Professor of Paediatrics and Paediatric Respirology, National Heart and Lung Institute, and Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health, Imperial College (Foundation Director); Consultant Paediatric Chest Physician, Royal Brompton Hospital

My research interests include the invasive and non-invasive measurement of airway inflammation in children, in particular the use of endobronchial biopsy in the management of severe asthma, and clinical physiology, especially respiratory mass spectrometry. I have supervised more than 50 MD and PhD degrees, co-authored more than 800 papers in peer review journals, and written more than 130 chapters in books and monographs. I am Deputy Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. I have served as Guidelines Director of the European Respiratory Society and chair of the Publications Committee. I am also an emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator. Major recent awards include the British Thoracic Society medal (2022, the first Paediatrician to be so honoured), the 2024 James Spence Medal and an Honorary Life Fellowship, the highest honour of the RCPCH, and the 2024 ERS Presidential award. Most importantly, I have the eight greatest grandchildren in the world, Dylan and Jack in South Africa, Oscar and his twin siblings Aya and Fletcher, Lydia, Dominic and Ilyas, all in London.

Julien is a scientist, passionate entrepreneur, startup mentor and early-stage angel investor with 20-year experience in med-tech, health-tech and digital health. He is co-founder and COO of Bloomlife, a maternal health company developing prenatal connected care solutions with the goal to increase access to care, provide personalized feedback to moms, and help doctors earlier predict and manage pregnancy complications. Prior to Bloomlife, Julien was Program Director at imec where he led international teams through the development of medical devices and digital health products for the cardiac, neurological and wellness industries.

Julien has (co-)authored over 60 papers and 20 patents, is a TEDx speaker and an EMBS Distinguished Speaker. He serves on the IEEE Technical Committee on Biomedical Health Informatics and sits on the Program Committees for several international conferences. Julien was a 2004/2005 fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation. He holds a M.Sc. degree in Engineering Physics from University of Liege, Belgium (2004), and a M.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Boston University, MA (2006).

Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis is the director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. He is the author of more than 170 original research articles, a textbook of pediatrics, and co-authored a groundbreaking book, The Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your Kids. He has appeared on CNN, NPR, Today, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and was recently featured as a TEDx speaker.

Dr. Christakis is a pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital in Seattle and a professor in the School of Medicine at University of Washington. He has devoted his career to investigating how early experiences impact children and to helping parents improve their children’s early learning environments. He and his colleagues in the Christakis Lab have made a number of landmark findings, including discovering that young children who watch TV are more likely to develop attention problems and other health and behavioral issues.