In 1987 he obtained his MSc in human movement science and his MD at the Free University of Amsterdam and in 1991 his PhD with a thesis on drug resistance in leukemia. After finishing his training in pediatrics in 1995, he received a clinical fellowship in pediatric oncology from the Dutch Cancer Society. He was Head of Pediatric Oncology/Hematology at the Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital in Rotterdam. From 2000-2017, he was a full professor in Pediatric Oncology at Erasmus University Rotterdam and since 2017 at the University of Utrecht. Rob Pieters is initiator and one of the founders of the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology. This national center has merged all expertise from all former 7 childhood cancer centers in the Netherlands, thereby establishing the largest center in Europe for treatment and research of childhood cancer. Rob Pieters’ research is focused on the development of personalized therapies for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Several figures: he published >650 peer-reviewed scientific papers, gave >400 invited lectures and has supervised >55 PhD students. He chairs and/or is board member of several international study groups and of advisory boards of international institutes for childhood cancer. Among these are board membership of the EU Cancer Mission Board, European Society for Pediatric Oncology (SIOP-Europe), the recent election as President-Elect of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP International) and editor-in chief of the European Journal of Cancer- Pediatric Oncology. In 2018 he received a Royal knighthood decoration as Officer in the Order of Oranje Nassau for his achievements for children with cancer. His main focus is currently on international collaborations to improve survival rates and quality of survival and to overcome inequities in access to good quality of care and research for children with cancer.

She leads an internationally recognized research group focused on the mechanisms of lymphomagenesis, with a specific expertise in ALK-driven T-cell lymphomas. In addition to her academic leadership, she co-chairs the CRUK Cambridge Centre paediatric programme and serves as an Adjunct Professor at CEITEC in the Czech Republic. Professor Turner also holds key advisory roles for international clinical trials and global health initiatives, including capacity-building research for Burkitt Lymphoma in Uganda.

Sarah K. Tasian, MD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and serves as the Chief of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She holds the Joshua Kahan Endowed Chair in Pediatric Leukemia Research, where her work focuses on developing precision medicine and immunotherapies for high-risk childhood leukemias. Dr. Tasian is a prominent leader within the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), serving as Vice-Chair of the Myeloid Disease Committee and the Early Phase Clinical Trials Network. Her research specifically targets Philadelphia chromosome-like (Ph-like) ALL and AML, aiming to translate laboratory discoveries into more effective clinical treatments. Throughout her career, she has been recognized with numerous honors, including the ASCI Young Investigator Award and the AACR Team Science Award.

Working Group leader at the ‘Erasmus MC Postgraduate Molecular Medicine School’ which is recognized by the Dutch Royal Academy of Science and Arts, 2009-2015. Previous chair of the international EWOG-MDS foundation (2007-2016). Chair of the national core group member Dutch Late effects group, and co-PI of the DCOG LATER study (2007-2020). One of the pioneers, since 2015, of the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, where she has build the LATE effects clinic, and established, apart from research regarding the identification of (genetic) determinants of direct and late childhood cancer related toxicity, the national centralized care and translational research, Childhood Comprehensive Cancer program for all Dutch children with renal tumors. Leading the international SIOP-RTSG office trial management team (launched in 30 countries in Europe, Asia and South America) as co-PI of the UMBRELLA study, since 2018. Chair of the SIOP-RTSG (2022 onwards), co-chair of the SIOP-RTSG & COG-RTG consortium (HARMONICA). Professor Translational Pediatric Oncology at the University of Utrecht since 2016. Group leader of a research group of 25 PhD & Post-docs, in the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology in Utrecht, co-author on > 600 *international papers, supervisor of > 50 PhD projects (of which >30 already successfully defended).

He got his MD, paediatric specialty and master degree in pharmacology in Paris. He then spent two years as a research fellow in the Brain Tumour Research Center, University of California, San Francisco. His main research interests are Paediatric Neuro-oncology, Early Drug Development, Retinoblastoma and Ethics of Clinical Research. He is the author of more than 320 Pubmed referenced papers. He has been previous member, chair and past chair of the SIOP scientific committee (2011-2017), previous member of the SIOPE board (2016-2021), past-chair of the SIOPE Brain tumor group (2006-2010) and its medulloblastoma /CNS embryonal tumors working group (2012-2016), member of the ITCC Executive Committee (2003-2024), clinical chair of the ITCC Brain Working group (2020-2024), founding member and past-chair of the European Retinoblastoma group (2014-2020).

