These are the biographies of some of our accepted speakers. Not all our speakers are listed here
Ana Gil, CICECO-Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Ana M. Gil (born 1965) obtained her doctorate degree in Chemistry at the University of East Anglia, UK (1992). She is Associate Professor with “Habilitation” at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Her research interests are: 1) NMR metabolomics of biological systems (biofluids, tissues, cells) reflective of disease, therapeutics, toxicological or environmental stresses for identification of novel biomarkers; 2) Metabolomic testing of novel biomaterials with applications in drug delivery, biodegradable implants and localised cell recognition; 3) Spectroscopy-based methods for food quality control. Up to January 2016, she has published 108 SCI papers, 22 book chapters, 27 other papers, and presented more than 150 communications.
Christina Louise Lindhardt, university of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
Christina Louise Lindhardt is currently employed as a postdoctoral at the Research Department for Gynaecology and Obstetrics at Odense University Hospital and the Institute of Clinical Research at University of Southern Denmark. Further is an external senior lecturer at The Department of Public Health at Aarhus University. During the last 8 years Christina has done trials on how to intervene in pregnancy in relation to lifestyle and obesity. Further Christina has investigated how to enhance communication skills for healthcare professionals using motivational interviewing. Her research and professional interests are in health promotion and health prevention in areas involving obstetrics, health visiting, paediatrics and adolescence. She is lecturing at bachelor and graduate level at university nationally and internationally.
Xiaohe Yang, North Carolina Central University, United States
Dr. Xiaohe Yang got his medical training in China. He completed his Ph.D. in Microbiology/Immunology from RFUMS/The Chicago Medical School and postdoctoral studies from Northwestern University. Dr. Yang worked as assistant and associated professor at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He is currently an Associate Professor of Biology at the North Carolina Central University. Dr. Yang’s lab focuses on tumor markers, signal transduction, cancer stem cells and epigenetic regulation in breast cancer etiology, prevention and experimental therapeutics, with particular interests in perinatal exposures, dietary and hormonal modulation-associated breast cancer risk. Dr. Yang was a recipient of the Career Development Award from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program and the AACR Minority-Serving Institution Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research Awards. He is also an American Cancer Society Research Scholar.
Alison Behie, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Alison has been a lecturer in Biological Anthropology at The Australian Naitonal University since 2011 Head of Discipline since 2015. She has spent over a decade researching the impact of environmetnal disasters on non-human primate populations, specifically exploring the impacts of a major hurricane on howler monkys in Central America. As a Biological Anthropologist, she naturally extended this work to humans by explorng the same issues in human populations. This has resulted in work investigating the impact of natural disasters and prenatal stress on reproduction in Australian women. Using this research, Alison has developed new ANU courses including the Anthropology of Environmental Disasters.
Laura E. Mitchell, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, United States
Dr. Mitchell is Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health. She has over 20 years of experience conducting epidemiologic and genetic studies of common structural birth defects, including neural tube defects and congenital heart defects. She was also a collaborator on both the National Birth Defects Prevention Study and the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium I. Dr. Mitchell has a particular interest in understanding the relationship between maternal weight and weight change and the risk of birth defects in offspring.
Ajesh George, University of Western Sydney, Australia
Dr Ajesh George- (BDS, MPH, PhD) is a Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney. He is also the Chair of the Collaboration for Oral Health Outcomes, Research, Translation and Evaluation (COHORTE) Research Group which is a unique collaboration of Dentists, Nurses/Midwives and Doctors. Dr George is a Dentist with extensive experience in population oral health and is a leading expert in Australia in providing oral health training for nurses/midwives and translating oral health guidelines into their practice.
