Former Vice President, Global Medical Affairs at Mead Johnson Nutrition. Pediatric gastroenterologist at Boston Children's Hospital, Senior Lecturer in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Prof. Vanderhoof is a Pediatric Gastroenterologist in Boston, at Boston Children's Hospital, a Senior Lecturer in Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School, and Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. He was Vice President, Global Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer, for Mead Johnson Nutrition, published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, reviews and chapters in books in various areas of Pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition, served as President of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and on the Editorial Boards of numerous scientific and clinical journals.

Yvan Vandenplas did his medical studies at the ”Vrije Universiteit Brussel” and trained in pediatrics (1981‑1986) at the same University. He became Head of the Unit for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition in 1987 and is Head of the KidZ Health Castle, at the University Hospital Brussels (UZ Brussel) and has the Chair of Pediatrics since 1994. He has more than 500 publications listed in Medline. His main interests are infant nutrition (probiotics, prebiotics, protein, cow's milk allergy), gastro-oesophageal reflux (diagnostic procedures, treatment) and functional gastro-intetsinal disorders. He is now associate editor of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition.

Prof. Shamir is the Chairman of the Institute of Gastroenterology, Nutrition and Liver Diseases at Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, and is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. He is the past President of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN), published more than 250 original papers, reviews and comments, book chapters and guidelines, and serves as an Editor for the pediatric section of Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, is the Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (JPGN), and serves as a reviewer for journals in the field of Pediatrics, Nutrition, Gastroenterology and atherosclerosis.

Professor Ron Shaoul is the Director of the Pediatric Gastroenterology Unit at Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital, Haifa, Israel. He is a Member of the ESPGHAN Porto pediatric IBD working group and a Clinical Associate Professor in Pediatrics at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and a member of the European Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Working Group. He has authored about 120 peer-reviewed articles, and is a reviewer for prestigious journals in the field of pediatrics and gastroenterology.

Hania Szajewska, MD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Medical University of Warsaw.
Until June 2019, she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. Previously, Prof. Szajewska served as a member of the Council and then as the General Secretary of the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN). She also served as the Secretary of the ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition. Most recently (January 2019), she joined the Board of Directors of the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics. Prof. Szajewska has broad interests in pediatric nutrition but her research focuses on the effects of early dietary interventions on later outcomes, the gut microbiota modifications such as with probiotics and/or prebiotics, and diarrheic diseases. She is or has been actively involved in several European Union-funded research projects. She is an enthusiastic advocate for the practice of evidence-based medicine.
She has co-authored more than 320 publications. In 2020, Prof. Szajewska has been ranked as one of the world’s top 2% most-cited researchers.

Dr. Venter obtained her PhD from the University of Southampton, supervised by Prof. Stephen Holgate and Prof. Hasan Arshad in 2007. She moved from the UK in 2015 where she had been performing research into food allergies and allergy prevention as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth at the David Hide Centre on the Isle of Wight. Dr. Venter (PhD RD) is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Allergy/Immunology at the Children's Hospital Colorado and University of Colorado Denver, where she is conducting research in allergy prevention and working with children with food allergies. She is a member of American, European, and British Allergy Societies. She moved from the UK in 2015 where she performed research into food allergy prevalence funded by the Food Standards Agency, UK. She is a member of European and American food allergy guidelines on Allergy Prevention. She was also a member of the NICE (UK) and National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Food Allergy guidelines.

Dr. Carlos Lifschitz is a American Board of Pediatrics certified pediatric gastroenterologist and former Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. He currently is an Associate Physician at the Italian Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has served in the Council of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition as well as in the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition currently in the International Editorial Board of the journal Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. He is a member of the European and Latin American Societies for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition and former member of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. He is the author of 95 peer reviewed publications and 2 books.

Olle Hernell is professor emeritus and former head of pediatrics at the department of Clinical Sciences, Umeå University, Sweden. He is a former member of the committee of Nutrition as well as the Council of the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) and former chair of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences´ National Committee on Nutrition and Food Sciences. He is one of the founders and the present CMO of Lipum AB.

Dr. Bo Lönnerdal has an active research program in pediatric nutrition at University of California, Davis. He has mentored a large number of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as post-doctoral scholars and visiting scientists from all over the world.
He received his master’s and doctorate degrees in biochemistry from University of Uppsala in Sweden, and has been professor at UCD since 1980.

Dr. Lönnerdal’s research has focused on bioactive components in breast milk, the effect of breast milk on the recipient infant and mechanisms underlying the protection against infection. His research includes the micronutrients iron and zinc; how they are secreted into milk and how they are utilized by the infant. He has extensive collaborative projects in China, Peru and Sweden.

His honors include:
1977 Henning Throne Holst's Award in Nutritional Physiology
1986 St. Göran’s Annual Lecture in Nutritional Physiology, Karolinska Institute
1987 Underwood Memorial Lecture in Trace Element Research
1990 Borden Award, American Institute of Nutrition
1991 International Award for Modern Nutrition
2000 Honorary Doctorate (Honoris causa) in Medicine, University of Uppsala,
Sweden
2002 Macy-Györgi Award for research on human milk and lactation
2004 Gabriel Bertrand Prize and Medal for research on trace element metabolism 2012 Lucille Hurley Lectureship 2012
2015 ASN Fellow 2015
2019 Robert Suskind & Leslie Lewinter-Suskind Pediatric Nutrition Lifetime
Achievement Award, ASN


Dr. Lönnerdal has published more than 600 scientific articles, book chapters and books and is currently a member of the American Society of Nutrition (ASN), the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) and the International Society for Research on Human Milk and Lactation (ISRHML). He is on the Editorial Board of several scientific journals and he has served on several Expert Panels for the WHO.

Tenured professor of Pediatrics at the University at
Buffalo, obtained her BS at the University of Pittsburgh, MD at Temple
University School of Medicine, and PhD at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. Dr. Baker completed her residency in Pediatrics at Children's
Hospital of Buffalo and her fellowship in gastroenterology at the Combined
Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Children's Hospital of Boston.
Dr. Baker is recognized as a leader, having served as Chairperson of the
American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Nutrition, Chairperson of the
American Board of Pediatrics, sub board of Gastroenterology and numerous other
national and international advisory groups including the Institute of Medicine,
USDA and the FDA. 

Most recently Dr. Baker was awarded the Murray
Davidson Award by the American Academy of Pediatrics recognizing an outstanding
clinician, educator, and scientist who made significant contributions to the
field of pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition.