Dr. El-Hakim obtained his degrees in medicine and dentistry at the University of Montreal. He then completed a four-year residency program and obtained a Master of Science in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at McGill University. Subsequently, he completed postdoctoral studies in maxillofacial oncology and microvascular surgery at the University of Maryland, USA. Between 2008 and 2013, Dr. El-Hakim was Director of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Program at McGill University. He is currently an assistant professor. Dr. El-Hakim is a Fellow and Examiner of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada and holds the title of Diplomat of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.

Dr. El-Hakim was president of the foundation of the Canadian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and is Past-president on the executive of the Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons of Quebec.

Lt. Col. Eleanor Curtis is a burn and trauma surgeon in the United States Air Force. She currently serves as Trauma Medical Director for Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) and U.S. European Command, the largest U.S. military hospital outside the continental United States and the primary referral center for combat and contingency casualties in the European theater.

Dr. Curtis completed her Surgical Critical Care fellowship at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, an American Burn Association–verified regional burn center. Before arriving at LRMC, she was a burn surgeon at Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. There, as part of a first-of-its-kind military-military-civilian partnership, she helped the burn unit grow into a 20-bed, all-ICU-capable burn center and supported its pursuit of ABA verification.

Her academic and operational interests include burn mass casualty preparedness, sustaining burn surgical skills in military surgeons, and building burn care capability for non-burn providers across the joint force. She has taught tactical burn management to U.S. and partner-nation military medical personnel.

Professor Lyon is an active UK NHS Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Pre-hospital Care in Edinburgh and Deputy Medical Director and Director of Research for Air Ambulance, Kent Surrey & Sussex. A globally recognised leader in pre-hospital and emergency medical care, Prof Lyon works for multiple world class organisations, helping to develop current and future state-of-the art medical devices, systems and concepts aiming to save lives across the globe. A respected clinical leader and senior medical advisor to both governments and global corporations, with a track record of delivering high quality output and success across clinical, academic, research and innovation. Prof Lyon was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) by HM The Queen in the 2017 Honours, for Services to Emergency Healthcare. He is a commissioned officer in the Royal Army Medical Service (TA). Prof Lyon holds a personal Chair of Pre-hospital Emergency Care at the University of Surrey and has an established research portfolio in pre-hospital resuscitation and trauma care, with an extensive publication record. Prof Lyon is a current member of the Faculty of Pre-hospital Care and author of several international guidelines. Prof Lyon is a Physician with the UK International Search & Rescue Team.

Dr. Daniel Beauchamp is the Rehabilitation Director for the TBRM Team, based in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He is a consultant PM&R physician with sub-specialty board certifications in Pain Medicine and Brain Injury Medicine. He completed his residency training at Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, USA and pain fellowship at Brook Army Medical Centre in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He served for almost a decade at William Beaumont in El Paso, Texas, USA, including as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer.
His current work includes supporting rehabilitative care through medical consulting in the UAE.

Professor Alexey V. Osipov, MD, DSc, is Director of the Federal Center for Disaster Medicine of the N.I. Pirogov National Medical and Surgical Center and Chief Freelance Specialist in Disaster Medicine of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

He is a surgeon and healthcare executive with extensive experience in emergency, military and disaster medicine, emergency surgery, medical evacuation, and the organization of healthcare delivery during mass-casualty incidents and emergencies. His professional activities focus on the development and coordination of disaster medicine services, preparedness of regional healthcare systems for emergencies, interagency medical response, and the organization of specialized medical care for casualties.

Professor Osipov has substantial practical experience in organizing medical response in complex emergency environments, including the deployment and operation of multidisciplinary field hospitals, medical evacuation systems, and specialized emergency response teams. His areas of expertise also include modern approaches to emergency and trauma surgery, aeromedical evacuation, medical triage, and the management of civilian casualties in areas affected by armed conflict.

