Tony Jones is one of Australia’s most respected journalists. As host of Q&A for 11 years, he brings over 30 years of award winning journalism to the table.

Tony is known for his incisive and probing interviews on the breaking issues of the day. His role on Q&A capitalised on his ability to tap into the political zeitgeist and keep the discussion focused and on track.

Tony Jones has won pretty much every award an Australian journalist could wish for. He’s covered the seminal news events of the last three decades – from the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, through the collapse of apartheid in South Africa, to the rise of the Taliban and, closer to home, the revelations of sexual abuse in remote Aboriginal communities.

During Tony Jones’ career he has been was host of ABC’s Lateline and has reported for Four Corners on ABC as well as Dateline on SBS. During his three years with Four Corners, he won a Walkley award for Horses for Courses on the Waterhouse racing dynasty as well as a Penguin Award for My City of Sydney examining the city’s development boom. Frozen Asset his story on the exploitation of Antarctica won a Gold Medal in the New York Film and Television Festival and was also an International Emmy Award finalist.

Jones also won a Walkley Award (with Kerry O’Brien and Dugald Maudsley) for Lateline’s coverage of the end of Gorbachev’s Soviet Union. In 1990, Tony was the ABC TV current affairs correspondent covering the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the re-unification of Germany, the Gulf War, the war in the Former Yugoslavia, the fall of Kabul in Afghanistan to the Mujahadin and the collapse of apartheid in South Africa.

Tony returned to Sydney in 1993 as Executive Producer of Foreign Correspondent.

From 1994-96 Jones was the ABC’s Washington correspondent providing stories for both News & Current Affairs including coverage of the US Congressional and presidential elections.

He returned to Foreign Correspondent in 1997 as a reporter and covered war crimes in Bosnia and the search for peace, which won him a Silver Award in the New York Film and Television
Festival. In mid 1998 Tony returned to Four Corners where he reported the rise of One Nation and profiled the Prime Minister John Howard prior to the 1998 Federal Election before becoming host
of Lateline. In 2008, Tony was appointed as host of ABC’s Q&A, a program aimed at putting the Australian public directly in touch with the politicians and playmakers – giving them the opportunity to get some answers, eye to eye.

Dr Piroze M Davierwala is the Director of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery at the Peter Munk Cardiac Center in Toronto General Hospital. He is an Associate Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto, and holds the Angelo & Lorenza De Gasperis Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery Research. He graduated from medical school in 1993 followed by a residency in General Surgery (1994-1996) with the attainment of Masters in General surgery from the University of Pune, India. Thereafter, he did his residency in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery (1997-2000), and obtained the degree of Master of Chirurgie from the University of Mumbai, India. Subsequently, he did a 3-year clinical fellowship at the University of Toronto, Canada. Following the completion of his training, he worked as a consultant in Cardiovascular Surgery in two private hospitals in the city of Pune, India. He was then recruited by the Division of Cardiac Surgery at the Leipzig Heart Center, Germany in 2009, where he was the Lead Senior Consultant and Director of Coronary Bypass surgery, until he moved to Toronto in 2021. During his 12-year tenure at this institute, which is predominantly renowned for minimally invasive cardiac surgery, he developed a keen interest and expertise in the entire spectrum of minimally invasive surgical procedures including mitral, tricuspid and aortic valve repairs, coronary artery bypass and aortic surgery. Additionally, he pioneered the development and establishment of the technique of multi-vessel total arterial minimally invasive coronary surgery with the use of bilateral internal thoracic arteries at the institute. Besides, he has tremendous experience in performing complex reconstructive surgery for endocarditis and complications of myocardial infarction among other procedures. His research work chiefly encompasses clinical studies and trials, which have been published in numerous peer-reviewed international journals. He has over 100 publications and is an author of several book chapters as well. He is a member of esteemed societies such as the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS), the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS) and the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS) and is also a fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA).

Ben Davies is a consultant paediatric cardiac surgeon at the Crumlin Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. He qualified in medicine at the University of Nottingham, UK then undertook basic surgical training in Sheffield and Birmingham. He completed a PhD at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne then returned to the UK for specialist training in cardiothoracic surgery. He has previously worked as a consultant paediatric cardiac surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, UK and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. His research interests include clinical outcomes research, mechanical circulatory support and heart transplantation.

Filip De Somer is head of the perfusion department at the University Hospital Ghent and professor in perfusion science at the University Ghent. Clinically he is involved in adult and pediatric cardiac surgery, mechanical circulatory support, extracorporeal techniques for cancer treatment and organ perfusion.

As a researcher he is associated with the Institute of Biomedical Technology (IbiTECH) and the laboratory for surgical animal-based research (SURGX), both part of Ghent University. His main interests are blood-material interaction, oxygenator design, isolated organ perfusion, tissue material testing and metabolism and hemodynamics during extracorporeal circulation.

As an academic he has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer reviewed articles. He is an associated editor for Perfusion and The International Journal of Artificial Organs.

He is at the moment chair of the European Board of Cardiovascular Perfusion (EBCP).

Tristan Day Margetson, CCP, FPP is a senior staff pediatric perfusionist at Stanford Medicine Children’s Hospital. After graduating from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Johns Hopkins School of Perfusion Science, she began her career as both a pediatric and adult perfusionist. For the past twenty years, Tristan has been actively engaged with cases, research and clinical support at Stanford Medicine Children’s Hospital. Throughout her career, Tristan has been passionate about sharing knowledge and hands on teaching. She is dedicated to improving patient outcomes and sharing knowledge to benefit the field of perfusion science and the patients she serves.

