Consultant Upper GI Surgeon, Beaumont Hospital and Associate Professor of Surgery, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

Jarlath graduated from RCSI in 2009 with a gold medal in surgery. Having completed his internship in Beaumont Hospital, he undertook a PhD in cancer biology. He was awarded his FRCSI in 2020, and completed the national surgical training scheme with a focus on upper GI surgery in 2021. He then undertook a fellowship in University Health Network and the University of Toronto in Canada, under the supervision of Prof Jonathan Yeung. He was appointed as a consultant robotic upper GI surgeon and associate professor of surgery in Beaumont Hospital and RCSI in 2024. His translational research interests are in investigating responses to neoadjuvant therapies in oesophagogastric cancer, and the development of metastatic pathways. He also has an interest in harnessing and promoting collaborative research, and served as the first chairperson of the Irish Surgical Research Collaborative. He has multiple research awards, including the RCSI Millin Medal in 2025.

Division of Thoracic Surgery – Heart Institute, Hospital das Clinicas of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Professor of Thoracic Surgery and supervisor of the Post Graduate Program in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery of the Department of Cardiopneumology of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Attending thoracic surgeon of the Trachea and Airway Surgery Group of the Division of Thoracic Surgery, and Senior Researcher and Vice-Chair of the Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratory (LIM-61) of the Heart Institute (InCor-HCFMUSP) of the Hospital das Clinicas of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Former Research Fellow of the Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratory (1987-1989) under the supervision of Drs. Joel Cooper and Alec Patterson. Former Clinical Associate and Esophageal Fellow (1990-1991) under the supervision of Dr. Frederick Griffith Pearson at the Division of Thoracic Surgery of the University of Toronto, Canada.

Dr. D. Alex Gillis Professor and Head
Department of Surgery Dalhousie University
Chief of Surgery Nova Scotia Health Central Zone

Dr. Darling is currently the Dr. D. Alec Gillis Professor and Head Department of Surgery Dalhousie University and Chief of Surgery Nova Scotia Health Central Zone. She is the Past President of the Canadian Association of Thoracic Surgeons and former Editor in Chief for Pearson Textbook of Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Darling was previously the Kress Family Chair in Esophageal Cancer and Professor of Surgery at University Health Network and the University of Toronto.

Professor of Surgery
MI/GMAC Residential Funding of Canada Chair in Thoracic Surgery
Head of Division, Thoracic Surgery
Adjunct Professor, Health Evidence and Impact

Head of Service, Thoracic Surgery
Head of Service, Endoscopy
Chair, Boris Family Centre for Robotic Surgery Research Program
St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton

Waël C. Hanna is a Professor of Surgery and Division Head of Thoracic Surgery at McMaster University. Over the past 15 years, he has dedicated his efforts to the advancement of Robotic Thoracic Surgery in Canada by helping launch multiple Canadian centres and leading the multi-national RAVAL trial. Dr. Hanna and his team performed the first robotic ICG-guided segmentectomy and the first robotic esophagectomy in Canada. Recognizing the limitations of conventional endosonography, he co-founded NodeAI, a platform designed to augment endoscopic ultrasound with artificial intelligence to improve the accuracy of lung cancer staging. Dr. Hanna has authored more than 200 peer reviewed articles and remains dedicated to academic excellence through research and training at McMaster University.

Professor for Thoracic Surgery
Surgical Director Vanderbilt Lung Transplant Program
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

Konrad Hoetzenecker, MD PhD is an appointed Professor for Thoracic Surgery at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee and serves as the Surgical Director of the Vanderbilt Lung Transplant Program. His research focuses on donor lung preservation and the opportunities arising from organ storage at 10°C, ex-vivo lung perfusion, and normothermic regional perfusion. Another major area of his work is the development of new surgical techniques, including minimally invasive lung transplantation. Vanderbilt is one of few centers worldwide currently offering minimally invasive lung transplantation.

Dr Hoetzenecker has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and is an editorial board member of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. He has been awarded several prizes and grants including the Graham Memorial Traveling Fellowship from the American Association of Thoracic Surgery.

Dr. Issard is a French board-certified thoracic surgeon with over a decade of progressive experience in cardiothoracic surgery, specializing in chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), lung transplantation, and heart-lung transplantation. He has trained and practiced at leading academic medical centers in Europe and North America, including Toronto General Hospital and Marie Lannelongue Hospital. Dr. Issard has demonstrated leadership in performing complex transplant procedures, managing advanced CTEPH cases, and implementing mechanical circulatory support strategies. He is deeply committed to advancing clinical excellence, fostering multidisciplinary collaboration, and contributing to cutting-edge research in thoracic transplantation.

Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Manitoba

Dr. Kidane is a thoracic and foregut surgeon with a special interest in minimally invasive and endoscopic approaches to benign and malignant thoracic/foregut disease. He was recruited to Manitoba to establish an advanced diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy program for thoracic and foregut diseases. He completed his MD at the University of Toronto, General Surgery Residency at Western University and thoracic surgery residency at the University of Toronto, with additional third space and foregut training in McGill. His translational research program centers on understanding the role of intraoperative inflammation in development of short- and long-term complications as well as cancer recurrence. He also has a research interest in health services and outcomes research as it relates to esophageal and lung cancer. His clinical program development focuses on strategies to incorporate MIS/Endoscopic techniques, multimodal therapies & logistics to improve patient & system outcomes.

Professor, Department of Thoracic Surgery, the University of Tokyo

Dr. Masaaki Sato is Chair and Professor of the Department of Thoracic Surgery and Head of the Lung Transplant Program at the University of Tokyo Hospital. He graduated from Kyoto University School of Medicine in 1999. He received his PhD from the Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, in 2008, where his research focused on chronic rejection after lung transplantation. He later proposed the concept of restrictive allograft syndrome (RAS), now recognized as a major phenotype of chronic lung allograft dysfunction.

Following clinical training in general thoracic surgery, cardiac surgery, and lung transplantation in Toronto (2008–2011), he worked at Kyoto University as an assistant professor (2011–2015), and then he launched a new lung transplant program at the University of Tokyo in 2015, which has since grown to become the largest and most active program in Japan. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021 and to Professor in 2023.

As a thoracic surgeon, he also developed virtual-assisted lung mapping (VAL-MAP), a bronchoscopic lung mapping technique for precise sublobar lung resection, in 2012. He later developed VAL-MAP 2.0, combining the original technique with bronchoscopic microcoil placement to enable three-dimensional lung mapping. Through multiple multicenter prospective trials, the intrabronchial “mapping coil” is now being introduced to the Japanese market. His research focuses on lung transplantation and advanced surgical techniques for thoracic malignancies.

Dr Vallières was the Medical Director Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle until retirement in 2025. He received his MD from L’Université Laval, then trained in General Surgery at the University of Toronto where he also completed a General Thoracic Surgery Residency. He joined the Department of Surgery at the University of Alberta Edmonton in 1991, then the University of Ottawa in 1994. He was recruited at the University of Washington Seattle in 1996 where he remained as an Associate Professor until 2004, before taking over the leadership of Thoracic Surgery at the Swedish Cancer Institute.

Dr. Vallières was Vice-Chairman of the Lung Committee with SWOG from 1998 to 2008. His main interests were the combined modality approaches to thoracic malignancies.