Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of drugs 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. Currently, Gerry is advisor to Knowledge•Action•Change, and is involved in the FSFW-funded Global Tobacco Harm Reduction Initiative. He is also a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which has been delivered by KAC Communications since 2014.

Professor Marewa Glover is one of New Zealand’s leading tobacco control researchers. She has worked on reducing smoking-related harm for 31 years. She is recognized internationally for her advocacy on tobacco harm reduction; and locally was a Finalist in the New Zealander of the Year Supreme Award in 2019 recognising her contribution to reducing smoking in NZ. In 2018, Dr Glover was appointed Tobacco Section Editor for the Harm Reduction Journal. In that year she also established the Centre of Research Excellence: Indigenous Sovereignty & Smoking an international program of research aimed at reducing smoking-related harms among Indigenous peoples globally. The Centre’s research was funded with grants from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, Inc. (“FSFW”), a US nonprofit 501(c)(3) private foundation.

Will is the founding editor-in-chief of Filter, an online magazine that launched in 2018 to cover drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. He's also the executive director of The Influence Foundation, the New York nonprofit behind Filter. His past work in the drugs and human rights spaces has included founding and/or editing a number of other publications, and consulting for various organizations. Originally from England, he now lives in Vermont.

Dr. Mark Tyndall is an infectious diseases specialist, epidemiologist and public health physician with a focus on urban health, drug use and harm reduction. He has held a number of academic leadership positions and most recently was the Director of the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC). He is an author on over 300 peer-reviewed publications, and was co-lead investigator on the evaluation of Insite, North America’s first supervised injection site. His current work includes innovative solutions to prevent overdoses through safe supply programs and the use of biometric dispensing machines for opioids (MySafe). Dr. Tyndall is a strong Canadian advocate for public health through the lens of human rights and has championed the scale-up of vaping as a response to reducing the harms associated with tobacco use.

Dr. Moira Gilchrist leads the global strategic and scientific communications for Philip Morris International (PMI). From bringing to life PMI’s fast-pace progress as it evolves into a smoke-free business and expands in areas outside the tobacco and nicotine space, to translating the science behind PMI’s smoke-free alternatives into information that policymakers and the public can easily understand, Moira and her team are at the heart of the company’s historic evolution. She regularly engages with public health authorities, media, and decision-makers around the world, demonstrating the benefits of scientifically substantiated, smoke-free products for those adults who would otherwise continue smoking and calling for risk-proportionate regulation that affords these people accurate information about and access to these better alternatives. In short, she plays a vital role in PMI’s transition away from cigarettes and its journey toward a better, smoke-free future.

Prior to her current role, Moira held several positions within PMI, including leading the
Reduced-Risk Products Corporate Affairs team, serving as director of Scientific
Engagement within the R&D function, and working in both product development and
commercialization.
Before joining PMI in 2006, Moira worked in the pharmaceutical sector for more than a
decade. She was a principal consultant within PwC’s and IBM’s pharmaceutical industry
consulting groups and held positions within both industry and nonprofit organizations as
a developer of drug formulations.
Moira holds a degree in Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, both from the
University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Samrat Chowdhery is a journalist and consumer advocate who has steered global and national movements for adult access to safer nicotine alternatives. He is the director of Association of Vapers India, among the oldest tobacco harm reduction-focused consumer nonprofits. He is a past president of International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations, an umbrella body of over 30 national groups. He was a recipient of Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarships to investigate the efficacy and affordability of vaping and smokeless alternatives among bidi and khaini users in India and offers mentorship on advocacy and research in advancing safer nicotine availability in low- and middle-income countries. He authors articles in the harm reduction magazine, Filter.

Dr. Oyston graduated in 1980 from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, with two degrees: a medical degree and a degree in medical research. He trained as an anesthesiologist from 1983 to 1990, qualifying as a specialist in both the UK and Canada. He has also worked as an anesthesiologist in New Zealand, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. He was appointed Chief of Anesthesiology four times. He was also an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, and a peer assessor for the College of Physicians Surgeons of Ontario.

In November 2019, Dr. Oyston retired from clinical practice to work on smoking cessation advocacy and knowledge translation related to safer nicotine products for people who smoke.

He has published editorials on tobacco control topics in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia and the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Described by Rolling Stone as "the point man" for drug policy reform efforts and “the real drug czar,” Ethan Nadelmann, JD, PhD is widely regarded as the outstanding proponent of drug policy reform in the United States and abroad. After teaching politics and public affairs at Princeton University (1987-1994), he founded and directed first The Lindesmith Center (1994-2000) and then the Drug Policy Alliance (2000-2017). He also co-founded the Open Society Institute’s International Harm Reduction Development program. Ethan has published extensively and spoken publicly in roughly forty states and forty countries. His TED Talk has over two million views. Ethan and his colleagues were at the forefront of dozens of successful campaigns to legalize marijuana, reduce the incarceration of drug law offenders, advance harm reduction approaches to drug use and addiction, and otherwise promote alternatives to the war on drugs. Ethan hosts the leading podcast about all things drugs: PSYCHOACTIVE. And he has become increasingly engaged in the debate over tobacco harm reduction.

Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of drugs 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. Currently, Gerry is advisor to Knowledge•Action•Change, and is involved in the FSFW-funded Global Tobacco Harm Reduction Initiative. He is also a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which has been delivered by KAC Communications since 2014.

Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of drugs 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. Currently, Gerry is advisor to Knowledge•Action•Change, and is involved in the FSFW-funded Global Tobacco Harm Reduction Initiative. He is also a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which has been delivered by KAC Communications since 2014.

Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of drugs 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. Currently, Gerry is advisor to Knowledge•Action•Change, and is involved in the FSFW-funded Global Tobacco Harm Reduction Initiative. He is also a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which has been delivered by KAC Communications since 2014.

Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH, is a physician and a research associate at the University of Patras and the University of West Attica in Greece. His field of expertise is Public Health. He has been conducting laboratory, clinical and epidemiological research on smoking, tobacco harm reduction and nicotine products as principal investigator since 2011. He authored the first systematic review on e-cigarette safety/risk profile, published in 2014. Additionally, he has performed research and published studies on heated tobacco products. His findings have been presented in major international scientific congresses and his studies were used in preparing the regulatory framework on e-cigarettes by the European Union in 2014. As of early 2024, he has published more than 100 studies and articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, mostly about smoking, tobacco harm reduction and alternative-to-smoking nicotine products. He has presented in more than 80 international conferences and he was the handling editor and author of a book titled "Analytical assessment of e-cigarettes", published by Elsevier in 2017. In November 2020, he was declared a Highly Cited Researcher 2019 by the Web of Science, a list of researchers (6200 scientists out of 9 million examined) with the highest impact in global science in 21 scientific fields in the past decade. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has published 10 peer-reviewed articles and several pre-prints about COVID-19, including the association between smoking, nicotine and COVID-19.

Riccardo Polosa is the Founder of the Center of Excellence for the acceleration of HArm Reduction (CoEHAR - University of Catania, Italy). Dr Polosa is Full Professor of Internal Medicine for the same University and Director of the Center for Smoking Prevention and Treatment at the University Hospital "Policlinico-V. Emanuele” of Catania. Dr. Polosa and the CoEHAR team of researchers 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 electronic cigarette research.

Dr Roberto A Sussman (PhD University of London) is a full time senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Nuclear Sciences of the National University of Mexico. His main research areas are General Relativity and Cosmology, but he has conducted research in other areas of Physics, including peer reviewed publications on e-cigarette aerosols. He is also the founder and Director of Pro-Vapeo Mexico, an association representing Mexican consumers of noncombustible nicotine products and is a member of INNCO. He is actively advocating for an appropriate regulation of Tobacco Harm Reduction products in Mexico. He directs and supervises the effort to spread scientific information on these products, as well as advising consumers on how to counter the governmental misinformation and prejudice about them that is rampant throughout Latin America.

Dr. Sree T.Sucharitha, M.D currently Professor in Department of Community Medicine and Research Co-ordinator at Tagore Medical College and Hospital Chennai, India holds Fellowship in HIV Medicine from I-Tech India which is a joint program with collaboration with Tamil Nadu government. She is also Fellow of Asian Human Rights and Drug Policy. Won Best paper awards for presentations at Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR University (2018), IJRULA- Best Research Scientist-Environment Science (2018), Tamil Nadu Physical Education and Sports University (2019). She is the Founding-Director of AHRER-Association for Harm Reduction Education and Research, a first-ever registered medical professionals body in India for increasing the public awareness of harms resulting due to various human behaviours associated with tobacco consumption, narcotics, alcohol, and obesity.

Chim Ngoma is a passionate advocate for tobacco harm reduction and has led the THR Malawi project since 2018. He also works as an Assistant Manager on KAC’s THR Scholarship Programme. Chim has been involved in a number of notable THR projects and activities including the Burning Issues report and briefing paper on THR and the Right to Health as a reviewer. He also participated in a multi-stakeholder smoke-free dialogue in Cape Town aimed at informing the creation of the Smoke-Free Index, an initiative of the FSFW. Previously, Chim worked as a content writer consultant at Solimar International, as a citizen journalist at Nation Publications Limited and as a communications, visibility and M&E consultant at International Cooperation (GIZ).

Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of drugs 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. Currently, Gerry is advisor to Knowledge•Action•Change, and is involved in the FSFW-funded Global Tobacco Harm Reduction Initiative. He is also a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which has been delivered by KAC Communications since 2014.