He is actively involved in the development of national approaches to disaster preparedness and response, integration of regional healthcare resources, and improvement of medical support systems for large-scale emergencies. His academic and professional interests include disaster medicine, emergency surgery, military medicine, mass-casualty management, and resilient healthcare systems.

Colonel Dr. Bernd Klaubert is Senior Pharmacy Officer of the Bundeswehr and Inspector of Military Pharmacy Services. He studied Pharmacy and Food Chemistry at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and received his PhD with summa cum laude for research on the phytochemistry and synthesis of bioactive natural products from Brazilian medicinal plants.

Since joining the Bundeswehr Medical Service in 1998, Dr. Klaubert has held numerous military leadership positions in pharmaceutical services, analytical sciences, food and water safety, toxicology, and public health protection. His career includes appointments as Head of the Department Pharmacy at the Central Institute of the Bundeswehr Medical Service Munich, Senior Food Chemist of the Bundeswehr, Head of the Central Institute of the Bundeswehr Medical Service Munich, and member of the staff for COVID-19 Vaccine Logistics at the Federal Ministry of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

His research interests focus on pharmaceutical analytics, military pharmacy, toxicology, food and water defense, pharmaceutical stability under extreme environmental conditions, and analytical detection of biotoxins. He has contributed to the development of deployable laboratory systems and advanced analytical methods, based on modern chromatographic techniques.

Dr. Klaubert has served on numerous national scientific and regulatory committees, including the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment and the German Federal Chamber of Pharmacists. He is a board-certified pharmacist in toxicology and recipient of the Bruno Rossmann Award of the German Chemical Society.

As a military pharmacist he has extensive deployment experience in multinational operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Mali.

Colonel Erik S. DeSoucy is an active-duty trauma and acute care surgeon in the United States Air Force with extensive operational experience across combat casualty care, prolonged field care, and trauma system development. He currently commands the Andrews Surgical Operations Squadron at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, leading a 200-person surgical staff delivering care across the National Capital Region while generating mission-ready expeditionary surgical, Presidential Support, and Critical Care Air Transport teams.

Commissioned through the Health Professions Scholarship Program, Lt Col DeSoucy earned his medical degree from Western University of Health Sciences. He completed general surgery residency at the University of California, Davis, followed by fellowships in Surgical Critical Care and Acute Care Surgery at Brooke Army Medical Center. Operationally, he served as Flight Surgeon for the 48th Rescue Squadron, deploying twice to Afghanistan and Northern Africa to provide care and intra-theater casualty evacuation alongside USAF Pararescuemen across more than 300 combat flying hours. He later commanded the Special Warfare Operational Medicine Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, overseeing comprehensive medical readiness for over 1,800 Special Warfare trainees and personnel.

Lt Col DeSoucy has made significant contributions to international trauma capacity building, serving as Trauma Medical Director for the Trauma, Burn and Rehabilitative Medicine Team embedded at Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City in Abu Dhabi, where he co-chaired the regional Department of Health Trauma Taskforce. A recognized subject matter expert in prehospital resuscitation and austere trauma, he serves on the Joint Trauma System Committees on Tactical Combat Casualty Care (CoTCCC) and Surgical Combat Casualty Care (CoSCCC). He has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications focused on combat casualty care, advanced hemorrhage control, and mass-casualty management.

Dr. Danny Shiauis the Director of Global Health Engagement at the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. Prior to his retirement, he served a 31-year career in uniformed service. From 2017 to 2024, he served as Director of the Uniformed Services University (USU), Center for Global Health Engagement. During this time, he was detailed to the Joint Staff J3 and the Surgeon’s Office, supporting the Department of Defense’s COVID-19 response from 2020 to 2022.

Before his tenure at CGHE, Dr. Shiau served as Director of Public Health and Force Health Protection in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Surgeon’s Office. A board-certified preventive medicine physician, he earned his degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and his Doctorate in Medicine from USU. He completed a pediatric internship and served as the medical officer aboard the USS Harpers Ferry. Dr. Shiau went on to complete his preventive medicine residency and earned a Master of Public Health at USU.

