Annual meeting attendees hit the “pause” button to attend a Featured Session, “20 Years of ToxSci: Reflecting on the Past and Envisioning the Future, Including a Tribute to Dr. John Doull,” where past and current editors of the Society’s flagship journal, Toxicological Sciences (ToxSci), reflected upon two decades of publishing. Each editor also paid tribute to the esteemed Dr. John Doull, who passed away last March.
Dr. Curtis Klaassen was one of the past ToxSci editors who described Dr. Doull’s key role in toxicology education. Dr. Doull conceptualized and co-edited the first four editions of Casarett and Doull’s Toxicology, first published in 1975 and now in its eighth edition. Dr. Klaassen tantalized session attendees with an update on the ninth edition of Casarett and Doull’s, due out by the end of the year, with one-third of the chapters written by new authors. Many of us educated over the past 40 years can recall reading Casarett and Doull’s for the first time at university, where we relied (and still rely) upon this publication to shepherd us on our journey as toxicologists.
Dr. Doull authored a 1981 article titled “The Discipline of Toxicology” in Fundamental and Applied Toxicology (re-branded as Toxicological Sciences in 1998), where he sagely questioned, “Is it desirable for toxicology to be viewed as a scientifically rigorous discipline? The answer is clearly yes. One of the most important reasons is that if we expect to recruit the bright students to the discipline of toxicology we must strive to be scientifically rigorous and objective.” Likewise, ToxSci continues to advance the discipline of toxicology, while still safeguarding scientific rigor, thanks to a dedicated editorial board who introduced rapid (five-day) article review times, adopted flexible submission formats, and created a journal website that supports data sharing and speedy pre-publication of articles.
The Society of Toxicology now numbers more than 8,200 toxicologists who stand on the platform that Dr. Doull helped construct over a lifetime of service. Dr. Doull’s contributions as an educator, author/editor, and role model served to build a solid and stable base for the discipline of toxicology. As we look ahead to the next 20 years, our research agendas, spoken words, and written publications should live up to Dr. Doull’s wise observation about pursuing the common good that he penned in a 2001 review titled “Toxicology Comes of Age”: “[T]he mandate of toxicology is not to use ‘what if’ predictions to produce media headlines or to stimulate funding to investigate phantom risks, but it is rather to improve public health.”
This blog was prepared by an SOT Reporter. SOT Reporters are SOT members who volunteer to write about sessions and events they attend during the SOT Annual Meeting and ToxExpo. If you are interested in participating in the SOT Reporter program in the future, please email SOT Communications Director Michelle Werts.