Διεθνείς Προσκεκλημένοι Ομιλητές

Professor Vassilios Papalois, MD, PhD, FICS, FRCS, FEBS
Professor of Transplantation Surgery, Imperial College, and Consultant Transplant & General Surgeon, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
Professor Papalois is an internationally recognised leader in transplantation and general surgery. His pioneering clinical work in living donor kidney transplantation, extended criteria organ transplantation, and hypothermic machine perfusion has transformed access to life-saving procedures for high-risk patients. He has published extensively focusing on transplant innovation, stem cell therapies, clinical ethics, and surgical education.
He is the President of the European Union of Medical Specialists-UEMS, representing 41 Countries and 1.7 million medical specialists and has served as President of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT), shaping European health policy, training standards, and research collaboration. He advises the General Medical Council and NICE in the UK and is Editor-in-Chief of the World Journal of Transplantation.
An Honorary Doctorate recipient of the University of Thessaloniki and multiple European medical associations, Professor Papalois has been awarded the UK Department of Health Gold Clinical Excellence Award and the ESOT Senior Clinical Investigator Award.
Currently, he also leads Professional Development at the Imperial College - Pears Cumbria Medical School, focusing on innovative medical education. His career reflects a lifelong commitment to advancing surgical science, ethics, and patient-centred care across Europe.

A native of Greece, Dr. Pappou graduated from the Medical School of the Technical University of Munich with honors in 2006 and completed a Ph.D. on human stem cells at the research laboratory of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany. Dr. Pappou subsequently completed his General Surgery residency training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2014, with a Research Fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. He has completed the ACGME accredited Clinical Fellowship in Colon and Rectal Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in 2015. Dr. Pappou served for two years as Assistant Professor at Columbia University, before returning to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Pappou is currently an Assistant Professor within the Division of Colorectal Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Pappou is the Program Director of the Advanced Colorectal Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He has co-authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications, including publications in Nature, and New England Journal of Medicine. He has been repeatedly recognized in Castle Connolly’s “America’s Top Doctors”, and is among the top 10 colorectal surgeons in the United States according to Newsweek rankings.

Prof. Timothy M. Pawlik is an internationally recognized surgical oncologist and hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) surgeon. He serves as Surgeon-in-Chief and Chair of the Department of Surgery and Professor of Surgery, Oncology, and Health Services Management and Policy at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

He earned his MD from Tufts University, MPH from Johns Hopkins University, and PhD in Public Health from the University of Texas. Prior to joining Ohio State, he served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in Surgical Oncology.

Prof. Pawlik’s clinical and research expertise focuses on hepato-pancreato-biliary and gastrointestinal malignancies, surgical outcomes, health services research, and patient-centered cancer care. He has authored over 1,000 peer-reviewed publications, numerous book chapters, and serves on editorial boards of leading surgical journals.

A frequent invited speaker at major international surgical congresses, Prof. Pawlik is widely regarded as one of the foremost authorities in HPB and oncologic surgery and a dedicated mentor to the next generation of surgeon-scientists worldwide.

Mr Prachalias graduated from Crete University Medical School in 1990. He trained in General Surgery in Aretaieion Hospital in Athens and obtained his General Surgery Accreditation Diploma in 1997. At the same year he was awarded his PhD from Athens University with Honors. From 1997 until 2000 was a Senior Fellow in the Liver Unit at King’s College Hospital, London, UK. In 2000 was appointed Lecturer in HPB Surgery in Athens Medical School, 2nd Dept of Surgery, Aretaieion Hospital.
In 2004 returned to the UK and he was appointed Consultant Surgeon in Liver Transplantation and HPB Surgery at the Liver Unit of King’s College Hospital London. During his time at the Liver Unit he served as Lead for HPB Surgery (2012-2018) and Clinical Director of the Unit (2018-2023). He has extensive experience in all forms of liver transplantation and liver and pancreatic resections. Currently works at London Bridge Hospital, London part of HCA UK.
He lectures regularly nationally and internationally and he has published over 100 papers in peer reviewed journals.
His main clinical and research interests include: extended resections for HPB cancers, use of vascular reconstructions in HPB surgery, Adult-to-Adult Living Donor Liver Transplantation and management of GEP NETs

