Heather Zar is Professor & Chair, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health and Director of the SA-MRC Unit on Child & Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town. A global expert in childhood respiratory diseases, she’s built a strong clinical translational research program in some of the most deprived communities, with a strong focus on childhood pneumonia. She established an African birth cohort enabling study of the epidemiology, determinants and long term impact of early life exposures including pneumonia.  She participated in several studies of RSV prevention in infants. She chaired the WHO Technical Advisory committee on new RSV preventive interventions. She is past-President of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, of the Pan African Thoracic Society, and served as an advisor to WHO, UNICEF and the Gates Foundation. She received the World Lung Health award from the American Thoracic Society, the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Laureate for Africa and Arabia, the SA-MRC Platinum medal for contributions over a lifetime, the European Respiratory Society Lifetime Achievement Award and the Barney Graham award for contributions on RSV. She is passionate about reducing global health inequities and ensuring access to effective interventions for all children.

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.