Airi Poder, EE

Dr.Airi Põder was elected Chair of the Council of IUSTI-Europe in 2006, and went on to serve as Director of IUSTI-Europe from 2013 to 2021. She has been member of the Executive Committee of IUSTI-World from 2003 to 2021. She is the Founding Member and President of IUSTI- Estonia since 1999. Dr. Põder is the Founder and CEO of the Clinical Research Center, Tartu and she has been the leading investigator of more than 80 clinical trials. She is the Physician-Lecturer in the Tartu University Clinic of Dermatology. In 2011 Dr. Põder was awarded the FRCP London in recognition of her outstanding contributions to education and training.

Chris Kenyon, BE

Chris Kenyon is currently head of the STI Unit at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp. In addition to his post here, he works as an Infectious Diseases Physician at the University Hospital Antwerp and is an Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town. He trained as an Infectious Diseases specialist at the University of Cape Town and has also trained in Public Health (LSHTM), politics, philosophy, economics (Oxford) and completed his PhD in Epidemiology (Uni Antwerp). He is currently PI of several clinical studies including the GonoScreen Study which is an RCT assessing if screening MSM on PrEP for gonorrhoea/chlamydia is associated with a reduction in the cumulative incidence of these infections.

Claire Dewsnap, UK

Dr Claire Dewsnap is a Consultant Physician in Genitourinary Medicine at Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Claire began her specialty training in GU medicine at Chelsea and Westminster. She was appointed as a consultant in 2007 in Sheffield and became clinical lead in 2009. Claire has had several roles in education including Dip GUM examiner, Foundation TPD and lead for Blackboard roll out in Yorkshire and Humber foundation school. Claire became BASHH conference and communication chair in 2018 and is the current BASHH President. As BASHH president Claire represented the specialty at national and international monkeypox events over the last 12 months and has spoken at numerous conferences on STIs and HIV.

Deniz Gökengin, TR

Professor Deniz Gökengin is an academic staff member in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine at Ege University in Turkiye. She was named professor in 2003, and has been acting as the director of the Ege University HIV/AIDS Research and Practice Center since 2009. She has been providing healthcare for HIV patients since 1996 and is one of the leading clinicians in Turkey on HIV/AIDS management. Deniz Gökengin started her academic career with research on Chlamydia trachomatis and related infections and continued her study into sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS. She is the founding member and general secretary of the AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections Society, a board member of the International Union for Sexually Transmitted Infections in Europe, representing Turkiye and a member of the Euroguidelines in Central and Eastern Europe (ECEE) Network Group.

Derek Freedman, IE

Derek Freedman is a consultant in Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM), working primarily in private practice, recently retired from St James’ Hospital, Dublin. He was in charge of leading the GUM Irish campaign in 1970’s and founded the Society for the Study of Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Ireland. An EADV founder member and JEADV founder editor, he hosted the 6th EADV Congress in Dublin, 1997. Active in IUSTI-Europe since 1999, he is the Chair for Congress Management and Scientific Policy, and co-editor of its Webinars. He hosted IUSTI World and Europe’s Congress, Dublin 2018, and was awarded IUSTI Europe’s Gold Medal for his contributions to Venereology. His goal is to update relevant scientific information and guidelines to practitioners for the benefit of patients and public health.

George-Sorin Tiplica, RO

Prof. dr. George-Sorin Tiplica is senior dermato-venereologist and Head of the Dermatology 2 Clinic in Colentina Clinical Hospital, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy – Bucharest, Romania. He is Section-editor for STIs of the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. Since 2018 he represents Romania in the Council of IUSTI-Europe. Together with Dr Derek Freedman he is co-editor of the IUSTI-Europe monthly webinars. In 2021 he was elected Chair of the IUSTI-Eu Council. He is interested in bacterial infections and parasitic infestations of the skin, being co-author of the European guideline on scabies, pediculosis pubis and syphilis.

Irith De Baetselier, BE

Irith De Baetselier obtained her PhD in Biomedical Sciences in 2021 titled improving STI diagnosis and control among MSM in Belgium. Since 2018, she became the coordinator and focal point of the National Reference Centre for STIs. She is also the Belgian representative of the European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Program and member of the STI Network Coordination Committee of ECDC, Euro-Test and STIIX. Research topics are: STI epidemiology including mpox, LGV, HIV PrEP and the influence it may have on the STI epidemic among MSM, HIV/STI diagnostics (including home-based self-sampling and self-testing for HIV and STIs) and antimicrobial resistance.

