Dr. Ade Dwi Lestari an occupational medicine specialist doctor, experienced with several pneumoconiosis patients works in mining and manufacture industry. Since last two years she is been presenting lectures in Occupational Medicine Department University Trisakti, Jakarta, Indonesia. Member of ICOH and INABAN.

Dr. Alex Keil earned an MSPH in epidemiology in 2010 and a Ph.D. in epidemiology in 2014, both from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. He is currently a Stadtman Investigator in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch at the National Cancer Institute in the United States and was previously an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at UNC.

Dr. Keil has received several awards for his work, including the EPICOH Young Investigator Award, a Rising Star award for the UNC Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility, and a Paper of the Year award from the American Journal of Epidemiology. He has previously been awarded funding from the US National Institutes for Health for developing causal inference approaches to exposure mixtures.

Dr. Keil's research is focused on improving the link between epidemiologic studies and public health in occupational and environmental settings. He has developed and applied numerous analytic approaches from causal inference for addressing healthy worker survivor bias. His current work focuses on exposure mixtures, where he brings a causal perspective to improve the public health relevance of complex statistical approaches to mixtures.

Ann Olsson obtained her PhD in medical sciences 2010 at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and is since 2011 responsible for the occupational cancer epidemiology team at IARC. Ann’s primary interest is conducting multi-centre epidemiological studies to identify environmental and occupational risk factors for lung cancer, testis, and childhood cancers. Much of this involves coordination and collaboration within large international consortia.

Challenges and Opportunities for Occupational Health Research in Developing Countries Despite many advances in working conditions in developing countries, general awareness about occupational health (OH), safety and hygiene is low among the workforce and community. As a consequence, Occupational Health Research (OHR) is also neglected.

Some of the challenges in facing OHR in the developing countries include

• Difficulty in gaining access to data from large workplaces
• Expenses involved in research and lack of funding for the same
• Lack of dedicated trained research personnel
• Research priorities being driven by management needs
• Research priorities are not always met by research output, its impact or their funding
• Developing countries do not have means to convert OHR findings into effective policies
• OHR is predominantly the domain of the doctor in the workplace not involving sociology, economics or political sciences
• OH journals want research done in workplace alone and not the ones covering socio-political effects of work on the community
• Research funding may be product-driven to prove necessity rather than demand driven
• The nature of various study designs makes interpretations complex and pose difficulties to generalize the conclusions about occupational risks.

More robust OH laws and a team which includes OH researchers to support it at the ground level is the need of the day. Therefore, the need for trained OH physicians with a penchant for research cannot be over-emphasized. These OH Researchers need to demonstrate the value of robust research findings to the stakeholders, build international and local collaborations and secure political will and thereby funding for research.

A shift in approach from identifying measuring exposures and injuries to identifiable and measurable workplace hazards to a more system-based approach on how the risk factors could affect the family and society. Economic evaluations on workplace interventions while reporting on their validity and effectiveness is the need of the hour.

Medical Doctor, PhD in Occupational Health, professor of occupational health at the University of Milan.

Director of the Occupational Health Unit and of the International Centre for Rural Health of the Santi Paolo e Carlo Hospitals, Milan.

His main field of interest is research in agriculture; with a particular attention for pesticides. He has collaborated in several National and International research projects, is author of more than 100 papers on occupational health, toxicology and agriculture and collaborates with several National and International agencies dealing with occupational and environmental health.

David Kriebel is a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Trained at Harvard in occupational/environmental epidemiology, his research has helped to identify many important environmental and occupational causes of cancer, lung diseases, injuries and other health hazards. For over 30 years he taught in the Department of Work Environment at UMass Lowell, an interdisciplinary graduate program that trained hundreds of occupational health researchers, practitioners and activists. Dr. Kriebel has co-authored two textbooks and published more than 150 peer reviewed papers. As a member of a committee of the U.S. National Research Council, Dr. Kriebel helped establish the link between exposure to Agent Orange among Vietnam veterans and cancer, leading to compensation for many disabled veterans. He advised the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences on its long-term study of the health effects of the Deep-Water Horizon oil spill and clean-up operations and conducted research to identify cancers and other diseases among the first responders to the World Trade Center Disaster. Dr. Kriebel is also the Director of the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, which collaborates with industries, government agencies, unions, and community organizations on the redesign of systems of production to make them healthier and more environmentally sound. He continues to teach epidemiology and also frequently speaks to community groups and government agencies on the role of science in democratic decision making, particularly in cancer prevention.

