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 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). 2007 full Professor in GI surgery at the University of Oslo and in a period 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. Now professor emeritus and research integrity ombud at the medical faculty and the university hospitals in Oslo.

Jonas Halfvarson is a consultant Gastroenterologist at Örebro University hospital and Professor of Gastroenterology at Örebro University, Sweden. Prof Halfvarson graduated as MD at the University of Uppsala, 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. He has contributed to numerous impactful clinical studies across multiple facets of IBD, and has over 230 peer-reviewed publications. His current research focuses on biomarkers in IBD, from both a clinical and mechanistic perspective.

Prof Halfvarson was named a Rising Star in Gastroenterology at the United European Gastroenterology Week (UEGW) in 2011. He has served as a board member of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) 2017-2023. Currently, he heads the taskforce for genetics and pathophysiology at the Swedish Organisation for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (SOIBD), serves as the Scientific Director of the Swedish national quality registry for IBD (SWIBREG) and is also a member of the management committee of the international IBD genetic consortium (IIBDGC).

Clas-Göran af Björkesten, MD PhD, graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at University of Helsinki in 1998 and specialized in internal medicine in 2007 and gastroenterology in 2010. Currently, he works as clinical instructor at University of Helsinki and as senior consultant at Helsinki University Hospital. His main interest in the field of gastroenterology is IBD, with particular focus on assessment of disease activity and treatment response, and optimizing treatment in clinical practice. He did his PhD thesis on monitoring treatment response in Crohn’s disease in 2014 and has since then been involved in several national study projects particularly on biologicals in IBD. Recently he has acquired expertise in bowel ultrasound in diagnosis and management of IBD. He has a position as ECCO national representative since 2016 and chair of the IBD section of the Finnish Society of Gastroenterology since 2022.

Johan Burisch is a consultant gastroenterologist at the Gastrounit at Copenhagen University Hospital – Hvidovre and a professor of gastroenterology at the University of Copenhagen. He earned his MD from the University of Copenhagen in 2010, followed by a Ph.D. in 2013 and a Doctor of Medical Sciences (DMSc) degree in 2022, both from the same university. Dr. Burisch’s research interests span various aspects of IBD, including the natural progression of the disease, the impact of modern treatments on patient outcomes, and the identification of prognostic markers for treatment response and disease prognosis in newly-diagnosed and treatment-naive patients. He has contributed to over 200 peer-reviewed publications in the field.

Recognized for his contributions, Dr. Burisch received the Rising Star in Gastroenterology award at the United European Gastroenterology Week in 2019 and the ECCO Young Researcher Award in 2023. He has held board positions with the Danish Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization, and the United European Gastroenterology. Additionally, he is a member of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD).

Lóa Guðrún Davíðsdóttir is a consultant Gastroenterologist at Landspitali University Hospital in Iceland. She graduated as MD at the University of Iceland in 1999 and specialized in Internal Medicine in 2009 and in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2010 at Karolinska University Hospital. She undertook research with Professor Rolf Hultcrants and obtained her PhD degree in 2016 at the Karolinska Institutet. She served as a secretary for the Icelandic Society of Gastroenterology 2018-2020. She is the Chairman of the steering committee of the Icelandic Quality Registry for inflammatory bowel disease (ICE IBD). Her main interests are IBD and related problems. 

Charlotte Hedin comes from Britain and did her medical training at Oxford University and then AT and ST- training in London, principally at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. She earned her PhD in 2013 at King’s College London (”Microbial, immunological, phenotypic and genetic markers of risk: Aspects of Crohn’s diseases that are shared by unaffected siblings”). In 2013 she moved to Stockholm with her Swedish husband and three children, which soon became four children. After learning some Swedish she began her post as resident physician in gastroenterology at Karolinska University Hospital in 2014. Since 2017 she has held a clinical post-doc at Karolinska University Hospital and in addition was given a UEG ”Rising Star” award. She is now the research head of the Karolinska Gut Group, leading the group members in the research of luminal gastroenterology. Since 2018 she has served as a committee member within ECCO. Her research focuses on the role of the gut microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease, and also how the gut microbiota affects the development and function of the human immune system in healthy and diseased individuals.

Marte Lie Høivik is a gastroenterologist and senior consultant at the Department of Gastroenterology Oslo University Hospital (OUH) and professor of Gastroenterology at University of Oslo. She heads the IBD unit and the IBD research group at OUH.

Høivik is PI of the IBSEN III study, project leader for the OUH-IBD research registry and Norwegian PI in the NORDTREAT consortium. She is involved in a broad range of clinical, epidemiological and translation IBD research projects.
She is a member of the Norwegian IBD Study Group, and she has been a National Representative in ECCO.

Susanna Jäghult is the head of the Endoscopic Unit at Södersjukhuset in Stockholm. She has been working for many years with IBD both in the clinical and academic world. She has a PhD and her research is mainly concerning IBD and stress, fatigue, HRQOL. Susanna has been the chair of N-ECCO (Nurses of ECCO) and is now part of the E-learning Taskforce of ECCO. She is in the steering group for SWIBREG and is a member of SOIBD (The Swedish Organisation for the study of IBD). 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.

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.

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 he combined his clinical consultant job with a doctoral program and was in 1997 appointed as Dr Med. This work included clinical epidemiology in inflammatory bowel disease in the IBSEN study and he has been centrally involved in a European study on IBD, EC-IBD2K. He was appointed as Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology at Oslo University Hospital in 2006 and he is today Prof emeritus at University of Oslo and Senior research consultant at Østfold Hospital Trust. His scientific work has resulted in author or co-authorship on more than 250 peer-reviewed papers and he has been scientific advisor for 17 PhD candidates. Bjørn Moum has been President in the Norwegian Gastroenterology Association 2004-2009 and a Board member for 12 years. 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).

Johannes Kurt Schultz FEBS is a consultant IBD surgeon and associate professor at the University of Oslo. Medical degree from the Humboldt University in Berlin. Basic surgical training in Molde Norway, specialization in colorectal and IBD surgery at Akershus University Hospital. He defended his PhD thesis “Surgical aspects of diverticular disease of the colon” in 2018. Certified Fellow of the European Board of Surgeons in Coloproctology since 2019.

He is currently working as a senior consultant colorectal surgeon at the two university hospitals in Oslo (Oslo university hospital and Akershus university hospital). His surgical expertise lies mainly in advanced IBD surgery and in rectal cancer surgery. The main focus of his research lies in clinical and registry studies on IBD and colorectal surgery. Since 2021, he is section editor in the Scandinavian Journal of Surgery and he is member of the editorial advisory board in Colorectal Disease.