Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH, is a physician and senior researcher specialising in Public Health at the Universities of Patras and West Attica in Greece. He has conducted extensive research on smoking, tobacco harm reduction, and vaping since 2011, publishing over 100 studies and presenting in more than 80 conferences. He authored the first systematic review on the safety and risk profile of e-cigarettes in 2014 and the first book on e-cigarettes, published by Elsevier. His research was influential in shaping the EU’s regulatory framework on vaping. In 2020, he was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher for his significant impact in global science. During the pandemic, he published studies exploring the relationship between smoking, nicotine, and COVID-19.

Riccardo Polosa is the founder of the Center of Excellence for Accelerating Harm Reduction (CoEHAR - University of Catania, Italy). Dr. Polosa is a full professor of Internal Medicine at the same University and together with the 100-member CoEHAR research team with different specializations, they conduct several high-profile clinical and behavioral research in the field of smoking-related diseases. According to a bibliometric analysis, Professor Polosa is considered the most productive scientist in the world in the field of e-cigarette research.

Clive Bates has had a diverse career in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Starting out with IBM, he then switched career to work in the environment movement. From 1997-2003 he was Director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), campaigning to reduce the harms caused by tobacco. In 2003 he joined Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit as a civil servant and worked in senior roles in the public sector and for the United Nations in Sudan. He is now Director of The Counterfactual, a consulting and advocacy practice focussed on a pragmatic approach to sustainability and public health.

Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH, is a physician and senior researcher specialising in Public Health at the Universities of Patras and West Attica in Greece. He has conducted extensive research on smoking, tobacco harm reduction, and vaping since 2011, publishing over 100 studies and presenting in more than 80 conferences. He authored the first systematic review on the safety and risk profile of e-cigarettes in 2014 and the first book on e-cigarettes, published by Elsevier. His research was influential in shaping the EU’s regulatory framework on vaping. In 2020, he was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher for his significant impact in global science. During the pandemic, he published studies exploring the relationship between smoking, nicotine, and COVID-19.

Charles Hamshaw-Thomas worked with the two founding shareholders of E-Lites, the pioneering brand at the forefront of the UK vaping industry’s explosive early growth (2011-2015). Charlie led E-Lites’ external engagement – in London, Brussels and Washington DC – at the time when governments & regulators were first turning their attention to the nascent ‘new nicotine’ category. He also led E-Lites’ business development initiatives, which culminated in the sale of E-Lites to Japan Tobacco International in 2014. Since 2015, he has undertaken some consultancy roles to, and remained a close and enthusiastic observer of, the new industry. Charlie’s fervent wish is to see the industry truly realise its disruptive potential.

Peter Beckett is co-founder of Clearing the Air (www.clearingtheair.eu), an information resource that helps users of safer nicotine products become advocates. Clearing the Air launched in February 2024 and covers campaigns across Europe and Latin America in both English and Spanish. In addition to the site, Clearing the Air offers free campaigning and lobbying help to organisations advocating for safer nicotine products. Before that, Peter spent ten years across a variety of political and regulatory roles in the vaping industry, starting as the campaign lead for the then-nascent vaping industry during the revision of the EU Tobacco Products Directive in 2013. He is a partner at EU public affairs firm Three Six One.

Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of harm reduction in the 1990s, helping to develop and evaluate harm reduction in the UK as a response to HIV/AIDS. Gerry has advised the UK Government, WHO, UNAIDS, UNODC, the World Bank and numerous governments around the world on issues relating to drugs, HIV infection and AIDS, and alcohol. He has also published over 220 scientific publications and several books. He is a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine.  Gerry is advisor to the  Knowledge•Action•Change projects on tobacco harm reduction including the Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme and the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction project. He is Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London.

Peter Hajek is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London. His research is concerned primarily with understanding health behaviours, and developing and evaluating both behavioural and pharmacological treatments for dependent smokers and for people with weight problems. Professor Hajek is a member of a number of expert groups, advisory bodies and editorial boards, and has authored or co-authored over 350 publications.

Riccardo Polosa is the founder of the Center of Excellence for Accelerating Harm Reduction (CoEHAR - University of Catania, Italy). Dr. Polosa is a full professor of Internal Medicine at the same University and together with the 100-member CoEHAR research team with different specializations, they conduct several high-profile clinical and behavioral research in the field of smoking-related diseases. According to a bibliometric analysis, Professor Polosa is considered the most productive scientist in the world in the field of e-cigarette research.

Miroslaw Dworniczak, PhD - chemist, freelance science journalist, former scientist and lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan, Poland). Author (under the name "Stary Chemik" - "Old Chemist") of the first blog in Poland dealing with e-cigarettes and e-liquid chemistry and safety (http://starychemik.wordpress.com - in Polish) and the webpage for complete beginners (http://epapieros.edu.pl) including a manual for beginners in English (http://epapieros.edu.pl/manual-english/).

Miroslaw Dworniczak, PhD - chemist, freelance science journalist, former scientist and lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan, Poland). Author (under the name "Stary Chemik" - "Old Chemist") of the first blog in Poland dealing with e-cigarettes and e-liquid chemistry and safety (http://starychemik.wordpress.com - in Polish) and the webpage for complete beginners (http://epapieros.edu.pl) including a manual for beginners in English (http://epapieros.edu.pl/manual-english/).

Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH, is a physician and senior researcher specialising in Public Health at the Universities of Patras and West Attica in Greece. He has conducted extensive research on smoking, tobacco harm reduction, and vaping since 2011, publishing over 100 studies and presenting in more than 80 conferences. He authored the first systematic review on the safety and risk profile of e-cigarettes in 2014 and the first book on e-cigarettes, published by Elsevier. His research was influential in shaping the EU’s regulatory framework on vaping. In 2020, he was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher for his significant impact in global science. During the pandemic, he published studies exploring the relationship between smoking, nicotine, and COVID-19.

Clive Bates has had a diverse career in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Starting out with IBM, he then switched career to work in the environment movement. From 1997-2003 he was Director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), campaigning to reduce the harms caused by tobacco. In 2003 he joined Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit as a civil servant and worked in senior roles in the public sector and for the United Nations in Sudan. He is now Director of The Counterfactual, a consulting and advocacy practice focussed on a pragmatic approach to sustainability and public health.

Miroslaw Dworniczak, PhD - chemist, freelance science journalist, former scientist and lecturer at the Department of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznan, Poland). Author (under the name "Stary Chemik" - "Old Chemist") of the first blog in Poland dealing with e-cigarettes and e-liquid chemistry and safety (http://starychemik.wordpress.com - in Polish) and the webpage for complete beginners (http://epapieros.edu.pl) including a manual for beginners in English (http://epapieros.edu.pl/manual-english/).

David Sweanor is an adjunct professor, Faculty of Law, and chair of the advisory board of the Centre for Health Law, Policy & Ethics at the University of Ottawa and has been actively involved in tobacco and health policy issues since the beginning of the 1980s. He has worked globally, and with numerous groups, including the International Union Against Cancer, World Health Organization, World Bank and the Pan American Health Organization and played a key role in achieving many global precedents in tobacco policy. He currently focuses much of his tobacco and nicotine related efforts on risk reduction strategies.

Clive Bates has had a diverse career in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Starting out with IBM, he then switched career to work in the environment movement. From 1997-2003 he was Director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), campaigning to reduce the harms caused by tobacco. In 2003 he joined Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit as a civil servant and worked in senior roles in the public sector and for the United Nations in Sudan. He is now Director of The Counterfactual, a consulting and advocacy practice focussed on a pragmatic approach to sustainability and public health.