04 June, 2025
Voting is open for the ERS Leadership Elections 2025, which presents candidates for ERS Vice President, Advocacy Council Chair, Education Council Chair, and Publications Committee Chair.
To help ERS members cast their vote, we will be shining a spotlight on each candidate. This week, we profile the candidates for Publications Committee Chair.
The person elected as the next Publications Committee Chair will start their shadow period in October, 2025, and their official mandate in September, 2026.
Candidate: Prof. Esther Portela
Esther obtained her MD degree from Universitat de Barcelona, Spain, in 1989. She finished her basic training in respiratory medicine in 1994, and she obtained her Master of Science degree from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 2001 and PhD degree in 2002. Her main research focuses on the elucidation of the biological mechanisms leading to sarcopenia and its implications on exercise tolerance and prognosis in patients with chronic respiratory diseases, namely COPD, lung cancer, and bronchiectasis. She leads a group of pulmonologists, nurses, thoracic surgeons, radiologists, senior molecular biologists, and PhD and undergraduate students. She has directed 48 theses (23 PhD) and has given almost 300 talks at international congresses worldwide. She has published almost 300 articles and is currently involved in a new ERS task force – as well as ERS courses, such as the ERS Virtual school on how scientific journals work.
Esther has been the Chief Editor of Archivos de Bronconeumologia (2012–2020) of the Spanish Respiratory Society (SEPAR) and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Physiology of the American Physiological Society (APS, 2011–2023). Recently, she has been the Chief Editor of the ERJ Open Research (2022–2024) and an Associate Editor of the European Respiratory Journal (2022–2024). She has also extensively collaborated with national and international research groups.
Candidate: Prof. John Hurst
John is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Vice Dean (International) to the Faculty of Medical Sciences at University College London, UK. He is an academic physician. He has clinical and research interests in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and the lung manifestations of primary immunodeficiency disorders. The vision of his research group is ‘Better Respiratory Health’, achieved through a shared mission of working collaboratively to deliver excellence in research and education. An active ERS member for more than twenty years, he has served on guideline committees, the Clinical Research Collaboration committee and as Editor-in-Chief of the ERS Monograph. He is currently an Associate Editor at the European Respiratory Journal. He also has strong experience with ERS in publication management, development, and ethics.
The deadline for voting is 23:59 CEST on Sunday 22 June. ERS members can visit the ‘Elections’ tab on myERS to vote.
Meet the candidates for ERS Vice President
Meet the candidates for Advocacy Council Chair
Meet the candidates for Educational Council Chair