Professor Hans-Ulrich Kauczor, MD, is chairman of the radiology and medical director of the Clinic for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the University Hospital Heidelberg. He served as a president of the European Society of Thoracic Imaging (2011), the International Workshop of Pulmonary Functional Imaging (2011-2015) and the Fleischner Society (2015). He also served as chair of the Research Committee and member of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Radiology (2013-2016). Since 2018 he has been Chair of the Translational Lung Research Center in Heidelberg and member of the board of directors of the German Center of Lung Research (DZL).
Professor Joanna Chorostowska-Wynimko, MD, is the head of the Department of the Genetics and Clinical Immunology at the National Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases in Warsaw, Poland. She served as the coordinator of the National Expert Group for Lung Cancer, has been a member of the lung cancer expert advisory group to the Minister of Health and to the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System in Poland. She is co-author of the national guidelines on lung cancer management as well as member of the expert board for the two European position papers on lung cancer screening. She was the Secretary General of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) for the period 2019 - 2022.
Professor Torsten Gerriet Blum, MD, MBA, works as consultant physician at the Lungenklinik Heckeshorn, Helios Klinikum Emil von Behring, Berlin as well as at the Medical School Berlin. He is the current Head of the Thoracic Oncology Assembly within the ERS and has chaired and co-chaired several ERS taskforces within the scope of lung cancer. He is the clinical lung cancer co-lead within the EU IMI Consortium OPTIMA and EU IHI IDERHA. He is a steering board member of the German national lung cancer guideline group as well as the clinical lung cancer lead within the Association of German Tumour Centres.
Professor Helmut Prosch, MD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy at the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, where he serves as the deputy head of the division of general and paediatric radiology and is the section chief of thoracic imaging. His research focuses on the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer.
Ms Monika Hierath, Mag. phil., is Executive Manager at the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR) and Director of European and International Affairs at the European Society of Radiology (ESR).
Ms Coline Mathonier has experience in international tender coordination, project management for development and EU affairs. She has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the BBA INSEEC and she graduated with a master’s degree in international relations and geopolitics from the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs as well as a master’s degree in public administration and diplomacy from the Institute of Preparation for General Administration (IPAG).
Dr. Oyunaa von Stackelberg is is head of the research department at the Clinic for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at Heidelberg University Hospital. Her scientific focus is on the AI-based detection and characterization of lung cancer and lung cancer screening with low-dose CT.
Dr. Pamela Zolda leads the research unit of the Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria. She holds a doctorate in ecology and is an expert in the set up and execution of international research and infrastructure projects (FP7, H2020, Horizon Europe). In SOLACE she is the deputy of Prof. Helmut Prosch (WP7 leader).
Ms Monika Hierath, Mag. phil., is Executive Manager at the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR) and Director of European and International Affairs at the European Society of Radiology (ESR).
Professor Hans-Ulrich Kauczor, MD, is chairman of the radiology and medical director of the Clinic for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the University Hospital Heidelberg. He served as a president of the European Society of Thoracic Imaging (2011), the International Workshop of Pulmonary Functional Imaging (2011-2015) and the Fleischner Society (2015). He also served as chair of the Research Committee and member of the Executive Committee of the European Society of Radiology (2013-2016). Since 2018 he has been Chair of the Translational Lung Research Center in Heidelberg and member of the board of directors of the German Center of Lung Research (DZL).
Professor Miroslav Samaržija, graduated at the University of Zagreb, Medical Faculty, and obtained a doctorate in medicine at the age of 33. He has been educated abroad on several occasions, mostly in the United States (Columbia University, Harvard University, American Institutes of Health, NIH, Bethesda) and in Austria (AKH Vienna). In his third consecutive term, he heads the leading pulmonology clinic in University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Croatia. He has made a notable and original scientific and professional contribution to the research of lung cancer, pulmonary circulation, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung transplantation.
He is a member of the Central Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Health, the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb, National Coordinator for Specialization in Pulmonology, Chairman of the Expert Committee of the Ministry of Health for the treatment of patients recovering from the COVID-19 disease and National Coordinator of the Croatian National Lung Cancer Screening Program.
Professor Marie-Pierre Revel is currently Full Professor of Radiology at Université de Paris, Head of the Radiology department at Cochin hospital, APHP.Centre. She is past president of the European Society of Thoracic Imaging and has an internationally recognized expertise in thoracic imaging. She is very involved in the screening of lung cancer by low dose CT.
She participated in the French DEPISCAN study on lung cancer screening and is currently the principal investigator of the CASCADE study, a pilot program for lung cancer screening in high-risk women in France.
She is a member of the working group of experts preparing the implementation of lung cancer screening through a large pilot study in France, coordinated by the French cancer institute.
She is responsible for the certification project for lung cancer screening of the European Society of Radiology, a specific program that was created to train European radiologists in lung cancer screening.
Prof Revel is also chair of the Communication and Interdisciplinary Affairs Committee of the European Society of Radiology.
Professor Dr Ildiko Horvath works as a professor of pulmonology at the National Koranyi Institute for Pulmonology and senior advisor at the Public Health Institute at Semmelweis University. She worked as a research fellow at the NIH, Bethesda, US, for three years and in Imperial College, London, UK, for 18 months. She had several leadership positions in the European Respiratory Society and was a member of the Scientific Panel for Health, an advisory board to the European Commission on health research. Dr Horvath spent 8 years in public administration, for four years as State Secretary of Health. She had a major role in launching several preventive interventions and programmes, including the legal act on protection of non-smokers, trans fat ban, colorectal cancer screening pilot, newborn CF screening, and a national LDCT screening pilot for lung cancer screening.
Professor Martina Koziar Vasakova graduated from the Faculty of General Medicine of Charles University in Prague. She obtained attestations from internal medicine, tuberculosis and respiratory disease (now pneumology and phthisiology), allergology and clinical immunology, specialization in bronchology and license in interventional bronchology. She was appointed as a professor of internal medicine in 2015. As of 2016, she is the head of Department of Pneumology First Faculty of Medicine Charles University and Thomayer Hospital.
Professor Martina Koziar Vasakova is the President of the Committee of the Czech Pneumological and Phthisiological Society, Head of the International Registry of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis - EMPIRE, member of the board of the Czech Asthma Initiative, Member of the Council of Immunology Charles University and Member of other Czech and international societies.
Professor Martina Koziar Vasakova is very active in publishing, for which she has also received more awards, such as: the 2013 Rector's Award for Monography Vasakova M., Polak J., Matej R.: Interstitial Pulmonary Processes.
Of the non-publication scientific results, it is very important to mention Industrial Model: 2015 - Biodegradable tracheal stent, for which she was awarded the 2015 Innovation Prize.
Professor Helmut Prosch, MD, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy at the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, where he serves as the deputy head of the division of general and paediatric radiology and is the section chief of thoracic imaging. His research focuses on the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer.
Pippa Powell has headed up the European Lung Foundation (ELF) since 2005 and been in the role of General Secretary of Lungs Europe since 2018. Pippa has worked together with the Chairs to develop and grow both organisations. In addition to her background and PhD in biomedical science, Pippa has more than 20 years’ experience working in respiratory health. First as a journal editor and a medical writer. Then providing evidence-based information for patients, and working with the press and media to ensuring accurate reporting of respiratory science and awareness campaigns for the general public. Pippa has championed the role of the patient within science and has been working with professionals to find best practice for patient and public input into respiratory healthcare.