European Respiratory Society (ERS) President Prof. Anita Simonds has selected two individuals to receive the prestigious Honorary Member title. The title carries with it a lifetime membership to ERS.
Recipients of this title are selected by the president each year and subsequently approved by the ERS Executive Committee. Selection is based on multiple factors, but with a focus on those with extraordinary merits in the respiratory field, coupled with exemplary contributions to the work of the society.
This year’s recipients have been announced as Prof. Marion Koopmans, who is Head of the Erasmus MC Department of Viroscience and a member of the scientific advisory group for WHO; alongside Prof. Amanda Piper, who is Manager of the Home Ventilation Service at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, Australia, and a senior physiotherapist.
Prof. Simonds said of the recipients: “Prof. Marion originally trained in Veterinary Medicine, but subsequently became interested in virology, viruses that transmit between animals and humans, and public health. She has worked on enteric viruses, influenza, MERS, Ebola, Zika and now SARS-CoV-2 virus. Marion was a member of the WHO investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and her research projects have contributed greatly to understanding covid in healthcare workers, asymptomatic transmission of covid, and pandemic preparedness. I, for one, am very grateful for Prof. Koopman’s Twitter feed, which is a mine of useful information on new scientific papers and preprints and a great example of the positive use of social media.
“Prof. Amanda Piper is a star of the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and non-invasive ventilation (NIV) world. She has pioneered the effective use of CPAP and NIV, including in obesity hypoventilation syndrome and neuromuscular disease. Amanda has trained countless healthcare professionals in NIV and CPAP, disseminating the practice of non-invasive support into clinical care world-wide.”