Ana Gil, CICECO-Institute of Materials, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal
Ana M. Gil (born 1965) obtained her doctorate degree in Chemistry at the University of East Anglia, UK (1992). She is Associate Professor with “Habilitation” at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Her research interests are: 1) NMR metabolomics of biological systems (biofluids, tissues, cells) reflective of disease, therapeutics, toxicological or environmental stresses for identification of novel biomarkers; 2) Metabolomic testing of novel biomaterials with applications in drug delivery, biodegradable implants and localised cell recognition; 3) Spectroscopy-based methods for food quality control. Up to January 2016, she has published 108 SCI papers, 22 book chapters, 27 other papers, and presented more than 150 communications
Marewa Glover, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Susan Groth, University of Rochester School of Nursing, Rochester, United States
Dr Groth is an Associate Professor in the University of Rochester School of Nursing with a secondary appointment in the Department of Public Health Sciences. Her goal is to improve the health of women, particularly in relation to obesity. Dr Groth’s research is focused on behavioral, genetic and environmental factors that contribute to obesity. Her approach to obesity development during the childbearing years is from a bio-behavioral perspective. She has incorporated both qualitative and quantitative methods to distinguish behavioral components of physical activity, diet and other health-related behaviors during pregnancy, along with biological data to inform the complexities of obesity.
Marsha K. Guess, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, United States
Ray Kruse Iles, Middlesex University, London, United Kingdom
Carmen Lau-Clayton, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Carmen joined Leeds Trinity University in 2010 and is a part time Senior Lecturer for Child and Family Welfare Studies. Her research experience includes family, childhood, youth, ethnicity and culture. Carmen’s most recent research was in relation to young fatherhood and young fathers’ support needs as the Principle Investigator of a 3 year funded ESRC/ Economic Social Research Council qualitative study- ‘Following Young Fathers: The Lived Experience of Fatherhood’ (2012-15) based at the University of Leeds. The project worked closely with young fathers and implemented a knowledge to action framework when collaborating with practitioners.
James M N Duffy, Blizard Institute, London, United Kingdom
Kleanthi Gourounti, Department of Midwifery, TEI of Athens, Athens, Greece
Kleanthi Gourounti is an Assistant Professor of Midwifery at the Technological Educational Institution of Athens, Greece. She received her PhD in Psychology from Panteion University in Athens, with a special focus on the fertility-related stress and stress of high-risk pregnant women. She previously received her MSc in Research on Midwifery Practice from King’s College London and her MMedSc in Environmental Health from Medical School of University of Athens. She has served as a reviewer for several scientific publications and has authored or co-authored in more than sixty manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals (most of them with impact factor). Her research work has been internationally recognized by other researchers (500 citations) and her h index is 9. She has been the editor of a textbook intitled “Infertility Counselling”, she has authored chapters in relation to evidence based in midwifery practice and she has translated from English in Greek language more than five books regarding midwifery care, research methods, cardiotocography. She is the leader of the undergraduate module of “Reproductive Health Psychology” in Department of Midwifery. She is also the leader of a lifelong education programme regarding fetal monitoring in pregnancy and in labour. She has a strong academic interest in reproductive counselling and in the implementation of technologies in fetal monitoring.
Deirdre Murray, Paediatrics & Child Health, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
Ran Neiger, Maternal-Fetal Medicine Unit, Dayton, OH, United States
Sylvester Rodgers Moyo, Namibia University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia
Ondrej Simetka, University Hospital Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
Karen Tabb, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States
Xiaohe Yang, North Carolina Central University, United States
Dr. Xiaohe Yang got his medical training in China. He completed his Ph.D. in Microbiology/Immunology from RFUMS/The Chicago Medical School and postdoctoral studies from Northwestern University. Dr. Yang worked as assistant and associated professor at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. He is currently an Associate Professor of Biology at the North Carolina Central University. Dr. Yang’s lab focuses on tumor markers, signal transduction, cancer stem cells and epigenetic regulation in breast cancer etiology, prevention and experimental therapeutics, with particular interests in perinatal exposures, dietary and hormonal modulation-associated breast cancer risk. Dr. Yang was a recipient of the Career Development Award from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program and the AACR Minority-Serving Institution Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research Awards. He is also an American Cancer Society Research Scholar.
Hanlie Moss, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Prof. Dr. Hanlie Moss is currently the Director of the research focus area: Physical activity, Sport and Recreation (PhASRec), North-West University, Potchefstroom-campus. She is also a registered clinical exercise physiologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). Her research interests are related to physical activity and exercise for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases of lifestyle with an interest in special populations such as persons with intellectual disability and pregnancy. She has published more than 35 papers, contributed to chapters in scientific books and supervised more than 30 post-graduate students working on the related topics. She is the principle investigator of the Habitual activity patterns through pregnancy (HAPPY)-study that investigated the longitudinal changes in physical activity in a cohort of South African women.
