Dr Karin Becke, MD, is Head of the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Cnopf Childrens Hospital and Hospital Hallerwiese in Nuernberg, Germany. Dr Becke received her Doctor of Medicine degree from Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen, Germany, where she obtained her training in anesthesia, intensive care and emergency medicine.

Early in her clinical career she developed a deep interest in pediatric anesthesiology. Her professional interests are centered on evidence based clinical practice guidelines in pediatric perioperative care including anesthesia, emergency medicine, intensive care and postoperative pain therapy.

She co-edited the German books “Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine for Children” and “Memorix Pediatric Anesthesia”. She is author of various book chapters, review articles, editorials and research papers. She serves as a reviewer in several peer review journals and is member of the Editorial Advisory Board of “Pediatric Anesthesia”. For years she has served as an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings.

Dr Karin Becke is Speaker of the German Working Group of Pediatric Anesthesiology of the German Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (DGAI). She is Chair of the Scientific Subcommittee 5 (Pediatric Anesthesia) of the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA).

Currently her activities are focused on optimized multiprofessional perioperative care to improve pediatric patient safety and comfort. 


Dr Nicola Disma is currently Consultant Pediatric Anesthetist at Istituto Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa, Italy, appointed as Clinical Anesthesia Research Coordinator, and he is about to start as Consultant Pediatric Anesthetist at Great Ormond Street Hospital London, UK. 

He had previous working experiences at Murdoch Research Children’s Institute Melbourne (Visiting Professor), Great Ormond Street Hospital London (Clinical fellow in PICU/NICU/CICU), and Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (Senior House Officer). 

Nicola Disma has obtained two public grants from the Italian Ministry of Health with the role of Principal Investigator (PI), for supporting and coordinating the "The GAS Study", an international trial on anesthesia and long term neurological outcome. He is member of the Steering Committee of the GAS Study, of the APRICOT (clinical trial network sponsored by ESA) and Principal Investigator of the NECTARINE Study (CTN sponsored by ESA). He is currently member of the Scientific Sub-Committee 5 (Pediatric Anesthesia) at ESA, member of ExBo of ESPA (European Society of Pediatric Anesthesia) and member of ExBo of SARNePI (Italian Society of Pediatric Anesthesia).

Main area of interest are: anesthesia and long term outcome, safety in neonatal and pediatric anesthesia, pediatric patient blood management. 


Dr Thomas Engelhardt is a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital and has held this position since 2006.

Professional interests include: Paediatric anaesthesia (safe conduct of anaesthesia, airway management, pharmacology, basic science, psychology)

Professional bodies related to paediatric anaesthesia: SC member APAGBI, Research coordinator Scottish Paediatric Anaesthesia Network (SPAN), SC member SC5 European Society Anaesthesiology, SC member Children of the World Anesthesia Foundation (COTWAF), National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia (NIAA) Grant Committee Representative for APAGBI, Founding Member of the SafeAnaesthesiaForEveryTot initiative (www.safetots.org), Steering Group Member of the NECTARINE study (www.esahq.org/NECTARINE) 


Prof Walid Habre is Head of the Anesthesiological Investigations Unit and senior consultant in Paediatric Anesthesia at Geneva Children's Hospital. He is a Professor at the University of Geneva. His paediatric anaesthesia training included a Fellowship at Princess Margaret Hospital Anaesthetic Department and the Institute for Child Health Research in Perth, Australia. His main research activity is focused on the anaesthesia management of children with bronchial hyper responsiveness and in ventilation. He has published many papers on lung function and on the interaction between the heart and the lung. 

He was member of the Board of Directors of the European Society of Anesthesiology and is member of several Pediatric Anesthesia Societies. He recently initiated a clinical trial network study focusing on the perioperative incidence of severe adverse events in children: “APRICOT”, with the inclusion of more than 260 European centers and about 31’000 children. Finally, he is deputy-editor of the European Journal of Anaesthesiology.


Dr Martin Jöhr is a Senior Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Department of Anaesthesiology at the Luzerner Kantonsspital, a major teaching institution in Switzerland. 

He attended medical school at the University of Berne ( Switzerland) from 1971 to 1977. In 1981 he moved to Lucerne, where he started working in Paediatrics at the Children’s Hospital, and then changed to the Department of Anaesthesiology. 

Convinced of the importance of small details and that every anaesthetic should be as perfect as possible, a major part of his activity was devoted to education and teaching. Since the late 1980s Martin Jöhr has presented numerous lectures on various topics concerning Paediatric Anaesthesia. From the beginning in 1993, he has been a principal lecturer at the Annual Review Course for anaesthetists in Switzerland. He has written a textbook on Paediatric Anaesthesia which was issued in its first edition in 1990 and in its 8th edition in 2013 (Jöhr M: Kinderanästhesie, Elsevier). 


Dr Mark Thomas has been a Consultant Paediatric Anaesthetist at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London since 1998. He graduated from Cambridge University in the late eighties. Mark is a Council member of the APA in Great Britain and Chair of the education and training committee. He is education section editor for Pediatric Anesthesia and has been an examiner for the FRCA for the past 10 years. 

Interests include high fidelity simulation training and assessment and preoperative fasting.






Prof Francis Veyckemans was born in Belgium in 1952 and graduated as specialist in Anaesthesiology in 1984. He was in charge of Paediatric Anaesthesia at the Cliniques universitaires St Luc in Brussels, the academic hospital of the French speaking Catholic University of Louvain, until June 2016. He then moved to the Hôpital Jeanne de Flandre in Lille (France). He has been the overseas members representative at the APAGBI and the President of the Association of French-speaking Paediatric Anaesthesiologists (ADARPEF). He is currently the President-elect of the ESPA (European Society for Paediatric Anaesthesiology). He acts as a reviewer for many Journals and is a member of the Editorial Board of Pediatric Anesthesia and the European Journal of Anaesthesiology. His main topics of interests are anaesthesia and rare diseases, regional anaesthesia and organ transplantation.