Georg Miestinger is staff anesthesiologist („Oberarzt“) at the University Hospital St. Pölten, Austria. After studying medicine at the Paracelsus Private Medical University (Salzburg, Austria), he completed his anesthesiology and intensive care residency at University Hospital St. Pölten, Austria. He has been conducting the „AVAS-Trial“ (Automated control of mechanical ventilation during general anesthesia), and we look forward to have him share his experience.

Harry Lemmens is Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs and Division Chief General Operating Rooms at the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, California, USA. He is director of the Advanced Clinical Anesthesia Training fellowship program, and runs the daily OR schedule. He studied medicine at the Rijksuniversiteit in Utrecht and completed his anesthesiology residency at Leiden University in The Netherlands. His interest in describing the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of alfentanil led him to work together with Donald Stanski (chair 1992-1997). He has published extensively in the field of clinical pharmacology, with a special focus on obese patients. It is a true pleasure to welcome Harry Lemmens back at NAVAt this year where he will tackle the issue of the use of N2O during abdominal surgery: “Does N2O make the bowel explode?”.

Joseph Orr is research associate professor at the University of Utah, Department of Anesthesiology. He has over 20 years of experience as an expert in respiratory and anesthesia instrumentation with an emphasis on studies, measurement and analysis of physiologic O2 consumption and CO2 production. He is a past president of the STA, the Society of Technology in Anesthesia. He has authored 26 peer-reviewed publications and currently holds 42 US patents and has multiple patents pending. Dr. Orr holds a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Utah and a master of engineering management degree from Brigham Young University. He holds a position as co-founder and CEO of KORR™ Medical, and as president and founder of Dynasthetics LLC. He will convince us of the usefulness of isocapnic hyperventilation to hasten emergence.

Andre De Wolf is professor at the Department of Anesthesiology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA, and with Jan Hendrickx, the founding father of NAVAt. He is one of the world’s experts on hemodynamics during liver transplantation, and while working at University Pittsburgh Medical Center from 1981 until 1996, closely collaborated with Thomas Starzl, the surgeon who invented liver transplantation. He developed a secondary interest in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of inhaled anesthetics, which started to lead a second life in and by itself after meeting Jan Hendrickx. He will convince us that isocapnic hyperventilation is not worth the effort and expense.

Jan Hendrickx is a member of the Dept. of Anesthesiology in Aalst, Belgium, and an alumnus of the Dept. of Anesthesiology of Pittsburgh and of Stanford, CA, USA. He has a life-long interest in the quantitative aspects of low flow and closed circuit anesthesia. He is a past chair of the ESA subcommittee on Equipment, Monitoring and Ultrasound, and current member of the ESA Patient Safety and Quality Committee and the APSF Committee on Technology. He has been testing a new CO2 absorber and a new approach to titrate inhaled agents, and he will discuss the impact of new technology on the terminology we use every day.

Professor Philip Peyton (Anaesthesia, Perioperative and Pain Medicine Unit, University of Melbourne, Australia) is a world-expert on how ventilation/perfusion mismatching affects anesthetic gas exchange. He is chair of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists Clinical Trials Network, Paul Myles’ multi-institutional research group, that conducted ENIGMA I and II (Evaluation of N2O In the Gas Mixture for Anaesthesia) which confirmed the safety of N2O. He has been a speaker at NAVAt several times and will co-chair NAVAt VII.

Jan Poelaert is professor of Anesthesiology and chairman at the Department of Anesthesiology and
Perioperative Medicine, Acute and Chronic Pain Therapy of the University Hospital of Brussels
(VUB). He graduated as physician and as anesthesiologist from Ghent University, which included
rotations in the OLV hospital in Aalst (Belgium) and in the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam
(the Netherlands). He is past president of the Belgian Society of Intensive Care medicine (SIZ) and
the Belgian Society of Anaesthesia and Resuscitation (BSAR), and he served as chair of ESA and
ESICM scientific committees. His academic interests are perioperative cardiac function (left
ventricular systolic and diastolic function), transesophageal echocardiography (the topic of his
1995 Ph.D.), ventilator associated and postoperative pneumonia and its prevention in the
perioperative care, improvement of outcome after major surgery and hemodynamic monitoring
strategies. We look forward to have professor Poelaert chair and navigate NAVAt.

Michel Struys is Professor and Chair at the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Groningen and University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands, and affiliated as Professor in Anesthesia to the Ghent University, Belgium. His research group is one of the world’s leading groups in anesthetic pharmacology, including pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modelling, drug interaction research and drug administration systems such as TCI and closed-loop. He is an editor of the British Journal of Anaesthesia, senior editor of Anesthesia and Analgesia, and a former associated editor of Anesthesiology. He is a past president of the International Society of Anesthetic Pharmacology, past member of the committee on Pharmacology of the ESA, and board member of EuroSIVA. He has been a speaker at NAVAt and will co-chair NAVAt VII.

Patrick Wouters is Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine and Professor of Clinical Physiology at Ghent University, Belgium. He has published extensively on right ventricular function. He has chaired the ESA Scientific Subcommittee on Clinical and Experimental Circulation and the Subcommittee of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesiologists on Echocardiography. He is 2019 president-elect of EACTA (European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesiology). His expertise, his personal enthusiasm and support for the NAVAt meetings, the enthusiastic attendance of his department, and the many historical ties on a personal and academic level prompted us to invite him as the fifth member of the NAVAt group. He will co-chair NAVAt VII, only a few weeks after having organized the annual meeting of the EACTA (European Association of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesiologists).

Geert Vandenbroucke, chair of the department of Anesthesiology, CCM, and Pain Medicine at the OLV hospital, has been unrelenting in his support for NAVAt and will be hosting NAVAt for the 7th time.