John White , UK

Dr. John White is a Consultant Physician in Sexual Health/HIV working in the Western and Northern Health & Social Care Trusts, Northern Ireland. His previous clinical work in Sexual Health included 20 years working in Sydney and London. His clinical and research interests include bacterial STIs, MSM sexual health and diagnostic tests for HIV/STIs. Since 2022 he also works part time as a Medical Director for Preventx Ltd, the UK’s largest remote sexual health testing diagnostics company.

Kai J. Jonas, NL

Kai Jonas (1972) spent his childhood in the Bavarian countryside and was educated in the United States of America, Spain and Germany. He obtained his PhD in Psychology at the University of Göttingen. After a Post-Doc at the University of Jena he moved to the University of Amsterdam as an assistant professor. He is currently Full Professor of Applied Social Psychology at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and has held visiting positions at Mahidol University, Bangkok and at Chinese University Hong Kong. His research centers on all aspects of the HIV cascade, substance use and stigma and discrimination.

Maria Xiridou, NL

Maria Xiridou works on mathematical modelling of sexually transmitted infections. Maria has worked on the impact and cost-effectiveness of PrEP and antiretroviral therapy for HIV; risk-group and universal hepatitis B vaccination; antimicrobial resistance in N. gonorrhoeae, the mpox outbreak, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and hepatitis B virus notifications. She obtained her PhD at the University College London, UK, on stochastic models for tuberculosis transmission and control. In 2001, she started working at the Municipal Health Service of Amsterdam on modelling HIV transmission dynamics. She works at the Centre for Infectious Diseases Control of the RIVM since 2006.

Marti Vall Mayans, ES

Martí Vall-Mayans is Faculty Specialist at the STI Unit and Senior Researcher at the Skin NTD and STI Section of the Department of Infectious Diseases and Fight Infectious Diseases Foundation, Hospital Germans Trias Pujol in Badalona, Catalonia (Spain). Former WHO Consultant, he is member of the editorial board of the IUSTI-Europe guidelines and past Scientific Chair of the 2020 European IUSTI congress. His clinical and research interests include the implementation of alternative treatments and strategies for treponemal diseases.

Nicole H.T.M. Dukers-Muijrers, NL

For more than 25 years, Nicole Dukers-Muijrers has led practice-based STI/HIV research in public health, clinical, and implementation fields, in The Netherlands and abroad. She is associate professor in health promotion at Maastricht University and program-coordinator of “Living Lab Public Health” at Public Health Service South Limburg. As an epidemiologist working transdisciplinary, Nicole is dedicated to promote equitable access to healthcare and prevention. She leads ‘Limburg4Zero’, an integrated home-care program including HIV/STI testing and tailored counselling, aligning with the goal to eliminate new HIV infections. Nicole has obtained various grants, supervises/ed 25 PhD candidates, and co-authored over 190 scientific international peer-reviewed publications (H-index: 47) many in the field of STI/HIV.

Sebastien Fouéré, FR

Dr. Sébastien Fouéré is Head of the Centre for Genital and Sexually Transmitted Diseases at St Louis Hospital, Paris, France, Sébastien is a dermatologist and a venereologist with foci on HPV, Gonorrhea and STI in MSM. He coordinates scientific activities in his unit, is secretary general the GrIDIST (infectious dermatology and STI subgroup of the French Society for Dermatology) and teaches STI at the Paris Cité University.

Usha Hartgill, NO

Dr Usha Hartgill MD is a specialist in Genitourinary Medicine from the UK. She has resided in Norway for many years and became the Norwegian representative on the IUSTI board in 2018 as well as Norwegian representative on the Nordic Dermatological Association Board. She has also completed Dermato-venereology specialist training in Norway and is Head of Department at The Olafia Clinic in Oslo.

Vita Jongen, NL

Vita Jongen is an infectious disease epidemiologist and post-doc researcher at the Public Health Service of Amsterdam and Stichting HIV Monitoring, the Netherlands. In her research she focusses on the prevention of HIV, HPV and sexually transmitted infections. She also works as a research fellow for the Desmond Tutu TB centre in Cape Town, South Africa.