Keynote Speakers
Chadwan Al-Yaghchi, MD, PhD, FRCS, DOHNS
High-resolution manometry in dysphagia (Thursday 5 June 2025, 14:00–14:30)
Dr Chadwan Al Yaghchi is a consultant laryngologist at the National Centre for Airway Reconstruction, Imperial College Healthcare, London. He manages the full spectrum of laryngeal disorders, with a specialist interest in airway stenosis and complex dysphagia. He completed his higher surgical training in Ear, Nose and Throat within the London North Thames regional rotation and received subspecialty training in laryngology at Charing Cross Hospital.
He holds a PhD in Molecular Oncology from Queen Mary University of London, where he studied oncolytic viruses in head and neck cancers. In addition, he leads an active clinical research programme focused on voice, airway and swallowing disorders. He has published numerous book chapters and over 30 peer-reviewed articles, and currently serves as the Laryngology Section Editor of Scott-Brown’s Otolaryngology textbook.
Internationally recognised in the field of gender-affirming voice surgery, he introduced several voice feminisation procedures to the UK, including his own modification of the Wendler Glottoplasty technique and Vocal Fold Muscle Reduction. He is a founding member of the International Association of TransVoice Surgeons.
He is also a founding member and the honorary treasurer of the British Laryngological Association. Additionally, he serves on the board of the UK Swallowing Research Group and is a former Vice President of the Royal Society of Medicine’s Section of Laryngology and Rhinology.
Marja Asikainen
Screentime and speech and language development (Friday 6 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Marja Asikainen completed her medical studies in 1986. She specialised in Phoniatrics, combining her two longstanding interests: words and the human brain. After completing her specialisation at Tampere University Hospital, she worked in the Phoniatric Unit of the City of Helsinki and in the Phoniatric Clinics of four out of the five University Hospitals in Finland. She also served as deputy chief at the Preventive Centre for children, adolescents, and students. Since 2014, she has been the deputy chief of the Phoniatric Clinic at Tampere University Hospital.
While working in the Preventive Centre for children, adolescents and students, Marja Asikainen noted that it seems rather common that young children learn new words markedly slower than what had been documented in scientific articles. To examine this issue, she joined a group studying the CHILD-SLEEP birth cohort of originally 1,667 families. The steps to follow after this point shall be explained in her keynote lecture.
Professor Manohar Bance
Gene therapies for hearing loss (Thursday 5 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Professor Manohar Bance is the inaugural Professor of Otology and Skull Base Surgery at the University of Cambridge, appointed in 2017. Prior to that, he was Professor and Chair of the Division of Otolaryngology at Dalhousie University in Canada. He trained in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in Toronto and at UCLA, finishing his training in 1995. He was on the Faculty at the University of Toronto in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery from 1996 to 2001, when he moved to Dalhousie University.
Furthermore, Professor Bance is a surgeon-scientist and leads the SENSE lab in Cambridge, where he remains clinically active in all areas of Otology and Neurotology. He is the Chair of the British Cochlear Implant Group, a past president of the Royal Society of Medicine Section of Otology, and a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the Canadian Society of Otolaryngology. His professional memberships include CORLAS, the American Otology Association, the American Neurotology Association, and he has previously served as Scientific Officer for the Politzer Society.
Professor Bance has published 247 peer-reviewed papers, several textbook chapters, and has trained dozens of PhD, Masters, and Postdoctoral students, as well as 37 Clinical Fellows over the years.
In 2022, he performed the first-in-human gene therapy for hearing loss, the first outside of China as part of the CHORD trial. He is also the Chief Investigator for this hearing loss gene therapy trial and runs the Genetic Hearing Loss Clinic in Cambridge.
Guillermo Campos
New Insights on Laryngeal Anatomy (Friday 6 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Lady Catherine Cantor Cutiva, SLP, MSc, PhD
The State of the Art on Occupational Voice: Challenges and Achievements (Friday 6 June 2025, 14:00–14:30)
Dr Lady Catherine Cantor Cutiva is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology at East Tennessee State University and a distinguished Speech-Language Pathologist. She holds a Master’s degree in Health and Safety at Work from the National University of Colombia, a second Master’s degree in Health Sciences with a specialization in Public Health, and a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
She has an extensive research background and has served as a Research Fellow at DENERG at Politecnico di Torino. Between 2016 and 2018, she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at VBALAB at Michigan State University. From 2018 to 2022, she was a professor in the Department of Collective Health at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and in the Research Department at Universidad Manuela Beltrán. Most recently, from 2022 to 2024, she worked as a Research Faculty member in the Departments of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Michigan State University and The University of Iowa.