• Consultant in Orthopaedic Surgery, Rehabilitation, Ergonomics, and Occupational Health, RECOUP Health, Bengaluru, India.
• Chairperson, Scientific Committee on Musculoskeletal Disorders, International Commission on Occupational Health.
• President, International Myopain Society.
• Founder Director, EPM International Ergonomics School, Italy.
• Over 500 International scientific publications or conference presentations, including some of the world’s largest epidemiological studies in Office and Industrial Ergonomics, Healthcare Ergonomics, Cognitive Ergonomics and Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders.
• Winner of several Awards and Research Grants, including the National Disability Award (Government of India) and the World’s highest Research Awards in Orthopaedics and Paediatric Orthopaedics.
• Organising Chairperson, PREMUS: The 11^th International Scientific Conference on the Prevention of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders, the 6th Work, Disability, Prevention and Integration (WDPI) Conference, and MYOPAIN: The 11th International Conference on Myofascial Pain Syndrome and Fibromyalgia Syndrome, September 20-26, 2023, Bengaluru, India

EPICOH Early Career Award ‘Pier Alberto Bertazzi’ 2023 Winner
Kaitlin Kelly-Reif is an epidemiologist at the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC/NIOSH). At NIOSH, Kaitlin is the principal investigator of several chronic disease studies of workers exposed to ionizing radiation, particulate matter, and chemicals, which inform occupational and environmental standards.

She is also involved in several international collaborative studies including the Pooled Uranium Miners Analysis (PUMA) and the International Nuclear Workers Study (INWORKS).

Paolo Vineis is the Chair of Environmental Epidemiology at Imperial College, London and Visiting Professor at the Italian Institute of Technology, Genova. His work is on environmental risks of disease including climate change. PV has been in 2020, 2021 and 2022 in the top 20 most cited Imperial College Scientists with nearly 120,000 citations. He has more than 1,100 publications (many as leading author; H-index>160) in journals such as Nature, Science, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, and is a member of various international scientific and ethics committees (including the Committee of the US National Academy of Sciences on 21st Century Risk Assessment) and vice-chair of the Ethics Committee at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC, WHO). He has also published several books including “Health without borders: epidemics in the era of globalization”. Springer, 2017, and has engaged in policy-making as Vice-President of the High Council of Health (Consiglio Superiore di Sanita’, advisor to the Health Minister) in Italy, and as a member of Cancer Prevention Europe (affiliated with Cancer Mission Europe). In 2020 he became an advisor of the Piedmont Region for COVID-19 and has contributed to the development of mathematical models and containment policies (see Saltelli et al, Nature 2020). In 2018 he has been knighted by the Italian President of the Republic.

His latest research activities focus on investigating biomarkers from - omic platforms (including metabolomics and epigenetics) in large epidemiological studies. Overall, the main breakthroughs have been (a) the demonstration of a number of molecular alterations (miRNA, metabolomics) associated with exposure to air pollution, able to predict disease outcomes according to the concept of “meet-in-the-middle”; (b) the development of biomarkers of smoking, including the first demonstration of a methylation signature, and mutational fingerprints; (c) the development for application in epidemiological studies of “biological clocks” based on DNA methylation and metabolomics to measure biological ageing; (d) the successful promotion of the interaction between social sciences and life sciences in a large consortium on health inequalities and ageing, that applied on a large scale omic technologies to social inequalities in health. He is also active in the field of climate change and health, with original research conducted in Bangladesh that demonstrated an increased risk of hypertension in relation to salinity in drinking water due to sea level rise. A number of the research projects he has led are international in scope and collaborative in nature. He has coordinated the European Commission FP7-funded Exposomics project and the Horizon 2020-funded project Lifepath. The Lifepath project, which includes numerous studies including EPIC and MCCS, aims to understand the impact of socio-economic differences on healthy aging with an approach that considers the relative importance of effects on life; this consortium alone has resulted in over 50 publications. Currently he is co-PI of the NIHR Centre for non-communicable diseases in LMIC at Imperial College.

