Andreas Dietz

Since April 2004, Prof. Dr. Andreas Dietz is Chair of the ENT University Clinic Leipzig. He is full-trained ENT and head and neck surgeon and has special qualification in plastic surgery and Oncology. His scientific work is reflected in numerous studies and translational projects on head and neck cancer. He is internationally known as an expert in this field. He was President of the German Society for ENT - Head and Neck Surgery (DGHNO-KHT) from 2019 to 2020 and is speaker of the interdisciplinary group of Head and Neck Cancer of the German Cancer Society (IAG-KHT). He holds visible positions on numerous international committees like membership of the Board of Directors of the European Head and Neck Society. He is speaker of the board of the Innovation Center for Computer-Assisted Surgery (ICCAS) Leipzig. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Global Online Fellowship Initiative at Sloan Kettering Memorial Cancer Center in New York and Chair of the Surgery Subcommittee of the EORTC Head and Neck Group. He is honorary member of the Royal Belgian, the Austrian and Czech ENT Society and the Indian Head and Neck Foundation. Andreas Dietz is author/co-author of more than 500 pub-med listed publications. He coordinates the German S3-Guideline for oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer. Andreas Dietz was honored with the DGHNO-KHC Medal of Merit, the Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony in 2022 and with the EHNS Award in 2023.

Rene Leemans

Professor C. René Leemans, MD, PhD is chair of the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at the Amsterdam University Medical Centres, VUmc, Amsterdam. He is Director of the Advanced Fellowship Program in Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology at the VU University Medical Centre Amsterdam. His special interests include head and neck oncology, reconstructive and microvascular surgery, and basic research.

René Leemans has made a sustained and internationally recognised contribution to cancer care and research in the field of head and neck oncology over the past decades. His scientific standing has been recognised by election as President of the Netherlands Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and the Dutch and European Head and Neck Societies. He also serves on the Leadership of the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS). He (co-)authored more than 500 papers and book chapters on head and neck oncology and is regularly invited to speak at international conferences and tutor at courses. He was a travelling faculty member of 2010 Global CME program “Current Concepts in Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology” of the IFHNOS. In 2022 he was awarded the Eugene N. Myers, MD International Lecture on Head and Neck Cancer at the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Meeting in Philadelphia. He leads the impactful Make Sense Awareness Campaign.