Profiled as a global leader by Lancet and invited as expert speaker in 57 countries, Dr. Lam serves as Advisor, International Expert and collaborator for Ministries of Health, National Cancer Control Programmes, and United Nations agencies, supporting evidence-informed policy and health systems strengthening efforts across all 6 WHO regions. She has held multiple leadership roles as founder and working group chair for cross-cutting, longitudinal global initiatives, workstreams and partnerships to deliver innovations at scale for children with cancer and other catastrophic conditions, including with SIOP, WHO, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Pan American Health Organization and UNICEF. Working with partners, Dr. Lam has led the development and deployment of global frameworks and tools used across 143 countries to guide large-scale national policy and systems analyses, national cancer control planning, implementation, and evaluation. As a clinician specializing in solid and rare tumors, she has enjoyed delving into a spectrum of complex challenges with global groups, from addressing access to care and referral pathways, treatment abandonment, essential diagnostics and medicines, to palliative care, and multidisciplinary team science. As the lead architect of the CureAll framework – WHO’s guiding strategy for its Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer – she has pioneered a scalable participatory approach that enables systems-level improvements across diverse settings. Committed to supporting local champions, she has spearheaded and continues to lead global networks and communities of practice as well as graduate program curricula design and delivery for health policy and systems science, engaging over 550 leaders across 53 countries in transforming mindsets to improve outcomes for children with catastrophic conditions, everywhere.

Dr. Dome received his MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and PhD degree in Medicine from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He completed a residency in Pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital and completed a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After fellowship, Dr. Dome was a faculty member at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital before joining Children’s National in 2006. Dr. Dome is an internationally recognized expert on pediatric solid tumors, with an emphasis on kidney tumors and sarcomas. He chaired the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Renal Tumor Committee for more than a decade. He is presently on the Scientific Council of the COG and is past-Chair of the American Board of Pediatrics Subboard of Hematology/Oncology.

She is involved in international pediatric oncology communities, mentoring the next generation of healthcare professionals. Served as the SIOP Africa Secretary-General for the last few years

Main focus/specialisation: Diagnosis and treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcoma in children, adolescents and young adults, Ewing sarcoma, clinical and translational research, Cancer and haematological diseases in children, cancer in adolescents and young adults, transition, late effects, biomarkers, new therapeutic procedures, clinical trials

Today’s profile is of Dr. Milena Villarroel (Chile), a Paediatric Hemato-Oncologist with the Faculty of Medicine, University of Chile, and Founding Member and Chair of the Latin American Group for Pediatric Oncology GALOP.

CEO of the Immune Oncology Research Institute, Editor-in-chief of OncoDaily, President-Elect of the Pediatric Oncology East and Mediterranean (POEM) Group, Chairman of the Board and Co-founder of the Institute of Cancer and Crisis.Dr. Tamamyan is also the adviser to the Rector of YSMU and the adviser to the Director of Yeolyan Hematology and Oncology Center. He was the chairman of ASCO IDEA steering group and co-chair of the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) PODC Supportive care working group. He is the ambassador of the Society of Hematologic Oncology, member of the ASCO International Committee, member of the SIOP Essential Medications Working Group, co-founder of the Armenian Association of Hematology and Oncology, a co-founder and a Board Member of the City of Smile Foundation, the largest cancer charity in Armenia, and co-founder of the 4090 charitable foundation. He was the 2018-2019 President of the Harvard Club of Armenia. MD and PhD degrees, he received from YSMU, MSc from the University of Ulm (Germany), where he also lectures pediatric oncology. He completed postdoc in leukemia at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (USA), visiting fellowships at China Medical University Hospital (Taiwan) and St. Anna Children’s Hospital (Austria), was a medical research fellow at the Headquarters of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (Belgium), visiting scientist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center (USA), completed High-Impact Cancer Research postgraduate program at the Harvard Medical School (USA), Global Health Delivery Intensive Course at the Harvard School of Public Health (USA) and Global Health Diplomacy Executive Course at the University of Toronto (Canada). He is a recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, among them the ASCO IDEA (2013) and LIFe (2014) Awards, 40 Under 40 in Cancer Award (2022), he was recognized as a Young Leader of the International Agency for Cancer Research (2016) and Union for International Cancer Control (2016), and selected for the ASCO Leadership Development Program (2022).

