Medical degreee from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. Basic surgical training in Karlskrona. From 1981 at the Colorectal Unit, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg. Associate Professor of Surgery since 1991. Has been Secretary for the Swedish organisation for the study of IBD, chairman Swedish Gastroenterologcal Society and Swedish delegate in the European Crohn and Colitis organisation (ECCO). Elected member of IOIBD (Int Org for the study of IBD), Since 2007 full Professor in GI surgery at the University of Oslo. Presently head Campus Ahus, Faculty of Medicine at Akershus University Hospital. Main interest in IBD and colorectal functional problems. Published mainly in pouch surgery and related problems.

Jonas Halfvarson is a Consultant Gastroenterologist specialising in IBD at Örebro University Hospital, Sweden. He graduated as MD at Uppsala University, Sweden, before training in gastroenterology at Örebro University Hospital. He undertook research with Professor Gunnar Järnerot and obtained his PhD, entitled ‘Inflammatory bowel disease in twins; Studies of genetics and environmental factors’ in 2004. Part of his PhD was done at the University of Oxford, UK with Professor Derek Jewell. Today his research focuses on biomarkers in IBD, both from a clinical and from a mechanistic perspective. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed full papers, as well as contributed to several books on IBD. He has served as vice director for the Swedish national PhD and Postdoctoral program for translational gastroenterology and heads the taskforce for genetics and pathophysiology at the Swedish Organisation for the Study of IBD. Today he is appointed Associate Professor at Örebro University and combines his time in clinical practice with his positions at the University. Dr Halfvarson was named a Rising Star in Gastroenterology at the United European Gastroenterology (UEGWeek) in 2011 and is a member of the International Organization for the study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) since 2014.

Mattias Block is senior consultant colorectal surgeon at the Department of Surgery at Sahlgrenska University Hospital/Östra where he also is the Head of the Colorectal Unit since 2014. He graduated as MD at Lund University in 2000. His internship was performed in Norway in Elverum and Mehamn. He was trained at the hospitals of Uddevalla/Trollhättan as well as Sahlgrenska from 2002 – 2008 and has been working within the trauma unit at Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa. Mattias wrote his PhD thesis on reconstructive surgery and pathophysiological aspects in Ulcerative Colitis in 2014. He has published numerous articles within colorectal surgery and especially on surgery within IBD. He is reviewer and member of the editorial board in various scientific papers. Mattias has held several presentations concerning IBD surgery, both in surgical environment and for the general public. Together with Pär Myrelid and Jonas Bengtsson he has also arranged an international work shop on Kock pouch surgery as well as advanced reconstructive IBD-surgery and has previously arranged a number of national and international meetings within the field. Mattias is member of the board of the Swedish Society of Colorectal Surgery. From 2017 to 2019 he has been co-chairman of the Swedish Society of Gastroenteroogy and from 2019 he will become chairman.

Present position.
Professor and Chief of the Internal Medicine at the Landspitali University hospital Reykjavik Iceland, since June 16 2016.
Sabbatical at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) September 1st 2014-May 31st 2015.
Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Landspitali University Hospital Iceland September1st 2009-June15th 2016.
Sabbatical Mayo Clinic Rochester Minnesota September 1st 2008-August 31st 2009.
Visiting Professor Mayo Clinic College of Medicine June-Agust 2006.
Appointed Professor at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg Sweden June 1st 2006.

Publications.
278 publications: original articles, review papers, book chapters, case reports and editorials and more than 300 abstracts presented at International meetings.

Research field.
Studies in hepatology mainly on drug-induced liver injury and cholestatic liver disease.
Clinical aspects of the use of proton pump inhibitors. Gastrointestinal bleeding.

Clinical work.
Working at the Department of Internal Medicine Sahlgrenska University Hospital Gothenburg 1990-1993. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology 1993-2008 at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital Gothenburg Sweden.
Senior Registrar, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK Jan-March 2001.

Michael Eberhardson has a Medical Degree (MD) and a PhD (in Medical Cell Biology) from Uppsala University and is Associate Professor in Gastroenterology at Karolinska Institutet. He is a consultant in Gastroenterology with focus on IBD and medical lead of the Gastro Research Unit at Danderyd Hospital. He also serves part time at the Department of Clinical Immunology, Karolinska University Hospital. Dr Eberhardson has a special interest in immunological monitoring of IBD. He is a member of the board of the Swedish Organisation for the Study of IBD (SOIBD) and a member of the steering committee of the National Quality Registry for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (SWIBREG). He is elected national representative of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO).

Susanna Jäghult works as an IBD nurse since many years. She got her PhD in 2012 and her thesis was about ”Living with inflammatory disease – HRQOL, worries and stress”. She now continues to work both in the clinic and academic world. Susanna is the chair of N-ECCO (the Nurses Committee of ECCO). She was one of the founders of the Swedish Nurse Association (Föreningen för sjuksköterskor inom gastroenterologi i Sverige- FSGS) and was the chair for many years. Susanna is working at the Stockholm Gastro Center, located at Sophiahemmet and is in charge of the work of the the IBD-nurses.

Ebbe Langholz MD, DMSCi.
Medical degree from University of Copenhagen 1985,basic medical training at different hospitals in the Copenhagen region.
1996 to 2017 at Gentofte Hospital and presently at Gastroenheden Herlev Hospital.
Former chairman of DCCD (the Danish Crohn´s and colitis database),
Chairman of EPICOM, the epidemiological committee of ECCO since 2015 and appointed member of the Steering Committee of URCARE in 2016.
Main interest in IBD and related problems.
Has published mainly on the epidemiology of IBD.

Dr Pauliina Molander works as a Senior gastroenterologist at Helsinki University Hospital, Finland. She graduated as MD at Turku University in 1997 and specialized in Internal Medicine in 2003 and Gastroenterology in 2008 at Helsinki University Hospital. Her PhD on Assessment of TNFα blocking therapy in inflammatory bowel disease patients in deep remission was approved in Helsinki University in 2015. Her main research interest in IBD are treatment outcomes and biomarkers. She was a National representative in European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization (ECCO) 2015-2018 and served as a board member and secretary of the Finnish Society of Gastroenterology 2013-2016.

Bjørn Moum had his Medical degree (MD) in 1981 from the University of Århus, Denmark. He trained in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology in Hospital Østfold and Rikshospitalet and was board certified in 1991. From 1990 until 1996 he combined his clinical consultant job with a PhD doctoral program on clinical epidemiology in inflammatory bowel disease as a work in the IBSEN study, a large inception cohort of more than 800 patients gathered in the south-eastern part of Norway between 1990-94. Furthermore he has been centrally involved in planning and conduction of a European study on IBD from 1991 and up to now. For his and the IBSEN Group he has received several national and international research prices as well as grants from University of Oslo, Regional Foundation for Scientific Research HSØ, Research Price from Hospital Østfold and Humira Price. He is appointed as Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology at Oslo University Hospital with research focus on clinical epidemiology, genetics and therapies in IBD, reflux disease of the oesophagus and endoscopy cancer palliation. His scientific work has resulted in author or co-authorship on more than 130 peer-reviewed papers and he has been main scientific advisor for 8 PhD candidates. Bjørn Moum has been Board member in the Norwegian Gastroenterology Association 1998-2011 and President 2004-2009. He is a personal elected member of the International Organisation for IBD (IOIBD) and has been National Representative Member of the The European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO). Pubmed citations: 148