Meet the experts

Dr Josef Neu is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology, at the University of Florida and Chairman of the Board of the International Postgraduate Organization for Knowledge Transfer, Research and Teaching Excellent Students (IPOKRaTES).

Internationally recognised for developmental gastroenterology and nutrition, his recent work focuses on multi-omics and artificial intelligence for predictive analytics in intestinal injury, retinopathy of prematurity, and precision nutrition. He has authored more than 350 publications and received the American Academy of Pediatrics Avroy Fanaroff Neonatal Education Award.

View conference programme →

Dr Roger Soll is the H. Wallace Professor of Neonatology at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine and a Senior Adviser to the Vermont Oxford Network.

He is an authority in evidence-based medicine and randomised clinical trials and serves as senior advisor to the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Thematic Group of the Cochrane Collaboration. His work includes systematic reviews, peer-reviewed articles, and book chapters on neonatal interventions and evidence-based medicine.

View conference programme →

Dr Nana Twum-Danso has more than 25 years of international experience at the interface of health care and public health, with a focus on strategy, partnerships, implementation support, and outcomes that matter to patients, families, communities, the workforce, and health-system leaders.

Her expertise includes quality improvement, patient safety, large-scale change, health policy, health-systems strengthening, community health, and pharmacovigilance. She was educated at Harvard University and trained in public health and preventive medicine at Emory University.

View conference programme →

Professor Welma Lubbe directs the NuMIQ research focus area at North-West University and holds doctorates in Nursing and Paediatrics (Neuroscience). Her research centres on neurodevelopmental supportive care for preterm infants, and she leads the Implementation of Neurodevelopmental Supportive Care programme.

She represents South Africa on the Council of International Neonatal Nurses and contributes to international neonatal nursing, developmental care, breastfeeding, and newborn-brain research groups and journals.

View conference programme →

Dr Rebecca Hoban is a board-certified neonatologist with strong clinical, research, and educational interests in human milk and lactation. She trained at Indiana University, Cincinnati Children’s, Tufts Floating Hospital for Children, and Harvard University.

Her international work spans clinical education and human-milk research, including improving milk provision for high-risk newborns, predicting lactation success, lactation in the context of substance use, and human milk as therapy for preterm infants with brain injury.

View conference programme →