Manuel E. Soto-Martínez, MD, MSc, is an A. Professor of Paediatrics and Paediatric Pulmonology at Hospital Nacional de Niños “Dr. Carlos Sáenz Herrera” and School of Medicine of the University of Costa Rica. Graduated in Paediatrics from the University of Costa Rica in 2007. From 2007 to 2010 he completed his fellowship in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Children´s Hospital in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Following his return to Costa Rica, he completed his Masters in Epidemiology at the National University of Costa Rica (2013-2015). He is currently the Chief in Clinics at the Respiratory Department and Respiratory Therapy Unit Hospital Nacional de Niños, San José, Costa Rica. Dr. Soto-Martínez has focused his research on the epidemiology of respiratory diseases (eg. Asthma, Allergies, Cystic Fibrosis, bronchiectasis, recurrent wheeze, complicated pneumonia, and other respiratory infections), Indoor and Outdoor pollution (health effects, burden, consequences in children and mitigation strategies) and Non-invasive ventilation and tech support at home in children with chronic respiratory conditions in Costa Rica and Latin-America. His love for research, education and participation in educational scientific activities has led him to travel around the world participating as a guest professor in multiple conferences, grand rounds, keynote lectures, and forums on respiratory diseases. His dedication, commitment and coordination skills have led him to be part of Central Committees of the main associations in Pediatric Respiratory Medicine in children.

Professor Erick Forno is a pediatric pulmonologist and Vice-Chair for Clinical Research in the Department of Pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. Prof. Forno's overarching research interests include the epidemiology and genomics of asthma; studying the effects of obesity on childhood respiratory health; the use of "omics" approaches to identify predictive and response biomarkers in pediatric pulmonary diseases; and the development of AI technology to improve respiratory health for children. His research is funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF).

Prof Peter Le Souëf is a paediatric respiratory physician whose research is in children’s respiratory and infectious disease and global child health. He has established new techniques for measuring infant lung function, improved aerosol delivery to children, established a long-standing asthma birth cohort, and investigated infectious diseases globally. His more recent respiratory research has focused on the role of viral respiratory infections in acute wheeze/asthma in young children. Over the last 8 years, he has established the Future Child Health research group which investigates and assesses the effects of environmental deterioration, including climate change, and population dynamics on the health of past, current and future children, particularly in low- and middle- income countries. This research uses geo-temporal-spatial modelling and multiple large datasets. His group has recently shown that major institutions’ current projections for future child health are substantially over-optimistic. He and his researchers have been invited to present their findings at a side-event of the 2025 meeting of the United Nations Commission on Population and Development in New York.