Associate Professor of Medicine | Specialist in Endocrine and Breast Surgery
Coordinator, Endocrine and Breast Surgery Unit
La Paz University Hospital, Madrid, Spain

Education & Qualifications
- MD, Complutense University of Madrid (2004)

- Specialist in General and Digestive Surgery (MIR), Hospital Universitario de la Princesa, Madrid (2005–2010)

- PhD in Surgery, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Cum Laude (2010)

- Fellow, European Board of Surgery in Endocrine, Head & Neck Surgery (2014)

- Master’s Degree in Clinical Management and Medical Leadership, CEU Cardenal Herrera University (2021)

Current Appointments
- Coordinator, Endocrine and Breast Surgery Unit, Hospital Universitario La Paz (2022–present)

- Endocrine Surgery Coordinator, Hospital Rúber Juan Bravo, Madrid (2018–present)

- Associate Professor, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2024–present)

- Medical Advisor, Spanish Thyroid Cancer Patients Association (AECAT)

- Member of the Examination Board, UEMS Division of Endocrine Surgery

Academic Roles & Teaching Experience
Over 10 years as Associate Professor and Clinical Tutor in General Surgery at multiple universities (UAM, Alcalá, CEU, European University, Tech U).

Extensive involvement in continuing education courses, especially in thyroid and parathyroid surgery.

Clinical & Research Expertise
- Specialization in thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal surgery

- Pioneering work in normocalcemic primary hyperparathyroidism, preoperative imaging, and oncologic endocrine surgery

- International rotations at MSKCC (New York), John Radcliffe (Oxford), and Hospital del Mar (Barcelona)

- Over 60 peer-reviewed publications and 10+ book chapters

- Editor of two surgical monographs

- Frequent speaker at national and international surgical congresses

- Numerous publications in high-impact international journals

Senior Clinical Fellow in HPB Surgery and Liver Transplantation, Royal Free Hospital, London, UK

Ioannis Rouvelas, MD, PhD, FACS, FEBS, is Senior Consultant in Upper
Gastrointestinal Surgical Oncology and Associate Professor of Surgery at Karolinska
University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, and Visiting Professor in Esophageal Surgery
at Hippocration General Hospital, Medical School, University of Athens, Greece. Since
2014, he has been at the forefront of developing and implementing minimally invasive and
robotic techniques for esophageal and gastric cancer. He also serves as a proctor at the
Karolinska robotic program, the only Scandinavian case observation center for robotic upper
GI surgery.
His research portfolio includes international collaborations on gastric and esophageal cancer,
with a focus on Pressurized Intraperitoneal Aerosol Chemotherapy (PIPAC), robotic
surgery, indocyanine green (ICG)-guided lymphadenectomy, and clinical outcomes in
minimally invasive surgery. He oversees the UGIRA registries (RAMIE and RAMIG) and
contributes to several international clinical trials.
Dr. Rouvelas is deeply committed to education and mentorship, supervising PhD students
and fellows, and is a frequent invited speaker and faculty member at international surgical
congresses. His leadership has positioned him as a recognized figure in advancing minimally
invasive and robotic upper GI surgery across Europe

Honorary Professor of surgery,  University of East Anglia, Consultant Colorectal and lead Robotic Surgeon, Sir Thomas Browne Academic Colorectal Unit, Dept of surgery Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Colney Lane, Norwich. 

Consultant Hepatobiliary Surgeon - Manchester Royal Infirmary, Professor of Hepatobiliary Surgery - University of Manchester, Past-President - European-African Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (E-AHPBA), Council Member - International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA)

President, Stony Brook Community Medical, PC & Meeting House Lane, PC, Professor of Surgery, Stony Brook University, Vice Chair for Quality and Outcomes, Chief, Division of Bariatric, Foregut and Advanced GI Surgery

Department of Surgery, Indiana University

Patricia Sylla, MD, FACS, FASCRS is the System Chief of Colon and Rectal Surgery at the Mount Sinai Health System and a Professor of Surgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She oversees colorectal surgery across Mount Sinai’s hospitals and is internationally recognized for her pioneering work in minimally invasive techniques for rectal cancer.

Dr. Sylla earned her BS in Biology from Georgetown University and her MD from Weill Cornell Medical College. She completed her general surgery residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, followed by fellowships in Colon and Rectal Surgery at Mount Sinai and in Minimally Invasive Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard.