He has over 200 publications during the period 2018-2022

Dr. R. Rajesh is MD in Public Health with more than 30 years of experience in Occupational Health and Hospital Administration in the corporate sector. He has been working with Reliance since 1996 and is currently Group Head - Medical Services, Reliance Industries Limited. He was President of the Indian Association of Occupational Health, National Secretary from India for the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) and is Chair for Scientific Committee of OH in the Chemical Industry, ICOH. He has received two-time ICOH Service Award for support and contribution for increasing membership as ICOH National Secretary for India, JC Kothari Oration, Fellowship of IAOH Award, ADM Oration, CKR Oration, OHSF Oration, Best Resource of the year. He has been invited as a speaker at International and National conferences.

Professor Sanjay Zodpey is the President, Public Health Foundation of India. He has served as Vice President - Academics, Public Health Foundation of India and led the Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi as its Founding Director. An institution builder, he played an important role in setting up Indian Institutes of Public Health across India. He has held joint appointment as Honorary / Adjunct Professor in five international universities: Georgia Southern University, Georgia; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA; The University of Sydney, Australia; Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia; and Patan Academy of Health Sciences, Lalitpur, Nepal.

He has served as Director of Indian Institutes of Public Health at Gandhinagar and Bhubaneswar. He has also served as Professor at Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, Faculty in Clinical Epidemiology Unit and Vice Dean at Government Medical College, Nagpur, India.

He is a trained public health professional with multidisciplinary qualifications. He has acquired MD (Community Medicine), PhD and post-graduate qualifications in Sociology, Public Administration, and Economics. He was conferred ‘Doctor of Science (DSc) (Honoris Causa)’ by DMIMS Deemed to be University, Wardha for long-standing contribution to medical science and public health.

With over 425 publications, he features in top 2 percent scientists across the world for his research contribution in Tropical Medicine for three consecutive years as part of worldwide ranking of scientists in all science fields. He served as the Chief Editor of Indian Journal of Public Health. His current research interests include global health, health systems research, health workforce development and education of health professionals.

He is Honorary Member of Faculty of Public Health, UK and member of European Public Health Association. He is Fellow of the Indian Public Health Association, Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, Indian Society for Malaria and Other Communicable Diseases and National Academy of Medical Sciences (India). He was the National President of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine for two consecutive terms. He served as the Chairperson of Global Evaluation and Monitoring Network for Health. He is a Board Member of Routine Health Information Network, Inc [RHINO], Boston, USA. He was the Country Lead for Asia Pacific Network on Health Professional Education Reforms and Country Focal Point for Asia Pacific Action Alliance for Human Resources for Health. He has also served as Member on Institute of Medicine [IOM, Washington DC] Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education.

He was felicitated by Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Honorable Governor of Maharashtra with ‘COVID Warrior Award’ in appreciation of outstanding commitment, dedication, and selfless service. He is recipient of Public Health Education Leadership Award for significant contributions in promoting public health education in WHO’s South-East Asia Region.

• 50 years in public Health as Teacher, Trainer, Researchers, Administrator and Consultant
• Qualifications: M.D. (PSM), M.Sc. (Applied Nutrition)
• Honorary Technical Director Urban Health and Climate Resilience Center of Excellence, Surat 2017 onwards
• Founder secretary of Urban Health Society of India (UHSI),
• Former
• Senior Consultant / Advisor Child Friendly Smart City Knowledge Center- Joint initiative of SMC and UNICEF 2017-20
• Technical Director Urban Health and Climate Resilience Center, A project under Asian city Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) of Rockefeller foundation 2013-16
• Additional Director FW, Gujarat State 2005-10
• Professor and HOD Community Medicine Dept. Govt. Medical College, Surat 1996-2008
• Faculty (Junior lecturer / Tutor, Assistant professor, Associate Professor 0 Preventive and Social Medicine/Community Medicine Department 1971-1995.
• Past National President of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine (1999)
• Fellowships Award:
• “Nutrition programs” London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – London
• “Rural Water Supply and sanitation program planning, implementation and monitoring “DPPC, Bradford University, Bradford.
• Short term WHO consultant as Editorial board member of Text book on “Environmental Epidemiology”
• Field of Specialization in Public Health
• Climate and Health Resilience
• Community Nutrition
• Urban Health
• Reproductive and Child Health
• Iodine Deficiency Disorders
• Industrial, Neighborhood and Endemic Fluorosis
• Environment and Health, Disasters and Health
• Child Friendly City
• Adolescent Responsive Health Care
• Community Health and Nutrition Program Policy and Planning

