Our Speakers

Asma Khalil

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Asma Khalil” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Prof. Asma Khalil, MD,MBBCh, MRCOG, MSc(Epi), DFSRH, Dip(GUM)
Professor of Fetal Medicine
St George’s Hospital, University of London
London, United Kingdom

Director of Fetal Medicine Unit
Liverpool Women’s Hospital

Vice-President of Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
Asma Khalil is a Professor of Fetal Medicine. She is the Obstetric Lead at the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA). She gained her MD at the University of London in 2008.
Prof. Asma Khalil has published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, and many published review articles and chapters. She was awarded many research prizes, both at national and international meetings. She was awarded the 2021 FIGO Women’s Awards: Recognising Female Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Her research interests include twin pregnancy, congenital infections, fetal growth restriction and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.
She had a fellowship with the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE). committed to the implementation of clinical guidelines in practice. She is the Lead author of the ISUOG guideline on the role of ultrasound in twins and congenital infections. She also led the guideline team developing the FIGO guideline on twin pregnancies. She was a member of the NICE Guideline Committee updating the Twin and Multiple Pregnancy guidance.[/modal_popup_box]

Nele Brusselaers

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Nele Brusselaers” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Nele BRUSSELAERS is an (associate) professor in clinical and pharmaco-epidemiology at Antwerp University in Belgium and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, and visiting Professor at Ghent University. She is trained as medical doctor, infection control/hospital hygiene specialist and epidemiologist.
Nele has extensive experience in clinical-, pharmaco-cancer, microbiome and cancer-epidemiology by working with the Swedish nationwide health registries, several large-scaled clinical (microbiome) cohorts and systematic reviews and meta-analyses, resulting in over 170 peer-reviewed articles.
Although she has a broad interest and experience in different clinical topics with many international collaborations; her main focus is to investigate the long-term effects of commonly prescribed drugs on female health and early childhood, and infections, through potential drug-mediated alterations of the microbiome. Nele also tries to increase knowledge on drug utilisation (particularly of proton pump inhibitors and other non-antibiotic drugs with a microbiome-modulating potential), as we know too little on the extent of drug utilisation in different age-groups and by sex – and almost nothing on un-intended long-term health effects. Microbiome-studies should also account for exposure to non-antibiotic drugs, as it’s use is widespread – and still often overlooked. Nele’s overall aim is to contribute to optimizing clinical practice and long-term health – for which trans-disciplinary approaches and collaborations are increasingly required.[/modal_popup_box]

Damien Bonnet

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Damien Bonnet” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Damien Bonnet is Professor of Pediatrics and Cardiology. He is currently the head of the Pediatric and Congenital Cardiology department at University of Paris Cité. He is the director of three National reference center for Rare Diseases: the M3C for complex congenital heart diseases, the Pediatric Pulmotension center for pediatric pulmonary hypertensions, and the Pediatric Cardiogen center for inherited cardiomyopathies and arrhythmias. His main research topics are perinatal management of congenital heart diseases, pediatric pulmonary hypertensions, therapies for heart failure in children, development and genetics of congenital heart diseases. His group has established many collaborations in a large variety of domains including genetics, epidemiology, neurodevelopment, therapeutic trials for rare diseases, nomenclature of congenital heart diseases among others.[/modal_popup_box]

Daniel Surbek

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Daniel Surbek” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Full Professor of OBGYN at University of Bern

Chairman of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Head of the Division of Obstetrics and Feto-Maternal Medicine

University Hospital Insel, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

 

Prof. Surbek is full Professor and Acting Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at University Hospital Bern, Switzerland. His research interests focus on clinical and preclinical/translational research in Feto-maternal medicine, including preterm birth, prediction of pre-eclampsia, induction of labour, iron deficiency anemia, postpartum haemorrhage and perinatal neuroprotection with cell-based therapies.

He has published more than 260 peer-reviewed papers, his H-index is 54. He is on the editorial board of six scientific journals, and reviewer for more than 30 scientific journals. Prof. Surbek received numerous grants and awards on the entirety of his works.[/modal_popup_box]

Daniele De Luca

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Daniele De Luca” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]He directs the largest neonatal intensive care unit in France and one of the largest in Europe at Beclere Hospital APHP in Paris since 2013. Associate Professor since 2015 and then Full Professor of Neonatology since 2021, at the time of appointment he was the youngest Full Professor of this discipline.