Ondrej Simetka, University Hospital Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
As. prof.Ondrej Simetka, M.D., Ph.D. is a head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at University Hospital Ostrava, Czech Republic. His main areas of interest are high-risk pregnancy, obstetric techniques and also laparoscopy. His main research areas include HELLP syndrome and premature delivery. He has published over 60 papers, 10 book chapters and 2 books: HELLP syndrome (leading author) and Preeclampsia (co-author). He has also worked as obstetrician and gynecologist for several years with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and UNFPA in asian and african countries and has also been a board member of MSF in Austria and Czech Republic.
Chairs
Kelli Ryckman, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
Dr. Ryckman is Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health at the University of Iowa. Her research program is centered on understanding genetic and metabolic predictors of preterm birth and how this influences later life risk for chronic disease in the mother and her offspring. She currently co-directs the University of Iowa NICU and Pediatric Repository, which collects clinical and epidemiologic data and DNA specimens on infants born less than 32 weeks gestation. She collaborates with four State Departments of Health (Iowa, Michigan, California, and New York) to leverage large repositories of stored data and specimens for research on neonatal metabolism and health.
Marloes Dekker, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
Dr Marloes Dekker Nitert is a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Queensland. Her research focuses on the role of metabolism in complications of pregnancy. She currently heads a laboratory research group at the UQ Centre for Clinical Research studying the role of the gut microbiome in pregnancy, the role of food additives on placental function and placental gene expression and epigenetic markers in pregnancy complications. Dr Dekker Nitert works closely together with clinicians at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. She is part of the SPRING RCT team which assesses if probiotics can prevent gestational diabetes mellitus.
Dr. Susan Groth, University of Rochester School of Nursing, Rochester, United States
Dr Groth is an Associate Professor in the University of Rochester School of Nursing with a secondary appointment in the Department of Public Health Sciences. Her goal is to improve the health of women, particularly in relation to obesity. Dr Groth’s research is focused on behavioral, genetic and environmental factors that contribute to obesity. Her approach to obesity development during the childbearing years is from a bio-behavioral perspective. She has incorporated both qualitative and quantitative methods to distinguish behavioral components of physical activity, diet and other health-related behaviors during pregnancy, along with biological data to inform the complexities of obesity.
Dr. Edwin Chandraharan, St. George’s University Hospitals, London, United Kingdom
Edwin works as the Lead Clinician for Labour Ward and Lead for Clinical Governance in Obstetrics and Gynaecology at St. George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London. He has been the Clinical Director for Women’s services and is passionate about delivering high quality patient care with a strong focus on Risk Management and Patient Experience.
Oral presenters
Wendy Nokhwezi Phoswa, University of Kwazulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Wendy Phoswa has completed her honours degree in medical science at the age of 22 from the University of KwaZulu Natal. She is currently a master’s student in physiology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Westville campus) researching on the effects of titanium dioxide nanopartices
Ezzeldin Khorshid, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Graduated from The Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University Class of 1976
Masters Degree OB/GYN, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University 1982
Arab Board OB/GYN 1993
Diploma in Gynaecological Labroscopy (France) 2002
Gyne-Oncology King Faisal Specialist Hospital and research Center, Riyadh
Senior Consultant OB/GYN and Infertility, King Fahad Medical City (KFMC)
Assistant Professor King Saud ibn AbdelAziz University of Health Science (KSAUHS)
Head of Labour and Delivery of Woman Specialized Hospital (WSH) King Fahad Medical City (KFMC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Safety Liaision Officer, WSH—KFMC
Rhian Gisby, City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom
Junior Doctor at City Hospitals Sunderland, UK. Currently completing the Foundation Training Programme, including a four month placement in Obstetrics & Gynaecology.
Tanja Staehler, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom
Tanja Staehler is Reader in Philosophy and Head of Department at the University of Sussex. Her main research interests are Phenomenology, Existentialism, and Continental Aesthetics. She has published on pregnancy, childbirth, and being with infants.