Throughout his career, Dr. Shiau demonstrated operational expertise, including his deployment as Officer-in-Charge of the Forward Deployed Preventive Medicine Unit in Kuwait and as Head of Threat Assessment at Navy Preventive Medicine Unit TWO. In these roles, he provided operational consultation to units deploying to U.S. Central Command, U.S. Africa Command, and U.S. Southern Command.

He later served as Deputy Director for Emergency Preparedness, M3/5 Medical Operations at the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, where he focused on pandemic influenza policy and planning, ensuring emergency preparedness across Navy medical facilities worldwide. As the Navy’s Senior Public Health Emergency Officer, designated by the Navy Surgeon General under OPNAV 093, Dr. Shiau provided vital public health consultation to senior commanders.

Rajeev Sadanandan is an internationally acclaimed health policy and systems expert specialising in health emergencies. He worked as the Health Secretary of Kerala for 11 years, during which he played a transformative role in reforming the health systems in Kerala. His work focussed on reforming primary care, infectious diseases such as HIV and TB and digitalisation. Rajeev set up Kerala’s AIDS. He managed the first Nipah outbreak in Kerala and was the Advisor to the Chief Minister of Kerala on the management of COVID-19. He was the lead consultant to develop the Regional Strategic Roadmap on Health Security and Health System Resilience for Emergencies for the World Health Organization, SEARO.

Rajeev was the CEO of India’s national social health insurance programme and the founding CEO of the Health System Transformation Platform, a think tank on health policy and systems based in New Delhi in addition to holding many other positions in state and federal governments, and had a brief stint with UNAIDS. He was a Commissioner on the Lancet Global Health Commission on Financing Primary Health Care. Currently, Rajeev is a member of the Technical Advisory Panel of the Pandemic Fund set up by the World Bank, the Policy Makers Forum under the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research of the World Health Organization, Geneva and the Technical Expert Group of the WHO Collaborating Centre on effectiveness of research on public health and social measures on health emergencies.

Dr. Fares Al-Ali is the first Canadian and American board-certified emergency physician from the United Arab Emirates. He completed the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Emergency Medicine Residency Program at McGill University in Montreal, Canada (2002-2007). In 2008, he completed a fellowship in EMS at the University of Toronto in Canada, followed by a Disaster Medicine Fellowship at BIDMC in Boston, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, as Harvard’s first Disaster Medicine fellow and as co-founder of the program (2009). In May 2011, he obtained his MPH from Johns Hopkins University and later his DrPH in Health Care Management and Leadership from the same institution (May 2021).

Dr. Fares Al-Ali is the former Head of the Emergency Department and former Program Director at Zayed Military Hospital, with extensive military medicine experience, including operational and civil-military deployments. He is the founder and former chairman of the Trauma System Initiative of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the founder and past president of the Emirates Society of Emergency Medicine (ESEM). Dr. Fares Al-Ali spearheaded key initiatives, including the first official Trauma Registry in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the Abu Dhabi STEMI network involving various stakeholders, and the approval of the UAE “Good Samaritan Law,” the first of its kind in an Arab country. He led the ESEM Conference to become the largest Emergency Medicine Conference in the MENA region and successfully hosted ICEM 2021 in the region, with over 2,500 delegates. He also served as Executive Director of the Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) at the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, since COVID 19 pandemic until July 2024, where he developed a new integrated model of health emergency care (the Abu Dhabi Health Emergency Management - HEM Model). He currently serves as the Immediate Past President of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine. Dr. Fares Al-Ali has contributed to several international textbooks and peer-reviewed articles in the fields of Emergency Medicine, EMS, and Disaster Medicine and has presented at numerous conferences both regionally and internationally.

Professor Nataša Pržulj is a leading computational biologist whose work connects AI, network science and precision medicine. She is Full Professor of Computational Biology at Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) since 2025, Full Professor of Computer Science at University College London since 2016, and an ICREA Research Professor since 2019.