Presently working as Consultant, Expert in Silicosis with Directorate of Especially Abled Persons, Government of Rajasthan, was responsible for formulating “Rajasthan Policy on Pneumoconiosis including Silicosis for Detection, Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation 2019”.

Retired from the post of Director, National Institute of Miners’ Health, with 40 years’ experience of dealing with occupational health and hygiene issues in Asbestos Products Industry, Mining and Building and Construction Industry.

I have been resource person for ILO and WHO with specific interest in ILO Classification and dust diseases.

Dr. Paul D. Blanc MD MSPH holds the Endowed Chair in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. Blanc received his BA from Goddard College (Vermont), later training at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, and Cook County Hospital. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at UCSF (1985-7), a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev (1987-8), and a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (2013-4). Blanc has authored numerous scholarly publications and is the author of How Everyday Products Make People Sick (UC Press, 2009) and Fake Silk: The Lethal History of Viscose Rayon (Yale, 2016).

Dr. Rauf Iqbal is a Professor of Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering at the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai. Currently he is holding the position of Dean-Student Affairs. His research interest is Work system design, Engineering Anthropometry and workspace design, Biomechanics of human movement, Occupational Ergonomics and Safety management.

Rauf Iqbal has publications of over 125 as journal articles, edited books, book chapters and conference proceedings. He has guided 10 scholars for the PhD degree.

He is member of various international and national committees like, Foundation of Professional Ergonomics, USA, BRICS Plus Executive Committee for Human Factors and Ergonomics, Council member of Asian Council on Ergonomics and Design, Ergonomics sectional committee for Bureau of Indian Standards, General Secretary of Indian Society of Ergonomics etc. He has carried out various projects funded by the Government as well as International Labour Organization. He has been conducting training and consultancy for numerous industries in the areas of ergonomics, work study, work systems design and Safety management.

Dr. Sangeeta Pandit holds a PhD in Design Ergonomics from IIT Guwahati in the year 2014. There after she joined as an Assistant Professor at IIITDM Jabalpur in the Design Department. Presently she teaches, practices and researches in different areas of ergonomics and its application in design. She worked in different consultancy and MHRD funded projects and has publication in International and National journals and many book chapters with Springer, CRC press and Elsevier publishers. She is a life member of Indian Ergonomic Association, International Commission of Occupational Health.

Soumya Swaminathan was most recently WHO's Chief Scientist and before that, Deputy Director-General for Programmes. A pediatrician from India and a globally recognized researcher on tuberculosis and HIV, she brings with her 30 years of experience in clinical care and research and has worked throughout her career to translate research into impactful programmes. Dr. Swaminathan was Secretary to the Government of India for Health Research and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research from 2015 to 2017. In that position, she focused on bringing science and evidence into health policy-making, building research capacity in Indian medical schools, and forging south-south partnerships in health sciences. From 2009 to 2011, she also served as Coordinator of the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases in Geneva.

She received her academic training in India, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and has published more than 480 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. She is a Fellow of the US National Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Medical Sciences of the UK and a Fellow of all the science academies in India. She has received several honorary doctorates, including from Karolinska institute, EPFL, Lausanne and the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She serves on several national and global advisory bodies and committees. She is an adjunct Professor at Karolinska university in Sweden and Tufts university in Boston, USA.

As WHO’s inaugural Chief Scientist, Dr. Swaminathan built the Science division with a focus on research, quality assurance of norms and standards and digital health. She played a key role during the pandemic in coordinating scientific efforts at the WHO, as well as in setting up Covax, with a focus on equitable vaccine distribution to LMICs.

