Mike Sharland has been a consultant in the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Unit at St George's Hospital for 15 years. He is a recognised expert in optimising antimicrobial use in children. He is a board member of ESPID, Chair of ESPID Research Committee, Previous Chair of ESPID Training Committee, and Chair of RCPCH Standing Committee on Infection and Immunisation and Chair of the UK Medicines for Children Research Network Allergy, Infection and Immunity Clinical Study Group. He is also the Joint Chair of the Pediatric European Network for Trials in Infection. Andrew Cant has served on the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID) education and training committees since 1999, representing ESPID at the Confédération Européenne des Spécialistes en Pédiatrie (CESP), developing Europe wide training programmes in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology that were recently ratified by the European Medical Union. He was elected President of ESPID, taking up office in May 2006. From 2000 to 2004 he was chairman of the bone marrow transplant working party of the European Society for Immunodeficiencies (ESID); collating and presenting data on our Europe wide results of BMT for immunodeficiency. He is currently chairman of the ESID educational working party. Graham Davies trained in medicine at Cambridge University and University College Hospital, London. His training in paediatrics, immunology and infectious diseases included an Action Research Training Fellowship at the Institute of Child Health. After a consultant appointment in paediatrics and infectious diseases at St Georges University of London, he took up his current position at Great Ormond Street Hospital/ Institute of Child Health in 1997. His research interests are in the diagnosis and management of immunodeficiency disorders. He leads a programme developing thymus transplantation and has chaired an intercollegiate working party on mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Until recently, he chaired the specialist advisory committee for training in paediatric immunology and infectious diseases. David Elliman has had a major interest in immunisation and infection control in the community for over 30 years. He has written and lectured widely on the topic, as well as spending time talking to parents. Some years ago he was co-author of a review of the characteristics of spread of a number of infectious diseases. More recently he was involved in a European Communicable Diseases Centre project to provide factsheets on infectious diseases for healthcare professionals and the public. Susanna Esposito is Director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit at the Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, where she is also Vice-Director of the Pediatric Department and Chief of the outpatient clinic for travel medicine. Her research has focused on respiratory tract infections, vaccines and preventive pediatrics. She is also chief of one of the pediatric HIV clinics at Regione Lombardia, and an associate professor in pediatrics at the Department of Maternal and Pediatric Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano. Adam Finn is Head of the Academic Unit of Child Health at Bristol Medical School, Department of Clinical Science, South Bristol and an honorary consultant in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children. He is director of the South West Medicines for Children Research Network and heads the Bristol Children's Vaccine Centre. His main research interests include mucosal immunology relating to bacterial vaccines, in particular pneumococcus and clinical trials of vaccines and medicines in children. Jim Gray has been a consultant medical microbiologist at Birmingham Children's and Women's Hospitals since 1985, where he has had a significant role in developing specialist paediatric and neonatal microbiology and infection control. His clinical interests include antibiotic prescribing, infection control and neonatal infections, while his research interests include Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA) infections, group B streptococci, healthcare associated infections, diagnostic test accuracy studies and point of care testing. He has contributed to several national and international committees on microbiology and infection control. Paul Heath is Reader/ Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at St George's, University of London and Vaccine Institute in London. His training in paediatrics and infectious diseases was at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and St George's Hospital, London. His particular research interests are in the epidemiology of vaccine preventable diseases, in clinical vaccine trials, particularly in at-risk groups, and in perinatal and neonatal infections. As an infectious diseases paediatrician, Hermione Lyall is particularly interested in viral infections and their interactions
