists of plenary speakers between 1958 and 2019 (62 years) were obtained from the AAN. The primary outcome measures were numbers and proportions of men and women in aggregate and among physicians.ResultsWe identified 635 plenary speakers, including 148 (23.3%) women. Specifically, women made up 14.6% (19 of 130) of presidential and 25.5% (129 of 505) of nonpresidential plenary session speakers. The inclusion of women plenary speakers was meaningfully higher (h = 0.33; difference 14.9%; 95% confidence interval 4.2%–26.7%) for nonphysicians (27 of 74 [36.5%]) than physicians (121 of 561 [21.6%]). Although at zero levels for Annual Meetings held between 1958 and 1990 and at mostly low but varying levels thereafter, the representation of women and women physicians has been at or above their proportions in the AAN membership and US neurology workforce since 2017. Comparison of representation by plenary session name revealed an unequal distribution of women, with women physicians concentrated in the Sidney Carter Award in Child Neurology presidential session.ConclusionHistorically and recently, women and women physicians were underrepresented among AAN plenary speakers. As the AAN has taken active steps to address equity, women have been included in more representative proportions overall. However, notable gaps remain, especially in specific prestigious plenary sessions, and further research is needed to determine causality.

The Case of Black Millennials

Sociologists have queried over the utility and effectiveness of generational analysis for some time. Here, the authors contend that intragenerational analyses are needed to critically and comprehensively make sense of the social world. Drawing on four presentations during the presidential session titled, “#NextGenBlackSoc: New Directions in the Sociology of Black Millennials,” the authors use Black Millennials as a case to illustrate how racializing generational studies can strengthen sociological research in four particular subdisciplines: Collective Behavior and Social Movements, Religion, Gender and Sexuality, and Family. They ultimately argue new analytic approaches are necessary to produce significant research on individuals and groups with complex intersectional identities and the particularities of their social experiences.

Perhaps We Can Talk

The title of the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association in 2007 was “History and the Social Sciences: Taking Stock and Moving Ahead.” David I. Kertzer (2007), the president of the association at that time, explained that the focus of the conference was to determine “how far we have come in social science history” and to isolate “the most promising avenues for research.” The following essays were presented at the presidential session, titled “The Past, Present, and Future of Economics for History.” The presenters put forward a number of provocative arguments before a fully engaged audience, whose numbers spilled into the hallway of Chicago's Palmer House. While the authors were all economists by training and by department affiliation, there was an intense interdisciplinary exchange between audience members and the panelists. The session, in short, was a huge success in generating a range of ideas about the future of economics for history.