Professor Damien McElvenny is a biostatistician and epidemiologist. He has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Statistics, a Master of Science Degree in Statistics and a PhD in Epidemiology. He is Principal Epidemiologist at the Institute of Occupational Medicine, Freelancer at University Medical Centre Amsterdam and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Manchester.

He is an Honorary Member of the Society of Occupational Medicine and Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine. He is the Founder and Secretary of the UK/Ireland Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Society. He is an Assistant Editor of Occupational Medicine and is an Independent Scientific Member of the UK’s Industrial Injuries Advisory Council. He is a former secretary of the International Commission on Occupational Health’s Scientific Committee on Epidemiology in Occupational Health (EPICOH). Damien has worked for over 30 years as an occupational epidemiologist, principally in relation to cancer and neurological diseases.

Laura Beane Freeman is a Senior Investigator in the Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch at the National Cancer Institute in the United States. She is the NCI Principal Investigator of the Agricultural Health Study, a large prospective cohort of farmers and their families, the Early Life Exposures in Agriculture Study, a new study focused on elucidating the role of early life exposures on subsequent cancer and other chronic disease risk, and the NCI Formaldehyde Industries cohort.

She has served on multiple national and international panels, including for the National Toxicology Program, the National Academies of Science and Medicine and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Dr. Beane Freeman has received numerous awards both recognizing her scientific work and her mentoring.

She is currently the Chair of the Management Committee of EPICOH, after serving as a member for six years.

Emeritus Professor Malcolm Sim

Malcolm Sim is an occupational and environmental physician who is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, Australia. His main research interests relate to workplace exposures and chronic diseases, including cancer. Malcolm is the former Editor-in-Chief of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and a former ICOH Board Member.

Dr. Pallavi Prabhakar Saple is a highly qualified and accomplished medical professional in India. She holds an M.B.B.S degree, a DNB, a D.C.H, and an M.D in Pediatrics from the Grant Government Medical College and Sir J.J.Hospital in Mumbai. Dr. Saple is currently serving as the Dean of Grant Government Medical College and Sir J.J.Group of Hospital in Mumbai. She is also an Administrator of Maharashtra Medical Council and an Autonomous Board Member of National Medical Commission of India.

Dr. Saple has held several prominent positions throughout her career. She served as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Grant Government Medical College, Mumbai from 1999 to 2004, after which she was promoted to Associate Professor and then to Professor of Pediatrics at SRTR Rural Medical College, Ambajogai. In 2016, Dr. Saple became the youngest Dean appointed by any Government Medical College ever, at Government Medical College, Miraj, and Hospital, Sangli, where she started PG courses in multiple subjects and set up the first Emergency Medicine Department and IHBT Department.

Dr. Saple has made significant contributions to the medical field during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was deputed to several places in Maharashtra, including Miraj, Sangli, Ahmednagar, and Dhule, to control the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Saple set up the first COVID and non-COVID separate hospitals in Miraj and Sangli and established the first VRDL Lab in a non-Medical College in Ahmednagar, Sangamner, and Paithan Jamkhed. During the first and second waves of the pandemic, she conducted research in Dhule and Malegaon and achieved the best survival rate of any Medical College in Maharashtra.

Dr. Saple is a dedicated and accomplished medical professional who has contributed significantly to the field of pediatrics and medical education in India.

Paul Demers is the Director of the Occupational Cancer Research Centre, a Professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and a Clinical Professor at the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. He has a PhD in epidemiology and Master’s degree in occupational hygiene and his research focuses primarily on occupational cancer. He has been a member of many international panels and committees dealing with occupational cancer for organizations such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the U.S. National Toxicology Program.

Prof. Cocco ritired as ordinary professor of Occupational Medicine at the University of Cagliari, Italy, on September 2020. He’s currently affiliated with the University of Manchester as honorary professor of Occupational Medicine. He published almost 400 papers with a H-index of 50 and 9026 citations. A large part of his work has focussed on the health effects of pesticides. He’s an active member of the ICOH Scientific Committee on Rural Health. Prof. Cocco has been a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency, until October 2014.