He is currently Immediate Past President of the European Society for Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care (ESPNIC), the largest European pediatric scientific society that brings together neonatal and pediatric intensivists on the continent. His group is specialized in intensive care for to life-threatening newborns and infants (prematurity, ARDS, bronchiolitis, congenital heart disease, malformations, therapeutic hypothermia, neonatal dialysis etc..). During the pandemics he was actively engaged and discovered the transplacental transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and for this he was appointed pro-tempore consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO). He has been a member of the EMA Pediatric Committee.
Author of about 300 scientific papers and dozens of books and chapters (H index 50). He received the Research Award of the Italian Society of Neonatology, the European Young Investigator Award in 2010 and his group won the Bengt Robertson Award in 2018. He is Honorary President of the Pediatric Medicine Branch of the Asia-Pacific Health Association.
He is Editor of the European Journal of Pediatrics. The President of the Italian Republic on the proposal of the Prime Minister Mario Draghi, appointed him Knight of the Republic on 27/12.2021.[/modal_popup_box]

David Sweet

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”David Sweet” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]David Sweet graduated from Queen’s University Belfast in 1990 and trained in Paediatrics and Neonatal Medicine in Northern Ireland and Western Australia.

Appointed as a consultant Neonatologist in the Regional Neonatal Unit in the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast in 2003 and Honorary Clinical Lecturer for the Dept of Child Health, Queen’s University in 2007.  Over 50 peer reviewed publications and review articles to date, mostly related to newborn respiratory care and the evolution of neonatal bronchopulmonary dysplasia.   David is the Northern Ireland Co-ordinator of several multicentre trials and maintains an active interest in Perinatal Research and Evidence-based medicine. He is first author of all 6 editions of the European Guidelines on the Management of RDS. – 2007 – 2022[/modal_popup_box]

Despina Briana

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Despina Briana” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Despina Briana is Professor of Pediatrics-Neonatology and Consultant of Neonatology at the NICU of the Third Department of Pediatrics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. She graduated from Athens University Medical School. Her PhD thesis was awarded with the academic prize for best Doctoral Thesis for the years 2010-2012 by Athens University Medical School. She was trained in Pediatrics-Neonatology and worked at several Greek University Hospitals, as well as King’s College Hospital, London, UK. She has published more than 120 studies in peer-reviewed PubMed journals (>3000 citations, h-index: 29, i10-index: 74), nine of which were awarded with the first prize in International and Greek Congresses (including the Gold Medal in the Academic Olympics of UENPS). Her research applies to several fields of neonatal-perinatal medicine with a special interest in abnormal fetal growth and DOHaD, perinatal risk factors and neurodevelopment/psychopathology, as well as properties of early human milk.[/modal_popup_box]

Dir Melamed

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Dir Melamed” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Dr. Melamed is a staff physician in the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Division at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Canada, and a Professor at the University of Toronto.

He is a Senior Scientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute and the Director of Research at the Women and Babies Program.

Dr. Melamed is the recipient of the Waugh Family Chair in Twin Research at the University of Toronto and is the Director of the Sunnybrook Twin Research Center (https://twincentre.sunnybrook.ca/).

Dr. Melamed has co-authored over 250 original research papers. His main topics of interest include twin pregnancies, fetal growth and placental disease.[/modal_popup_box]

Eyal Sheiner

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Eyal Sheiner” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Eyal Sheiner, MD, PhD is the Deichmann-Lerner Professor and Chairman, Division of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Soroka University Medical Center. He is in charge of the  Israeli Board Exams for Ob/Gyn residency. He previously served as Deputy Director General of the hospital and head of the residency program of the hospital, and Vice Dean at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He earned his doctorate in Epidemiology and Public Health. His PhD study and fellowship at Rush University Medical Center (Chicago, Il) were supported by a grant from the Fulbright  visiting Scholar Program of the United States. Prof Sheiner has published extensively in the area of perinatal epidemiology, he published more than 650 peer-reviewed articles and he is the editor of 11 books.[/modal_popup_box]

Gerard H.A.Visser

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Gerard H.A.Visser” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Gerard H.A.Visser, em professor obstetrics. Past chair department Obst & Gyn Utrecht, the Netherlands, European Perinatal  Association, FIGO Committe Safe Motherhood and Newborn health. Supervisor 73 completed PhD’s, research topics: fetal neurological development, fetal monitoring and asphyxia, fetal growth restriction, diabetes and pregnancy, cesarean sections, Rh disease. Hirsch Index (PubMed) 102, nr of citation 50.000.[/modal_popup_box]

Haresh Kirpalani

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Haresh Kirpalani” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Haresh Kirpalani BM, MSc is Emeritus Professor of Neonatology at University Pennsylvania, Philadelphia USA and McMaster University, Hamilton Canada. He has expertise in clinical epidemiology and randomised trial conduct. He has led several trials in the areas of newborn lung disease and need for blood transfusions. He was a co-founder of Evidence Based Neonatology (EBNEO.org)[/modal_popup_box]

Jing Liu

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Jing Liu” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Prof. Dr. Jing Liu is the Director of Department of Neonatology and NICU, Beijing Obstetric and Gynecology Hospital, Capital Medical University. He is also the head of Neonatal Lung Ultrasound Training Center and Critical Ultrasound Training Center in China.