A pioneer in biological network analysis, Professor Pržulj introduced graphlets in 2004—a foundational approach to quantifying network structure and extracting biomedical insights from molecular networks. Graphlets underpin AI and machine learning methods across diverse fields and feature in approximately 23,000 research papers and hundreds of patents, according to Google Scholar. Her current research develops AI methods that integrate multi-omics data to advance precision medicine and accelerate the discovery of targeted therapeutics. She is co-founder and director of OmixTerapy, a UAE-based, MBZUAI-sponsored startup that uses AI and multi-omics data to discover novel therapeutic candidates tailored to the Emirati population.

Professor Pržulj’s research has attracted more than €30 million in competitive funding, including three prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grants: Starting (2012–2017), Consolidator (2018–2025) and Proof of Concept (2020–2023). She also received a USA National Science Foundation CAREER Award at the University of California, Irvine (2007–2011).

Professor Pržulj’s international recognition includes fellowships of the International Society for Computational Biology (2024), the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (2024), and the British Computer Society Academy of Computing (2013). She was elected Vice-President of the International Academy of Artificial Intelligence Sciences (AAIS) in 2026, following her election as a Fellow in 2025. Also, she was elected to Academia Europaea in 2017 and the Serbian Royal Academy of Scientists and Artists in 2019. Since 2012, she has also served as Scientific Advisor at the Mathematical Institute of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. She ranks among the top 0.5% of scientists worldwide in Stanford University’s World’s Top 2% Scientists list.

In 2014, she received the British Computer Society’s Roger Needham Award, sponsored by Microsoft Research, for research with the potential to transform healthcare and pharmaceuticals. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto in 2005.

Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil is a seasoned healthcare and education leader and strategic investor who has built impactful businesses across the Middle East and India. He is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Burjeel Holdings, a leading super-specialty healthcare services provider in the GCC. He also serves as Chairman of Almasar Alshamil Education Company, which invests in special education and care in the KSA. Dr. Shamsheer is also the Founder and a Board Member of Response Plus Holding (RPM), the largest pre-hospital emergency medical services provider in the region.

Since establishing his first hospital in Abu Dhabi in 2007, Dr. Shamsheer has led Burjeel Holdings’ transformation into the UAE’s largest and leading private healthcare services provider. He continues to drive the Group’s efforts to elevate standards of care across the demographic spectrum through a diversified portfolio of brands, including Burjeel, Medeor, LLH, Lifecare, Alkalma, and Tajmeel.

Through VPS Health, he oversees a diversified investment portfolio spanning healthcare, pharmaceuticals, education, consumer products, and food services. He has played a central role in taking Burjeel Holdings and RPM public on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Almasar Alshamil Education on the Saudi Exchange.

A trained radiologist, Dr. Shamsheer remains focused on building resilient institutions, strengthening governance, and expanding access to high-quality healthcare and education across the region.

Colonel Brian J. Gavitt is the Command Surgeon for Air Forces Southern, advising the AFSOUTH Commander and directing United States Air Force medical operations across 31 countries in the SOUTHCOM AOR. As a trauma surgeon and surgical intensivist, he has served in senior trauma leadership roles, is a trauma systems expert, and has supported multiple overseas operations for the US Department of War.

Christopher R. Matthews is a social scientist and epistemologist with years of experience advising doctoral candidates. His latest sole-authored book, Doing Good Social Science, was published by Routledge in April 2025. He co-edited Teaching with Sociological Imagination in Higher Education (Springer) and Global Perspectives on Women in Combat Sports (Palgrave Macmillan). He is currently leading the editorial team for The Routledge Handbook of Sport, Concussion and Brain Injury, while also preparing the manuscript for his next book The Act of Social Theory.