Dr. T. Rajgopal is the Independent Director, HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company Ltd. He is a Post graduate in Preventive Medicine, Public Health, Occupational Health, Health and Hospital Administration. Holds 30+ years of over-all Experience.

His Affiliations and Executive positions include:
Advisor to Scientific Committee – EPICOH 2023
Former VP, Global Medical & Occupational Health, Unilever (2010-2020)
COO, Breach Candy Hospital Trust April 2021 to March 2022
Independent Director, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise 2017-2020
Alumnus, University of California, School of Public Health, Berkley
Trained through Harvard School of Public Health in Health Management
Past Board Member International Commission on Occupational Health
Past President, Indian Association of Occupational Health

His recognitions include:
Dr. B. C. Roy National Award – 2016, given away by the Hon President of India.
Global Institute of Health and Productivity Management, President’s Award 2018
Distinguished Service Award – American Industrial Hygiene Association 2014
Indian Medical Association – Sir Nilratan Sircar Memorial Oration
Indian Medial Association – Lifetime Achievement Award
Indian Association of Occupational Health - ADM, CKR, J C Kothari, L&T, OSHF orations
Over 50 publications, 3 chapters in books and 3 books.

Samuel is working as an Assistant Professor at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH).

His research group “Agricultural Health” focuses on the sustainable transition of agricultural systems and its broader impacts on farmer families’ health and well-being. Samuel is actively involved in farmer family cohort and intervention studies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Dr. Santasabuj Das is a clinician scientist and the Director in-charge of ICMR-National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad. He did MD (General Medicine) from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata and received post-doctoral training from India and the USA in the fields of immunology and cell biology. After returning to India, he had joined ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata where he worked extensively on human Salmonella infection with relation to host-pathogen interactions, mucosal and systemic immune responses and vaccine development. His laboratory had developed the first ever oral infection model of typhoid fever and he patented candidate vaccines against typhoid and paratyphoid fevers and shigellosis. His current focus of research is correlates of long-term immune response by COVID-19 vaccines, occupational bioaerosol exposure and the spread of antimicrobial resistance and chronic respiratory diseases. He has published more than 60 research and review articles, book chapters and monographs. He has mentored 16 PhD students, 14 post-doctoral fellows and a large number of postgraduate students. He is the recipient of National Bioscience Award for Career Development from DBT and the Fulbright-Nehru Senior Research fellowship.

Prof. Sara De Matteis is the Associate Professor in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at University of Cagliari, Italy & Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, UK

Occupational physician and epidemiologist with over 10-year experience in prevention, diagnosis, and management of occupational and environmental respiratory diseases, ranging from asthma to mesothelioma.

Secretary of the EPICOH Management Committee, Chair of the UK & Ireland Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Society, and Chair-elect of the ERS Assembly Group 6.02 - Occupational & Environmental Health.

Chair – ICOH Scientific Committee on Rural Health
Occupational Health & ENT Consultant, Bangalore
Past President – Association of Occupational Health Karnataka
Has work experience in public sector & private sector industries
Associated with NGOs for public health & rural health programs
Advisor for social and rural health projects for students
Recipient of many awards from IAOH & AOHK

Mary Schubauer-Berigan, PhD, MS, is Deputy Branch Head of the Evidence Synthesis and Classification Branch of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), where she heads the Monographs programme. She joined IARC in 2018 as the senior epidemiologist for the Monographs. She currently manages a scientific and technical staff of 16 in leading evaluations of the epidemiologic, experimental, and mechanistic evidence bases to identify the preventable causes of human cancer. At IARC, Mary has co-led the update of the guiding principles (Preamble) for the Monographs, bringing increased transparency and scientific advances to this programme, which is essential for cancer prevention worldwide. She has been Responsible Officer for monographs on night shift work, opium consumption, and occupational exposure as a firefighter. Before joining IARC, Mary worked for nearly 20 years as an epidemiologist at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. There, she led multidisciplinary teams conducting epidemiology studies of the health effects of occupational exposures to beryllium, carbon nanotubes, nuclear work, radon, cosmic radiation, and circadian disruption. Mary has co-authored over 125 publications on the above topics. She received a PhD in epidemiology from the Medical University of South Carolina and a MS in biology from the University of Minnesota.