His major research fields are neonatal intensive care, neonatal brain ultrasound and lung ultrasound. Since 2011, Dr. Liujing mainly focused on neonatal lung ultrasound research. Since March 2017, the chest X-ray has been completely replaced by lung ultrasound to diagnoses lung diseases in his NICU, this is the first and only one department that using ultrasound completely replacing of X-ray diagnosing of neonatal lung diseases.

His academic positions include the Executive Chairman of the Pediatric Medicine Branch, Asia-Pacific Health Association; the Chairman of the Division of Critical Ultrasound, Pediatric Medicine Branch of Asia-Pacific Health Association; the Executive Chairman of Asian-European Research Society for Pediatric and Neonatal Critical Ultrasound (AERS-PaNCU), the Associate Chairman of Chinese Neonatologist Association, the Associate Chairman of Neonatal Imaging Branch, China Medicine Education Association; the Associate Chairman of Beijing Neonatologist Association; the Editorial Board Member of more than 30 medical journals in Chinese or English.

Dr.Liujing has published more than 320 papers in Chinese or English, over 12 books and Chapters in Books in Chinese or English (including Neonatal Lung Ultrasonography -Springer Press), and He has received 12 scientific and technological awards from the Chinese government or Scientific Society.[/modal_popup_box]

Josef Neu

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Josef Neu” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Josef Neu, MD is internationally recognized for his research in developmental gastroenterology and nutrition and most recently has focused on multiomics and artificial intelligence for predictive analytics for intestinal injuries, retinopathy of prematurity and precision nutrition. He has authored more than 320 publications, and is the Chairman of the Board of the IPOKRaTES Foundation. He has organized seminars in over 20 countries and has lectured in over 50 countries. He is the 2023 recipient of the American Academy of Pediatrics Avroy Fanaroff Education Award.[/modal_popup_box]

Mark Hanson

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Mark Hanson” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Mark Hanson is Emeritus Professor of Human Development and Health and BHF Professor at the University of Southampton, UK. He was a founder of the Fetal and Neonatal Physiological Society and the International DOHaD Society. He co-Chaired the FIGO Pregnancy and NCDs Committee and the Science and Evidence Working Group for the WHO Ending Childhood Obesity Commission. He chairs the Evidence and Accountability Working Group of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and also its Economics and Finance workstream (hosted by WHO). His research concerns nutrition and health across the life-course, starting before conception and with an increasing focus on global health and equity. He pioneered LifeLab to promote health literacy in adolescents. He advocates developmental science to inform public health and economic policy.[/modal_popup_box]

Máximo Vento

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Máximo Vento” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Past Positions:

• Professor of Pediatrics
• Chief of the Division of Neonatology

University & Polytechnic Hospital La Fe, Valencia, Spain. 

• Scientific Director

Health Research Institute La Fe, Valencia, Spain.

• President of the Spanish Neonatal Society (SENeo) 2015-2019
• Chairman of the Platform for the Development of Neonatal Clinical Trials

Health Research Institute La Fe (Valencia; Spain)

 

Present Positions

• Chairman of the European Board of Neonatology (EBN) (2018-2024)
• Member of the Executive Committee of the European Society for

Paediatric Research (ESPR) (2018-2024)

• Chairman of the Spanish Maternal, Neonatal and Developmental

Network Red SAMID (2015-2023)

Health Research Institute Carlos IIII (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Kingdom of        Spain)

• Emeritus Researcher and Director of the Neonatal Research Group

Health Research Institute La Fe (Valencia, Spain)[/modal_popup_box]

Ola Didrik Saugstad

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Ola Didrik Saugstad” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Department of Pediatric Research, University of Oslo, University Hospital 1991-2018.

Senior Consultant of Neonatology, Oslo University Hospital, 1986 – 2019.