Eric Roselli, MD, is Chief of Adult Cardiac Surgery, Surgical Director of the Aorta Center and a Staff Surgeon in the Cleveland Clinic Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, a researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and on the teaching faculty at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

He has authored or co-authored over 300 book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals on root, arch, and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms, endovascular aortic surgery, reoperative cardiac surgery, aortic valve disease, cardiac tumors, cardiac CT, atrial fibrillation and transcatheter device development. Dr Roselli’s research is focused on thoracic aortic dissection and aneurysms, and aortic valve and multi-valve disease. Specifically, his projects are directed at understanding disease and developing safer and less invasive approaches to treat patients with these problems. He is regularly invited to present information about his research at medical and surgical conferences worldwide, and holds several patents.

Dr Roselli has served as a chairman and member of the program committee for multiple national meetings, co-authored practice guidelines for the treatment of patients with cardiovascular diseases, and is an active member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

Dr Valerie W Rusch is Attending Thoracic Surgeon and Vice Chair of Clinical Research, Department of Surgery, and Member, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where she holds the Miner Family Chair in Intrathoracic Cancers. After residencies in general and cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Washington, she was a Faculty Associate at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, then a faculty member at the University of Washington. She moved to MSKCC in 1989, where she served as Chief of Thoracic Surgery from 2000 to 2013. Dr Rusch’s career has been devoted to thoracic surgical oncology, to clinical and translational research, and she has been PI for multiple NCI-sponsored Cooperative Group clinical trials. Dr Rusch is a Past President of the American College of Surgeons, and has held leadership positions in ASCO, the Society for Thoracic Surgeons, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, where she is Chair of the Staging and Prognostic Factors Group. She has served as a Director and Chair of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Dr Rusch is the recipient of multiple teaching and leadership awards, is author on more than 500 peer-reviewed publications, holds more than 60 visiting professorships and has delivered more than 500 invited lectures. She is currently a member of the leadership team for the American College of Surgeons H.O.P.E. projects in Rwanda and Ethiopia.

M.B.B.S. (Hons), M.Med.Sc., F.R.A.C.P., F.A.C.C., F.C.S.A.N.Z., F.A.S.E., J.P.
Cardiologist

• Director of Echocardiography, The Prince Charles Hospital, Brisbane, Australia with leadership involvement in the Structural Heart Program.
• Senior consultant cardiologist at AdvaraHeartCare, Wesley Hospital Brisbane.
• Professor of Medicine, University of Queensland.
• Founder of ProTOE.org – Professional transoesopheal Echo training.
• President, Structural Heart Disease Australia 2016-current.
• Chair, Imaging Council Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand 2022-2025.
• Principle, Echo Australia Program 2002-current.
• Steering committee, National Echo Database of Australia (NEDA).
• International guideline co-author for ASE/EACVI for Echo in Structural Interventions 2021.
• Extensive publishing (H-index 37, 130 papers) and clinical teaching at local, national, and international level. Supervisor of PhD and Masters’ students (University of Queensland and Griffith University), medical trainees and fellows. General practitioner training programs and teaching syllabus development.

As a pediatric anesthesiologist specializing in congenital cardiac anesthesia, I care for critically ill neonates, infants, and children. After training in Utrecht, I spent 8 months as an Honorary Fellow in pediatric cardiac anesthesia at the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. There, I developed my clinical and research interests in monitoring the interaction between circulation and brain perfusion during anesthesia in young patients. Parents trust anesthesiologists to safeguard their children’s vital signs during surgery, and this responsibility drives me to minimize harm to the developing brain while advancing our understanding of circulatory and brain perfusion physiology.

During my specialist training, I completed a PhD on “Monitoring vital instability in patients outside high-care facilities” as part of a 7-year program. I also earned an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology at Utrecht University in 2016. My PhD focused on innovative monitoring techniques and complex interventions outside high-care settings. I supervised medical students and technicians and began mentoring PhD students in 2019.

In line with my clinical work, I initiated research as a consultant pediatric anesthesiologist. I was awarded the “Wilhelmina Children’s Fund” for the FLOWER study on cerebral blood flow in neonates during cardiac and non-cardiac surgery. This project, currently recruiting participants, has fostered strong collaborations with fellow researchers, including clinical neurophysiologists, surgeons, neonatologists, and intensivists, to explore brain perfusion in newborns during surgery.

Franca Melfi is a Professor of Thoracic Surgery at the Medical School of the University of Pisa and Chair of Robotic Multidisciplinary Centre for Surgery – Thoracic MIS and Robotic surgery at the University Hospital of Pisa. Pioneer in the field of robotic surgery, she performed the first robotic procedure for the treatment of lung cancer in 2001. Since then, she has dedicated her professional life to the application of robotic surgery in the thoracic field. Her activity focuses on clinical research and training, particularly on the standardization of robotic thoracic procedures and on the application of new technologies for the treatment of lung cancer, mediastinal pathologies and surgical training with the dissemination of her expertise acquired during her 20-year long experience to the next generation of thoracic robotic surgeons. The Multispecialty Robotic Centre of which she has the honour to lead is, in fact, home to University Masters and European accredited training courses. Presently, Professor Melfi is engaged in several research projects at the University of Pisa, in collaboration with other clinical institutions focusing on the application of high technology for the development of precision medicine in the thoracic field through the implementation of surgical planning with 3D reconstruction and the intra-operative detection of micro-metastasis and the development of surgical physical simulators.