Professor Rajesh Dikshit is a Director, Centre for Cancer Epidemiology, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India. He holds PhD degree in Epidemiology from University of Tampere, Finland. He is Principal Investigator for IARC Regional Hub for Cancer Registration in Central, Eastern and South Asia and is responsible for establishing cancer registries in many parts of India. He is establishing Indian Study of Adult Health (ISHA) by establishing cohort of 2,00,000 individuals at Barshi. He is instrumental in developing with automated bio-bank facility which has capacity of storing 3 million samples at -80°c.

He is Principal Investigator for following major research projects

• Lifestyle and genetic factors for Gall Bladder Cancer.
• Case control studies on Lung Cancer among non-smokers.
• Role of HPV in Head and neck cancer
• To study mutational signature to understand distinct types of Gall Bladder Cancer.
• To develop risk prediction model for breast cancer for Indian women using lifestyle factors and polygenic risk score.
• A New Method for Cervical Cancer Screening in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC): Training and Technical Validation of Automated Visual Evaluation (AVE) in India, He has about 110 publications in International journals including Lancet, Lancer Oncology, NEJM, British Journal of Cancer, International Journal of Cancer etc. He has edited and authored chapters in books, including in UICC Manual of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Shyam Pingle is a senior Public Health Expert passionate about Occupational Health, Workplace Wellness and Community Health. He is currently working as Senior Occupational Health Specialist and Adjunct Professor, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, which is the first public health university in India (made by an act of Gujarat Assembly) since July 2015. His responsibilities include teaching, research and projects in environmental and occupational health.

Dr. Pingle has more than 43 years of professional experience, out of which 12 years is in teaching public health and 30 years as Chief of Medical and Occupational Health Services at various reputed industries in India. Dr. Pingle did his medical graduation (MBBS) in 1978 and postgraduation (MD) in Preventive and Social Medicine (Community Medicine) in 1982 from Nagpur University. He completed Diploma in Occupational Safety & Health and Development from Swedish National Institute of Working Life, Sweden (2004). He has passed Associate Fellow of Industrial Health (AFIH) from DGFASLI, Ministry of Labour, Govt of India - Awarded Distinction (1999).

Dr. Pingle was awarded the fellowship of IAOH in 2018 and was the National President of Indian Association of Occupational Health during 2009-2011. He has held various positions starting from Joint Secretary and culminating in President at both National level & Mumbai branch of IAOH. Dr. Pingle has attended all national conferences of IAOH during last 25 years and was awarded various orations such as Dr. PV Thakkar memorial oration (2023), ADM Oration (2012), IAOH OHSF Mumbai branch Oration (2020), CKR Oration (2003), L&T Oration (2005). He has contributed a chapter in the IAOH book on ‘Basic Occupational Health Services’. He is among the pioneers of ‘Participatory approach for workplace improvement’ in India and ‘BOHS work of IAOH’.

Dr. Pingle is an active member of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), and is among the driving forces of the IAOH ICOH collaboration and also the growth of ICOH membership in India during last 15 years. He has been ICOH Board Member (2018-22), re-elected as ICOH board member for the 2022-2024 term. He was Chair of ICOH SC on OH & Development (2009-15) and he is the current Chair of Finance Committee of ICOH, member of Ethics & Transparency committee of ICOH and various task forces of ICOH. He has been on the international advisory panel of ICOH Congresses since last 10 years. He has delivered semi plenary addresses at ICOH Congresses in Milan (2006), Cancun (2012) and Seoul (2015).

Dr. Pingle has published and presented several research papers, delivered keynote lectures in several international and national professional conferences. He has been invited as faculty in Occupational Health by international and national professional and governmental institutions and various industries in India. Dr. Pingle is an active participant in the promotion and advocacy of Environmental and occupational health in India and other developing countries. He has facilitated collaborations with professional organizations, NGOs, Industries, Universities and institutions within and outside the country. He is on the advisory boards of national and international occupational health journals.