Alex is senior partner of a General Practice in South London. He has been running specialist stop smoking clinics since 2001 and was the first GP with Special Interests (GPSI) in smoking cessation in the United Kingdom. His main interests are the optimization of smoking cessation delivery and the education of healthcare professionals in the subject. He has carried out research into both as well as into pharmacological treatments to stop smoking. Working on a chest ward as a junior doctor led him to become a passionate campaigner on how to stop smoking and he believes that helping smokers to stop is a most important part of medical care. To that end, he has pioneered the practical interventions Very Brief Advice (VBA) and Brief Support and Treatment (BST) to help time pressured doctors deliver smoking cessation interventions. He lectures and teaches on smoking cessation throughout the UK and abroad.

Serena Tonstad is Head Physician at Oslo University Hospital, Department of Preventive Cardiology and a Professor at Loma Linda University. She has dedicated her career to preventive care in patients with lifestyle related disorders including tobacco addiction, lipid disorders and obesity. She is actively involved in research in these areas and has more than 300 peer-reviewed publications to her credit. Her main research interests are the prevention and epidemiology of cardiovascular disease and treatment of tobacco addiction. She is involved in working with primary care and specialist physicians in tobacco cessation interventions.

Keir Lewis trained in London and Wales UK. He is a Professor of Respiratory Medicine in Swansea University, a practising pulmonologist and Medical Director of Respiratory Innovation Wales. Keir set-up the Smoking Cessation Service for his group of hospitals in 2004 and still leads it. He is also a clinical lead for smoking cessation specialists within hospitals covering 3.2 million people in Wales and advises Welsh & UK governments on smoking research and policy. Professor Lewis has chaired the British Thoracic Society Tobacco Advisory Group, written two text books, various book chapters and papers on smoking cessation and tobacco control. He has lectured worldwide and co-authored UK and European Guidelines on smoking cessation. He is the lead or co-applicant on research grants worth over £15M. He researches chronic lung disease and is the Chief Investigator on the largest prospective study worldwide on stopping smoking after a diagnosis of lung cancer (LungCast). In his spare time, he uses his lungs to play saxophone.