Harry Reis, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, was recently voted president-elect of the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships. His two-year term will begin in July 2000.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to help bring together scholars in various fields, all studying relationships, who wouldn't ordinarily meet," says Reis. "Relationships represent one of the most important endeavors in human life, and it is important to understand more about how they affect behavior across all domains of activity."
The organization has approximately 600 members, "but there are thousands of people across the globe whose research involves relationships," he says. "My mission as president is to expand the organization's reach directly."
The society is a nonprofit organization founded in 1984 by participants of the Second International Conference on Personal Relationships with the purpose of promoting scholarship and research on personal relationships, improving communication among researchers in the field, and establishing the field of personal relationships within the scholarly community.
The international organization draws participants from Europe, Asia, South America, South Africa, and Israel. Members are kept informed about developments through the society's quarterly journal, Personal Relationships, a newsletter, and a biennial conference. The next conference will be held in Brisbane, Australia, June 27 to July 2, 2000.
Reis, a professor at the University since 1974, is currently the executive officer of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, an international organization headquartered in Rochester with more than 3,000 members. Reis is known for his studies of everyday social interaction using event-sampling techniques. He is author or co-author of more than 80 publications, and has been awarded several federally funded research grants.