Col. Michael Nippgen, DVM, PhD is a senior German military veterinarian with expertise in veterinary public health, food safety, zoonotic diseases, and military veterinary medicine. He has held leadership roles within the Bundeswehr Medical Service and is actively involved in international military veterinary cooperation. He serves as President of the ICMM Technical Commission for Veterinarians, supporting collaboration and knowledge exchange in military veterinary medicine.

Dr. Mark W. Bowyer is the Ben Eiseman Professor of Surgery and Surgical Director of Simulation at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), Bethesda, Maryland. A retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and former trauma and combat surgeon, he served more than 22 years in active military service, including as Chief of Surgery and “Trauma Czar” at a major combat hospital in Iraq.
Dr. Bowyer is internationally recognized for his expertise in trauma and combat surgery, surgical education, medical simulation, and military surgical readiness. He was one of the principal architects of the Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma (ASSET) course and has played a leading role in its international expansion. He also has extensive experience in developing simulation-based training for trauma, acute care surgery, triage, and critical care.
He has published extensively in trauma and surgical education and has received numerous professional distinctions, including the 2017 Robert Danis Prize for contributions to trauma, burns, and critical care.

Lt Gen (Rtd) Prof. Martin CM Bricknell is Professor of Conflict, Health and Military Medicine at King’s College London and Co-Director of the Centre for Conflict & Health Security. He previously served 34 years in the UK Defence Medical Services, culminating as Surgeon General of the UK Armed Forces. He has extensive operational experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans, and has published over 150 academic papers on military medicine, public health, healthcare systems and conflict. His research focuses on military health systems, healthcare in conflict, organisational learning, and civil-military relations.

Mohamad Bydon, M.D., is Professor and inaugural Chair of Neurological Surgery at the University of Chicago. He is the Stahl Professor of Neuroscience in the Wallman Society of Fellows. Dr. Bydon earned his B.A. at Dartmouth College. He completed a post baccalaureate program at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine prior to a research fellowship at a Howard Hughes Medical Institute laboratory in stem cell biology. He earned his M.D. at Yale University School of Medicine. He continued his training at Johns Hopkins Hospital, completing an Internship and Residency in neurosurgery and a clinical Fellowship in Complex Spinal Surgery and Spinal Oncology. Prior to joining the University of Chicago, he practiced at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he was an Endowed Full Professor. Dr. Bydon has a busy surgical practice, and his expertise is complex spine surgery, spinal oncology and minimally invasive spine surgery. He launched one of the nation's first robotic and minimally invasive spine programs in 2015.He is Principal Investigator of a nationally recognized laboratory focused on data analytics and surgical outcomes, as well as clinical trials for spinal cord injury. He has authored over 600 peer-reviewed manuscripts in addition to numerous book chapters and abstracts. He is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Neuroscience. In addition, he serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Neurosurgery Spine, and holds leadership positions in the American- Association of Neurological Surgeons and the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

Dr. Nicholas Makhoul, DMD, MD, FRCD(C), FACS is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Oral Health Sciences at McGill University and serves as Associate Dean of Postgraduate Dental Education. He is also Chief of the Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery within the McGill University Health Centre.

Dr. Makhoul completed his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry with Distinction at the University of Alberta before earning his Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) from McGill University. He subsequently obtained his Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Michigan, where he also completed residency training in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He then pursued advanced fellowship training in Maxillofacial Oncology and Microvascular Facial Reconstruction at the University of Michigan, specializing in the comprehensive management of head and neck cancer and complex facial reconstruction.

He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Dentists of Canada, a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Makhoul's clinical practice focuses on maxillofacial oncology, microvascular reconstruction, orthognathic surgery, and advanced implant reconstruction. His academic interests include tissue engineering for facial reconstruction as well as outcome based assessments in the management of head and neck cancer. He has received multiple awards recognizing his contributions to teaching and mentorship and is actively involved in national educational and professional organizations dedicated to advancing oral and maxillofacial surgery and postgraduate dental education.