Professor Martin Lacher is Surgeon-in-Chief and Director of the Department of Pediatric Surgery at the University of Leipzig. After his surgical residency at the University of Munich he successfully completed a Fellowship in Pediatric Endosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. His research activities which focus on neonatal and adolescent inflammatory bowel diseases and new techniques in minimally invasive surgery are regularly funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). Prof. Martin Lacher also serves as a reviewer for a variety of surgical peer-reviewed journals and is Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Pediatric Surgery Reports. On the clinical side, he is dedicated to humanitarian aid and pediatric surgical missions around the globe, and is founder of the NGO www.pediatric-surgery-foundation.org. Professor Shawn D. St Peter is Surgeon-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Surgery at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City,Missouri. He also holds the Thomas Holder and Keith Ashcraft Endowed Chair and is a Professor of Surgery at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is currently the Program Director of the Pediatric Surgery Fellowship Program at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics, where he is also the Director of the Center for Prospective Trials. Dr. St. Peter received his undergraduate degree in Zoology from the University of Idaho, and his medical degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine. He completed a surgical residency at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale and a year of research at Oxford University, UK. His clinical research interests include quality improvement for patient outcomes, minimally invasive surgery, evidence-based practice, and systems-based care. Professor Augusto Zani is a Neonatal and Pediatric Surgeon at the Division of General and Thoracic Surgery, Hospital for Sick Children; an Assistant Professor at the Department of Surgery, University of Toronto; and a Scientist in the Development and Stem Cell Biology Program at SickKids Research Institute, Toronto, Canada. He received his MD and completed his pediatric surgical training at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. He received his PhD from University College London, UK, and pursued further neonatal surgical training in the UK and Canada. Prof. Zani has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed articles, and serves on the boards of several scientific journals. His main interests are in clinical outcome research and regenerative medicine for neonatal surgical conditions with a focus on CDH and NEC.
