Prof. Dr. Ingo Autenrieth is an internationally renowned microbiologist. He is Medical Director of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene of the University Clinic in Tuebingen (Germany), where he is also Dean of the medical faculty. Prof. Autenrieth’s clinical studies focus on novel molecular diagnostic methods for the diagnosis of bacterial and fungal infections. Prof. Autenrieth has been the official speaker for the Centre for Infection Medicine, DFG-study groups, the German national Genome Research Network and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Clinical Research Tuebingen. He serves as managing director at the Interfaculty Institute for Microbiology and Infection Medicine and on the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Medical Microbiology and of Infection and Immunity.

Prof. Dr. Ginocchio is the Senior Medical Director and Chief, Division of Infectious Disease Diagnostics at North Shore-LIJ Health System Laboratories, New York, USA. Mrs. Ginocchio holds the academic rank of Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Department of Molecular Medicine, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Hofstra University North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Virology, president elect of PASCV, and serves on advisory committees for CAP, IDSA, ASM, FDA and NIH/NIAID.

Prof. Dr. David Livermore worked at the London Hospital Medical College from 1980 until 1997, when he joined the Health Protection Agency (HPA), becoming Director of its Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring and Reference Laboratory in 1998, where he remained until October 2011. Since then he has had a split role, as Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia and Lead on Antibiotic Resistance for the HPA. He has broad interests on the evolution, mechanisms and epidemiology of antibiotic resistance.

Prof. Dr. Antoni Torres is chief of the Respiratory ICU and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Barcelona. He coordinates a project on LRTI of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery and on Pneumonia at Ciberes. He actively participates in many European projects like GRACE, Theraedge and MOSAR and is member of the editorial board of the 14 international journals.

Prof. Dr. Jean-Louis Vincent is Professor of Intensive Care at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Head of the Department of Intensive Care at the Erasme University Hospital in Brussels. He is presently Secretary General of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine, a Past-President of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, the European Shock Society, and the International Sepsis Forum. He received several awards (Society of Critical Care Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians, European Society of Intensive Care Medicine and Belgian FRS-FNRS).