History of the Pulmonary Pathology Society
The Pulmonary Pathology Society was established in 1995 under the leadership of Dr. William Travis then Chair of the Pulmonary and Mediastinal Pathology Division of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C. in collaboration with several other internationally renowned lung pathologists including Drs. Thomas Colby of Scottsdale, Arizona, Samuel Hammar of Bremerton, Washington, Bruce Mackay of Houston, Texas, Helmut Popper of Graz, Austria, and Osamu Matsubara of Tokorozawa, Japan. An organizing event was held at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) 84th Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, March, 1995. The USCAP played a vital role in the establishment of the PPS and recognized the PPS as a Companion Society in 1995. The PPS has held an USCAP Companion Meeting on Saturday evening each year at the USCAP Annual Meeting, preceded by a meeting of the Council (formerly Board of Trustees) and followed by a Business Meeting.
Dr. Thomas Colby was elected the first President of the PPS, beginning his term in 1995, and the first Companion Meeting was held at the USCAP 85th Annual Meeting, in Washington, D.C., March, 1996. The first administration from 1995 to 1998 consisted of Drs. Thomas Colby (President), Samuel Hammar (Vice President), Bruce Mackay (Treasurer), William Travis (Secretary), Victor Roggli (Program Committee Chair), Jeffrey Myers (Awards Committee Chair) and a Board of Trustees consisting of Darryl Carter, Fred Askin, Bryan Corrin and Yukio Shimosato. Subsequent Presidents were Sam Hammar (1998-2000), Victor Roggli (2000-2002), Bill Travis (2002-2004), Henry Tazelaar (2004-2006), Philip Cagle (2006-2008) and Donald Guinee (2008-2010).
Election of new Officers and Councilors (formerly Trustees) and change of administration occurred at the annual Business Meetings following the USCAP Companion Meetings. At the Board of Trustees Meeting on February 28, 1998, it was determined that the instillation of new Officers and Trustees would occur at the end of the annual Business Meeting. Initially the PPS provided an award for the best abstract presentation on a topic in pulmonary pathology by a trainee at the USCAP Annual Meeting. In 1998, a trainee travel award was added. On February 28, 1998, the PPS with Victor Roggli as Program Committee Chair held its USCAP Companion Meeting as a joint Companion Meeting with the Papanicolaou Society. On the recommendation of Dr. William Travis, the principal office of the PPS Corporation was located with Foundation for the Advancement of Education in the Sciences (FAES) in Bethesda and a contract was signed with FAES in 1998. By-laws of the PPS were approved in 1999 sanctioning this arrangement. The FAES maintained the PPS website until the PPS became a Division of the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP) in 2006.
The PPS had its first official presence at the International Academy of Pathology Congress in 1998 when Drs. Elisabeth Brambilla, Victor Roggli, William Travis, Philip Hasleton and Adi Gazdar chaired PPS sessions at the IAP Congress in Nice, France. The PPS has subsequently organized pulmonary pathology sessions at every IAP Congress (Nagoya, Amsterdam, Brisbane and Montreal ) and collaborated with the European Working Group for Pulmonary Pathology, the Japanese Pulmonary Pathology Society and the Society of Latin American Pathologists to organize sessions at the 2008 IAP in Athens, Greece.
The first PPS Newsletter was written and printed by then-Secretary Henry Tazelaar in February, 1999. The first stand-alone PPS Biennial Meeting was organized by then-President Samuel Hammar and was held at the Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina, on August 26-28, 1999. Subsequent Biennial Meetings were held in Seattle, Washington, in 2001 (President Victor Roggli) and in Snowmass, Colorado (President William Travis) in 2003. The first PPS Biennial Meeting held outside of North America was at Annecy, France (President Henry Tazelaar) in 2005. The 2007 Biennial Meeting was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico (President Philip Cagle) and the 2009 Biennial Meeting is scheduled for Portland, Oregon (President Donald Guinee).
In June 2001 the PPS initiated the Case of the Month under the supervision of then-Secretary Philip Cagle on the Pulmonary Pathology Website at www.lungpath.org. The first case was authored by Drs. Kevin Leslie and Dr. Douglas Flieder. In 2003, the PPS added the Lifetime Achievement Award to its awards. The first recepient in 2003 was Dr. Victor J. Ferrans. Subsequent recepients were Drs. James Hogg (2004), S. Donald Greenberg (2005), Anna-Louise Katzenstein (2006), Raymond Yesner (2007) and Bryan Corrin (2008).
The transition of the PPS to a Division of the ASIP began during Henry Tazelaar’s tenure as President. The PPS became a Guest Society of the ASIP in April, 2004, by vote of the Officers and Trustees. In the summer of 2006, by vote of the Officers and Trustees, the administration of the PPS changed from the FAES to the ASIP and in September, 2006, it was formally announced to the membership that the PPS was now a Division of the ASIP. The Officer and Trustees, now referred to as Council, that implemented this change included, in addition to the President Philip Cagle, Drs. Henry Tazelaar (Past President), Don Guinee (President-Elect), Elisabeth Brambilla (Treasurer), Kevin Leslie (Secretary), Richard Attanoos (Councilor), Mary Beth Beasley (Councilor), Andras Khoor (Councilor), Osamu Matsubara (Councilor), Sam Yousem (Program Committee Chair) and Aliya Husain (Awards Committee Chair). A new By-Laws Committee Chaired by Dr. Kevin Leslie and including Drs. Timothy Allen, Mary Beth Beasley and Aliya Husain began work with our new Director of Membership Services, Tara Snethen. New Operating Procedures for the PPS were adopted by an electronic vote of the membership and announced on January 16, 2007. On October 7, 2009, by vote of the officers and membership, the PPS decided to once again become an independent society. This change in status commenced January 1, 2010. New bylaws were proposed by the PPS bylaws committee, chaired by Kevin Leslie. These bylaws were adopted following approval of the PPS general membership.