American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

ASTMH began as The Society of Tropical Medicine of Philadelphia, founded by a group of 28 physicians on March 9, 1903. The group changed its name just 12 days later to The American Society of Tropical Medicine (ASTM). The impetus for the creation of the ASTM was a need for greater understanding of tropical diseases, spurred by growing American interests in the tropics, and new medical discoveries in the late 19th century. The Society's first president was Thomas Fenton, an ophthalmologist educated at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. Soon after its founding, ASTM began to expand beyond Philadelphia, holding annual meetings in Baltimore, New York City and Washington, D.C., in its first five years of existence. In 1908, Clara Southmayd Ludlow was elected the Society's first female active member and first non-physician scientist member. Among other early members and leaders, ASTM's fourth president, William Crawford Gorgas, played a role in battling yellow fever in Panama. The Society grew slowly but steadily over the ensuing decades, reaching 516 members by 1941, and subsequently 1,213 members by the end of American involvement in World War II, at which point almost half of ASTM members were in the Armed Forces.

The National Malaria Committee was founded in 1916 by Frederick L. Hoffman, chief statistician for the Prudential Insurance Company. The committee's membership grew in parallel with ASTM's. In 1941, the National Malaria Committee changed its name to the National Malaria Society. As malaria became less of a threat in the United States, the Society decided to broaden its focus, and eventually merged with ASTM in 1951 to form a new society, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

In 1991, American physician-scientist, virologist and epidemiologist Scott Halstead served as ASTMH's president.