Head of the Norwegian Newborn Screening program 1991-2010

Head of Department of Women and Child Health, Oslo University Hospital 2013-2016

Adjunct Professor at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago/Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine 2018 –

Editor-in-Chief (together with CP Speer) of Neonatology 2023-

Visiting Associate Research Pediatrician at Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California San Francisco, 1986

Post doc (NIH grant) Department of Neonatology, University of California San Diego 1980-81

PhD Fellow University of Uppsala University 1973-74 and University of Oslo 1974-76[/modal_popup_box]

Ranjan Kumar Pejaver

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Ranjan Kumar Pejaver” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Professor and Chief Neonatologist People tree@Meenakshi Hospitals

Bangalore,India

President of National Neonatology Forum, India. 2021

Past President of Asia Oceanoi Federation of Perinatal Societies, currently an advisor

144 SCIENTIFIC PAPERS PUBLISHED IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS.

172 PRESENTATIONS AT NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS

Author of 32 books on Neonatology and Pediatrics. Several contributions to various textbooks.

Editor in  chief of the indexed international journal “Perinatology”

Member of the Editorial Boards of : Journal of Perinatal Medicine.2012 onwards.

Journal of Maternal,Fetal and Neonatal Medicine published by francis& Taylor.

Participated in 34 major research projects.

Past President of the Neonatology Chapter of Indian Academy of Pediatrics[/modal_popup_box]

Rebeccah Slater

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Rebeccah Slater” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Rebeccah Slater is the Professor of Paediatric Neuroscience and Senior Wellcome Fellow at the University of Oxford. She is also a Professorial Fellow at St. John’s College. Her work focuses on understanding the mechanisms that underlie the development of human pain perception, where she uses non-invasive brain imaging tools to explore the development of pain perception in the human nervous system. A core focus of Rebeccah’s work is to translate basic neuroscientific understanding into the design and development of clinical trials that aim to assess the analgesic efficacy of pain-relieving interventions in infants.[/modal_popup_box]

Roland Devlieger

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Roland Devlieger” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Roland Devlieger is a Fetal and Maternal Medicine specialist at the University Hospital of Leuven, Belgium. He currently holds an academic position at the KU Leuven as full professor.
His research interest is mainly clinical and translational and focuses on lifestyle, prematurity, obesity, reproduction after bariatric surgery and fetal medicine and surgery. He is Senior Clinical Researcher for the Flemish research fund, FWO Flanders, and member of the board of directors of the VVOG. He is founder and PI of the REALIFE research group within the KULeuven Department of Growth and Regeneration.[/modal_popup_box]

Silke Mader

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Silke Mader” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a”]Silke Mader has been a passionate and influential advocate for maternal and newborn health for over 25 years. As a former patient with HELLP syndrome and mother of preterm babies at week 25 (twin boy survived at 515 grams, twin girl deceased), she built on all of her personal experience to improve care for parents, preterm babies and sick newborns. Care that hardly existed at the time. She knows from her own experience that a strong partnership between health professionals and parents is the best way to face the emotional roller coaster ride of a preterm or sick baby and to overcome the obstacles. This led to establishing EFCNI – European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants in Munich 2008 where she acts as Chairwoman and founding member. One of the major achievements of the foundation was the establishment of World Prematurity Day, the development as well as the implementation of The European Standards of Care for Newborn Health and the founding of the Global Alliance for Newborn Care (GLANCE).

In times of the pandemic, GLANCE joined forces with partnering parent organisations, healthcare professionals and medical societies all over the world to develop its first global campaign “Zero Separation. Together for better care! Keep preterm and sick babies close to their parents”.

Silke Mader is Chairwoman and founding member of EFCNI as well as author and editor of many publications on topics related to maternal and newborn health and received several national and international awards and medals for her engagement.[/modal_popup_box]

Virgilio P. Carnielli

[modal_popup_box btnalign=”center” titletext=”Virgilio P. Carnielli” btntext=”Read Bio” bodybg=”#14145a” caption_url=””]Virgilio P. Carnielli MD, PhD is Professor of Neonatal Pediatrics at Polytechnic University of Marche and Director of Neonatal Medicine at G. Salesi Hospital in Ancona, Italy.

Professor Carnielli’s primary research interests are nutri􀆟on and metabolism in neonatology and pediatrics, with a secondary interest in neonatal audit and epidemiology. He has two main research lines: lipid metabolism and the impact of dietary lipids on brain composition and function in the human neonate; and the metabolism of pulmonary surfactant.

Professor Carnielli is author or co-author of 332 Publica􀆟ons listed in ResearchGate and 274 in PubMed, he a member of several professional associations.[/modal_popup_box]