The last twenty-five years of the American Epidemiological Society: 1972-1996.

The American Epidemiological Society (AES) was founded in 1927. A history of the first 45 years of the Society was written in the early 1970s by Dr. John Rodman Paul (Yale J Biol Med 1973;46:1-84). The past 25 years have seen the AES continue as a small, relatively elite organization characterized by a membership of senior leaders in the field of epidemiology. The Society has continued to hold an annual meeting at which free, informed, and uninhibited discussion is encouraged. In this paper, the author presents an account of the affairs of the AES during the past quarter century.