I hope most of you are enjoying the academic mid-year break and will be able to flip through this issue of the newsletter at your favourite beach, in the beautiful countryside, or at home with your loved ones!
In Switzerland, people increasingly spend these months in the Alps or in other countries with plenty of green and blue spaces, such as Norway, Sweden, or Denmark. While various personal reasons may underlie these choices, they are certainly in line with the accumulating research attesting to the beneficial effects of nature on human health.
Our President, Kerry Sherman, has also followed this path and summarised the most recent developments within our society as she visited Northern Europe. Please go to page 3 of the newsletter to learn more about our upcoming conference in Vienna as well as Kerry’s intriguing thoughts on how the Olympics might inspire our behavioural medicine community. As always, I also highly recommend to read Sherri Sheinfeld Gorin’s update on our society’s finances. While Kerry’s term as President has just begun last year and Sherri will, luckily, be still with us for a while, sadly, we need to say goodbye to the Editor-in-Chief of our beloved journal, the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine (IJBM). Michael Hoyt’s final letter is further proof of his extraordinary service to the IJBM over the last six years and his many achievements in this role (e.g., recruiting new Editorial Board Members, creating new awards, and launching special issues). Luckily, he will continue to contribute to the ISBM in his new role as President-Elect!
This issue will also be the last one I will be responsible for as Newsletter Editor. I cannot overstate how thoroughly I have enjoyed working with all of you in the past four years and how grateful I am for the many inspiring encounters I was gifted with in this role. One of the greatest privileges was that I was able to interview several luminaries in behavioural medicine. I am particularly happy that, for this last issue, my mentor, Ulrike Ehlert, a pioneer in Women’s Health, has agreed to talk to me about her career and behavioural medicine more broadly. I highly recommend reading her advice to young researchers (and their mentors!). Another highlight for me was that I was able to pick the brains of leaders in our field on some of the most pressing global challenges of our time (please refer to page 15 to read up on their latest work on air pollution). Finally, it is great to see that the Newsletter continues to evolve. In this issue, our President introduces a new feature, in which she will interview our member societies. Her first interview partners are Caitlin Liddelow and Chris Kilby from the Australasian Society of Behavioural Medicine. I was impressed by the innovative ways in which this society cares for its for students and early career researchers and urge you to read the full interview with Caitlin and Chris or check out the video recording.
It is said that the Swiss have invented home sickness, so I am already looking forward to a scientific “homecoming” at the ICBM 2025 in Vienna after my leave, and to seeing you all again! Until then, stay cool/warm!
