ERS Assembly Lifetime Achievement Awards 2019

Dr. Denis O'Donnell is a Professor of Medicine at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. He is a Senior Clinician Scientist and Director of the Respiratory Investigation Unit, Kingston Health Science Centre. He trained at the University of Galway, Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, and Trinity College, Dublin, and later at the University of Manitoba where he completed a Doctorate in Medicine under the supervision of Professors Nick Anthonisen and Magdy Younes.

His research is focused on clinical integrative physiology in chronic lung diseases including the physiological mechanisms of dyspnea and exercise limitation. At Queen's he assembled a highly productive clinical research team which has been very successful in attracting peer-reviewed and pharmaceutical company grant support over 30 years. He has lectured and published extensively, contributing 346 peer-reviewed publications, 45 chapters and 12 books/monographs to date. The Respiratory Investigation Unit established at Queen's enjoys international recognition for scientific excellence and training in clinical physiology. Dr. O'Donnell has received numerous national and international awards in recognition of his contribution to Research in Respiratory Diseases.

Join the Ceremony for the Assembly Lifetime Achievement Awards during Assembly 4 members' meeting, Clinical physiology and sleep, on Monday 30 September, 2019 from 13.00 to 14.15 in Room N103.

Professor Annette Boehler has dedicated most of her professional life to promoting lung transplantation in all its different aspects, as the former Medical Director of the Lung Transplantation Program at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, and former Head of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Clinic and the Orphan Lung Disease Clinic. Her clinical and basic research focus is chronic allograft rejection.

Within the ERS she served first as Secretary (2001-2004) and Chair (2004-2007) of the Scientific Group on Lung Transplantation, and thereafter, as Secretary (2007-2010) and Head (2010-2013) of the Scientific Assembly 8. As member of the ERS Executive Board she wholeheartedly promoted the strategic positioning of her assembly and strengthened its unique features, being the only non-surgical medical society with its own surgical assembly and being the only respiratory society with its own lung transplantation assembly. This European group of general as well as transplant thoracic surgeons and pulmonologists grew together into a strong multidisciplinary platform.

As former member of the Swiss National Board on Biomedical Ethics involved in the ongoing discussion of aspects of organ donation, and is recently completing a comprehensive review on Benchmarking of the Swiss Universities Transplantation Programs she is continuously involved in the world of lung transplantation.

Join the Ceremony for the Assembly Lifetime Achievement Awards during the Assembly 8 members' meeting, Thoracic surgery and transplantation, on Monday 30 September, 2019 from 13.00 to 14.15 in Room N104

Born in 1951, Dr. Postmus obtained his medical degree at the University of Groningen in 1976. He trained as a pulmonologist in the University Hospital of Groningen (1977-1981) and has been working as a clinician in the respiratory field with special focus on thoracic oncology since 1978.

In Groningen he started the lung cancer research and the lung transplant programs in the Netherlands. In 1992 he moved to Amsterdam as head of department and professor of pulmonary diseases at the VU medisch centrum (VUmc) in 1992. During more than 2 decades clinical research programs in thoracic oncology, endoscopy, pulmonary circulation and pneumothorax were developed.

He was the President of the World Conference on Lung Cancer in Amsterdam 2011 and a Board Member of IASLC from 2003 till 2011. He was member of the IASLC Staging Committee.

The University of Liverpool appointed him as Honorary Chair of thoracic oncology in March 2015 and he worked as consultant in the NHS hospitals Clatterbridge Cancer Centre and Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital till September 2017.

In October 2017 he became professor/head of the department of pulmonary diseases at the LUMC focusing on thoracic oncology and ILD.

Join the Ceremony for the Assembly Lifetime Achievement Awards during the Assembly 11 members' meeting, Thoracic oncology, on Sunday 29 September, 2019 from 13.00 to 14.15 in Room 6E

Athol Wells is the senior interstitial lung disease clinician at the Royal Brompton Hospital, having recently stepped down from leadership of the ILD unit. He trained in New Zealand, working in the specialist unit at Green Lane Hospital in Auckland, before moving to the UK in 1999.

He is primarily a clinician with research interests in clinical science (especially in functional/morphologic studies), translational research and studies of the diagnosis and management of ILD. He is an author/co-author of over 500 peer review articles, editorials, reviews and chapters and has also had a major role in guideline formulation for ATS, ERS and BTS. He was the original creator of the disease behaviour classification, first developed before the millennium and adopted, with minor adaption, in the 2013 classification update of the idiopathic interstitial pneumonias.

Recently, he has prioritised sarcoidosis, co-developing a major cardiac sarcoidosis centre in London. He is currently Vice President of the World Association of Sarcoidosis and other Granulomatous Diseases. Despite the imminent Brexit process, he views himself first and foremost as a committed European and representative of the European ILD community in international collaborations and he hopes to continue in this role for years to come.

Join the ceremony for the Assembly Lifetime Achievement Awards Assembly 12 members meeting, Interstitial lung diseases, on Monday 30 September, 2019 from 13.00 to 14.15 in Room 6B