She also holds a certificate in Mixed Methods Research. Dr. Sullivan is presently an Assistant Professor at MSU where her research focuses on measuring pediatric oncology nursing quality and establishing an evidence-base of nursing-sensitive outcomes in resource-diverse settings and countries. Her passion and focus are to support and enable nurses to improve practice and outcomes. Dr. Sullivan has worked with nurses around the world through St. Jude Global and other avenues for the past 15 years. While at St. Jude Global, she expanded its nursing outreach from 12 to more than 40 countries, transitioning from a twinning to a network approach. She established the Latin American Nurse Educator Network; St. Jude-VIVA Asia Pacific Nursing Institute; and co-led the development of the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses (APHON) Spanish chemo/biotherapy certificate courses in Latin America and laid the groundwork for Portuguese and Russian versions. As past chair of the APHON Global Outreach Committee, she led strategic planning efforts and transformed the International Task Force into a robust and productive committee with several work streams. She is presently the SIOP Nursing Network Chair and has been active in the Young SIOP Educational Day Working Group, Membership Committee, Global Health Nursing Working Group, and Baseline Nursing Standards. Dr. Sullivan is also engaged in the WHO Global Initiative for Childhood Cancer (GICC) and is passionate about integrating nursing priorities within national childhood cancer control planning.

A former President of SIOP Africa, she has helped shape childhood cancer services and advocacy across the continent, advancing system-strengthening, access and policy engagement. Joyce serves on regional and global platforms—including the Africa Cancer Coalition, the CONCORD–Lancet Global Commission on Cancer, and the SIOP Essential Medicines and Advocacy Committees—where she works to embed equity and LMIC perspectives in global oncology. She is committed to a model of advocacy that is collaborative, evidence-informed and grounded in lived realities, ensuring that every child with cancer, wherever they live, is visible in the global agenda.

While her particular passion is in malignant hematology, she enjoys the breadth that pediatric hematology-oncology offers, from standard to emerging therapies, and through to survivorship care. Dr Guolla is passionate about improving outcomes for Adolescents and Young Adults (AYA), through her research and clinical work. Her current research foci include cardiovascular late effects of cancer therapies particularly in AYA patients, body composition changes as a result of leukemia and other pediatric cancer therapies, and the intersections of cancer and thrombosis. Dr Guolla holds leadership positions within the International Society of Pediatric Oncology including as current Vice-Chair of the Young SIOP Network, Young SIOP Network Chair Elect and inaugural Chair of the Young SIOP committee in North America.

She is also a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Kid's Cancer Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick. Dr McLoone leads the survivorship research stream at the Behavioural Sciences Unit within the Kid's Cancer Centre. Her key interest lies in long-term follow-up care for childhood cancer survivours and their families, as well as the psycho-social impacts related to childhood cancer. Dr McLoone's career began with a focus on child and adolescent mental health research, developing unique anxiety and depression interventions delivered in homes and schools by lay parents and teachers. She maintains an interest in providing Phase II randomised controlled trial evidence for interventions which have been specifically designed to overcome common barriers to treatment including the high cost of private treatment and treatment location (particularly for those living in rural locations.) Dr McLoone is also interested in using new technologies and innovation to overcome the barriers to unique child and adolescent populations, such as lack of independent transport, lack of age appropriate information and peer-related stigma. I continue to design research for optimal translation into mental health practice tailoured at to young people's needs. Dr McLoone is committed to contributing to the field of psych-oncology by way of innovative research studies addressing national cancer priorities. Broad research areas: Paediatric cancer, long-term follow-up care, psycho-social aspects of cancer, late effects of cancer, psychosocial / behavioural research, public health research, survivourship Qualifications: PhD (Psychology), B Psych (Hons I) Professional Memberships/Associations: International Psycho Oncology Society (IPOS) Psycho-oncology Co-operative Research Group (PoCoG). Australasian Society for Health and Behavioral Medicine (ASHBM).