Peter Barnes is Professor of Thoracic Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Head of Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College and Honorary Consultant Physician at Royal Brompton Hospital, London. He has published over 1000 peer-review papers on asthma, COPD and related topics and has edited over 40 books. He is also amongst the top 50 most highly cited researchers in the world and has been the most highly cited clinical scientist in the UK and the most highly cited respiratory researcher in the world over the last 20 years. He is currently a member of the Scientific Committee of the WHO/NIH global guidelines on asthma (GINA) and COPD (GOLD). He also serves on the Editorial Board of over 30 journals and is currently an Associate Editor of Chest. He has given several prestigious lectures, including the Amberson Lecture at the American Thoracic Society and the Sadoul Lecture at the European Respiratory Society.

Dr Kevin Gruffydd-Jones is a GP and GP Trainer in Box, Wiltshire and Honorary Research Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and University of Bath. He is a member of the British Thoracic Society (BTS) COPD Consortium, International Primary Care Respiratory Group and ex-education lead and current Committee member of the General Practice Airways Group.

Dr Lorcan McGarvey is a Consultant Physician at the Royal Group Hospitals, Belfast and Senior Lecturer in Respiratory Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast. His clinical interests include the evaluation and management of chronic cough and he runs a specialist cough clinic at the Belfast City Hospital. His research has focused on the pathogenesis of cough and the identification of potential new therapies for cough. He is a member of the European Respiratory Society Cough Taskforce on Cough and Co-Chairman of the British Thoracic Society Cough Guideline taskforce.

Professor Alyn H Morice is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Head of Cardiovascular and Respiratory Studies at the University of Hull and Castle Hill Hospital, Yorkshire. Professor Morice attended Cambridge University and St George’s Medical School before House jobs and SHO training in London. He then undertook research into asthma therapy at St Mary’s Hospital followed by Lectureship at Cambridge. He then moved to Yorkshire, firstly in Sheffield and now is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Head of Cardiovascular and Respiratory Studies at the University of Hull and the Hull York Medical School. Professor Morice’s main interest is the pharmacology of the cough reflex. At the internationally recognised Hull Cough Clinic over five thousand patients, mainly tertiary referrals, have been treated with a 96% success rate.

Sam Prigmore is a Respiratory Nurse Consultant at St. George’s Hospital, London and chairperson of the Association of Respiratory Nurse Specialists. Sam trained in Oxford, qualifying in 1987, as a registered general nurse. She specialised in cardiothoracic nursing, working at the Royal Brompton Hospital and then St George's Healthcare Trust and has been caring for patients with respiratory disease since 1991. She was appointed to Nurse Consultant in 2003. Sam has a special interest in symptom control and self management in COPD.