Adam Collison a former TSANZ/NAC Career Development Fellow now a teaching/research academic in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle, and a member of the Asthma and Breathing Program at the Hunter Medical Research Institute. Adam’s vision is to understand the development of asthma and allergic disease in early life and develop effective prevention strategies. He has led the investigation of the immunophenotype in children born to mothers in the NHMRC-funded Breathing for Life Trial. Here he identified altered immune cell profiles associated with increased air pollution exposure in pregnancy, decreased lung function and altered exhaled nitric oxide in infancy. CI Collison has a particular interest in the epigenetic regulation of inflammation, asthma exacerbations and their broader implications for respiratory development and health.

Professor Shyamali Dharmage is a world-recognised leader in Life Course Epidemiology of Chronic Respiratory Diseases. She developed and leads the internationally recognized Allergy & Lung Health Unit, Centre for Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Melbourne. She is the custodian and PI of two of the world’s key studies in allergies and lung health; including NHMRC funded Melbourne Atopy Cohort Study (MACS) and Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study (TAHS). She has more than 550 publications and has been awarded >$75 million in research grants. Professor Dharmage is currently the top ranked obstructive lung diseases epidemiologist in Australia and third globally.  She is in the top 0.018% among 219,873 all obstructive lung disease researchers worldwide (Expertscape).

Cassidy is an allied health clinician-scientist with extensive expertise in paediatric and adult respiratory physiology, gained from leading healthcare institutes across Australia and Ireland. He is currently a Research Fellow with the Department of Respiratory Research@Alfred, Monash University, and a Senior Respiratory Scientist with the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at The Royal Children’s Hospital. He is an emerging leader in the field of prematurity-associated lung disease, with primary research pursuits focused on unravelling the long-term pulmonary health outcomes of children and adults born preterm and those who develop bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome post hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

Professor Peter Sly is a former Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Pacific Basin Consortium for the Environment and Health, Director, Children’s Health and Environment Program and Director, WHO Collaborating Centre for Children’s Health and Environment. Professor Sly is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow and a paediatric respiratory physician with extensive research experience in respiratory physiology, developmental immunology and children’s environmental health. Professor Sly’s research aims to understand the mechanisms underlying chronic childhood lung diseases in order to improve clinical management and to delay or prevent their onset, with consequent reductions in adult lung diseases. A combination of basic science, longitudinal cohort studies and translation of research findings into clinical practice, including clinical trials, are included in three main areas: children’s environmental health, asthma, and cystic fibrosis.

Dr Sandra Chuang (BSc (Med), MBBS (Hons), MPH, FRACP, PhD, AFHEA) is a Clinical Academic (Senior lecturer, Education Focused) at the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, School of Clinical Medicine (Randwick Clinical Campus), Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales Sydney (UNSW) Australia. She is a Respiratory and sleep paediatrician at Sydney Children's Hospital Randwick, Australia. Dr Chuang has a passion for improving the health of children through education and research partnerships not only as a clinician researcher, but also through her engagement with the community.