She is best known for performing the first transanal NOTES rectal cancer resection in humans and for developing the transanal total mesorectal excision (taTME) technique, which has advanced the treatment of low rectal cancer. As a researcher and clinical innovator, she leads a multicenter trial evaluating taTME outcomes and has published widely in surgical literature.

A past President of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), Dr. Sylla is also a dedicated educator and mentor. Her work continues to shape the field of colorectal surgery, combining technical excellence, innovation, and leadership to improve patient outcomes and train the next generation of surgeons.

Professor Tekkis is Professor of Colorectal Surgery, Imperial College London, United Kingdom. He is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon and Academic Lead at The Royal Marsden Hospital.

He qualified from Nottingham University Medical School in 1994. His postgraduate surgical training was at St Mark’s Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital in London and at the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, USA. Parallel to his surgical career he was awarded a higher (MD) degree by the University of London in 2003 for his work in Biostatistics in Medicine.

He was first appointed as Clinical Senior Lecturer and Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at St Mary’s Hospital and Imperial College in 2004. He was promoted to Reader in Surgery at The Royal Marsden in 2008, and subsequently to Professor of Colorectal Surgery in 2011.

He specialises in colorectal, minimally invasive & robotic surgery. Professor Tekkis and his team are internationally respected for their work in advanced rectal cancer and re-operative surgery for inflammatory bowel disease.

He was the Chairman of the “Beyond TME Collaborative” responsible for the publication of International Guidelines for the multidisciplinary management of advanced rectal cancer. He is also known for the development of The UK National Bowel Cancer Program and The National Ileal Pouch Registry; the former currently in use by the Department of Health for quality assurance in colorectal surgery.

He has supervised over 50 BSc/MD/PhD research studentships. He has published over 450 peer-reviewed articles in medical journals with over 44,000 citations with an h-index of 117. He has contributed to 35 books and has lectured in 35 countries.

Professor Tekkis has received numerous awards and honours, amongst which includes the Hunterian Medal from the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Hon Doctorate from University of Athens, Visiting Professor at the University of Thessalia, Mayo Clinic, USA, St Mary’s University of Hong Kong, Perth University in Australia and Concepsion University in Chile.

Frédéric Triponez finished his medical school in Geneva in 1996. He completed his residency in general surgery in Geneva and then specialized in endocrine surgery, spending one year in Lille, France by prof C.A. Proye, and one year in San Francisco by prof O. Clark. When returning in Geneva in 2005, he developed the endocrine surgery unit, making it the biggest center for endocrine surgery in Switzerland.
He was appointed head of the department of Thoracic and Endocrine Surgery at the University Hospitals of Geneva in December 2013 and full professor of surgery at the Faculty of Medicine of Geneva. Since 2018, he is also chairman of the department of surgery.
His current areas of research relate to the development of innovative techniques to preserve the parathyroid function during thyroid and parathyroid surgery, aiming at decreasing the rate of post-thyroidectomy hypoparathyroidism. He is the co-founder of ISITES (International Society of Innovative Technologies for Endocrine Surgery.

Andrianos Tsekrekos MD, PhD, FACS, is a Senior Consultant Surgeon in the Department of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgery at Umeå University Hospital, Sweden. He received advanced clinical training in gastric cancer surgery in Japan, completing a fellowship at the Shizuoka Cancer Center and serving as a visiting surgeon at the Cancer Institute Hospital of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research (JFCR) in Tokyo.

Dr. Tsekrekos earned his PhD from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm in 2023 and is actively engaged in research on gastric malignancies at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology (CLINTEC). His academic work has involved international collaborations with institutions such as Odense University Hospital (Denmark), the Institute of Pathology at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen Nuremberg and Klinikum Bayreuth (Germany), and, most recently, Amsterdam University Medical Center (Netherlands).

In addition to his clinical and research activities, Dr. Tsekrekos is committed to surgical education. He has contributed to national training courses and webinars for surgical residents and served as an instructor at the Center for Advanced Medical Simulation (CAMST) at Karolinska University Hospital.

Professor, Vice Chair for Education, Department of Surgical Oncology, HPB Fellowship Program Director, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Peterson Chair, Breast Cancer Research, Program Director, Breast Surgery Fellowship, Professor of Medical Education, University of Virginia, Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Inova Fairfax Hospital