The PCD 2021 Student Research Collection is dedicated to Samuel Posner, PhD, the person who envisioned and led the journal’s student competition in 2011. Dr Posner provided 9 years of service to PCD as editor in chief, from 2008 through 2016. Dr Posner’s legacy is one of scientific excellence, technical innovation, and service.
Dr Posner is now the Acting Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and the center’s deputy director for science. In this role, he oversees the center’s surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory, and data science programs to expand and refine CDC’s capacity to detect, prevent, and respond to vaccine-preventable and respiratory infectious disease threats.
Dr Posner came to CDC in 1998 from the University of California, San Francisco after completing doctoral work in quantitative psychology at the University of Southern California in 1996. He joined NCIRD in January of 2016 as the associate director for epidemiological science and director of the Office of Science and Integrated Programs. In this role, Dr Posner led the scientific review of several NCIRD programs, including the review and reframing of the Legionella program. Under his guidance, the Legionella program has grown in scope and reach and now funds 23 jurisdictions for both prevention and outbreak response.
In the COVID-19 response, Dr Posner co-led the development of a scientific agenda to guide implementation of scientific activities for better understanding of COVID-19 transmission dynamics, risk factors for mortality, and prevention strategies. He also worked closely on the data and informatics architecture for the COVID-19 national vaccine program.
Dr Posner is the author of more than 100 articles published in peer reviewed journals and has written more than 15 book chapters. He is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of preconception care and multiple chronic conditions, and he is an adjunct associate professor at both Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, Department of International Health, and the University of Alabama, Birmingham’s School of Public Health, Department of Health Behavior.
Early in his career, Dr Posner recognized the value of mentoring students in the value of publication, and his student research competition brought a new generation of public health researchers and practitioners to PCD. Since the inception of the competition, the journal has received nearly 500 student manuscripts for consideration. Dr Posner’s vision to promote academic research excellence for students around the world lives on today.