In 1981 Karl Fagerstrom got his Ph.D. on nicotine dependence and smoking cessation. He is the inventor of the Fagerstrom Test for Cigarette Dependence and a founding member of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. He started the European SRNT affiliate in 1999 of which he was the president up to 2003 and was awarded the WHO medal for outstanding work in tobacco control 1999. The current main interest is on harm reeduction. He is the author of 160 publications in the area of nicotine and the first author of 110.

Peter Hajek is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London. His research is concerned primarily with understanding health behaviours, and developing and evaluating both behavioural and pharmacological treatments for dependent smokers and for people with weight problems. Professor Hajek is a member of a number of expert groups, advisory bodies and editorial boards, and has authored or co-authored over 350 publications.

Ernest Groman is the Scientific Director of the Nicotine Institut Vienna, the Scientific Advisor to the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists and an Austrian Delegate at the FCTC of the WHO. He got his post-doctorate degree at the University of Vienna for his thesis on tobacco harm reduction in 2001. In the following years he developed and implemented a smoking cessation program in Lower Austria and worked on programs for workplace health. His current main interest are on workplace health and harm reduction. He is the author of 160 publications in the area of tobacco harm reduction.

Tomas Hammargren has a Batchelor of Science and a MBA with a long international experience from leading pharmaceutical and start-up MedTech industry. Served as Industrial Counsellor at the Swedish Embassy in Tokyo and co-founded an Orphan drug company in Japan. Tomas has been engaged in Tobacco Harm Reduction since 2004 ranging from snus, NRT, e-cigarettes, heated products and nicotine pouches. Since 2015 Tomas is an independent advisor on international strategy & policy in life science with an in-depth knowledge of nicotine and the new generation of smoke-free nicotine products.

Dr. Rachel Murkett is the project director at Biochromex, a life sciences consulting company focused on public health and pharmaceuticals. Dr Murkett holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Cambridge and has over six years experience advising Fortune 500 companies, venture-backed start-ups and international research organisations.