Dr Sabine Crestani
Chronic cough (Saturday 7 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Dr Sabine Crestani is an ENT specialist working at the University Hospital of Larrey in Toulouse, France, in a functional unit dedicated to the care of patients with voice, speech, and swallowing disorders. The unit was established by Professor Woisard.
She has been practicing as an ENT doctor since 2007. Between 2020 and 2022, she served as General Secretary of the French Society of Phoniatrics and Laryngology (SFPL: Société Française de Phoniatrie et de Laryngologie), and in 2023, she held the position of President of the SFPL.
Philippe DeJonckere
Bioengineering on voice onset (Saturday 7 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Associate Professor Dr Ilter Denizoglu, MD, PhD, MSc
Muscle-specific voice therapy (Thursday 5 June 2025, 14:00–14:30)
- Dr Ilter Denizoglu is the Founder and Director of the Vocology Centre. He is also a University Lecturer of Clinical Vocology at Tinaztepe University Faculty of Health Sciences, Speech Language Therapy Division, and a University Lecturer of Pedagogical Vocology at Dokuz Eylül University State Conservatory in the Vocal Arts Department, Opera Main Art Division.
His medical expertise is focused on phonosurgery, voice therapy, and singing voice therapy. His research addresses the medical, biophysical, and musical aspects of the human voice, and he has developed new devices and techniques for both voice therapy and phonosurgery.
Building on Sihvo’s LaxVox Tube Exercise, he created the DoctorVox Voice Therapy and Vocal Training Program, incorporating specialized devices. He is an amateur singer with an interest in vocal music from a variety of perspectives, including singing pedagogy and musical acoustics.
Since 2008, he has been teaching Pedagogical Vocology and Clinical Vocology, having developed the curriculum for both courses. His book, Textbook of Clinical Vocology, was published in January 2020.
Associate Professor Olga Dlouha, MD, PhD
Analysis of Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) in children with sensory developmental dysphasia (Friday 6 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Associate Professor Olga Dlouha is a specialist in developmental speech-language disorders (DSLD) and auditory processing disorders (APD). Her work has focused on electrophysiological evaluation of hearing, including brainstem and cortical auditory evoked potentials. She has contributed to the development of new speech audiometry techniques, such as dichotic listening tests and sentence intelligibility in babble noise.
She has also provided care for at-risk children, including high-risk preterm newborns with very low birthweights. Dr Dlouha is the former Head of the Department of Phoniatrics at the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and General University Hospital in Prague.
Professor Dr Ahmed Geneid, MD
Management of unilateral vocal fold immobility (Thursday 5 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Professor Ahmed Geneid is an adjunct professor, laryngologist, and phoniatrician. He serves as the Head of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Helsinki University Hospital. Prof Geneid is a founding member and former president of the Finnish Laryngological Society, as well as a past president of the Union of the European Phoniatricians. He is currently the vice-president and a founding member of the International Association of TransVoice Surgeons.
He leads a multidisciplinary team dedicated to the treatment of voice and swallowing disorders. Prof Geneid has authored over 75 peer-reviewed international articles and textbook chapters. He also regularly teaches on various topics related to laryngology and phonosurgery. In 2020, he was named Finland’s ENT Doctor of the Year by the Finnish Association of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and has received multiple awards, including two recognitions as Best Presenter by the same association.
Professor Markus Hess, MD, PhD
Glottoplasty in male-to-female transgender surgery (Friday 6 June 2025, 14:00–14:30)
Professor Markus Hess is an otolaryngologist and phoniatrician specializing in laryngology, phonosurgery, and professional voice disorders. He is the Head of the first Voice Clinic in Germany (The Medical Voice Center).
In addition to his clinical role, Professor Hess is deeply involved in leadership and academic organizations. He serves as the chairman of the Pan-European Voice Conference (PEVOC), the founder of the European Academy of Voice (EAV), and is a past President of CoMeT. His other notable positions include founder of the German Society of Phonosurgery, President of the International Association of Transvoice Surgeons (IATVS), and Secretary General of the International Association of Phonosurgery (IAP).
Renowned for his pioneering work, Prof Hess introduced blue laser technology to laryngology. He is highly experienced in minimally invasive phonomicrosurgery and office-based surgery.
Throughout his career, he has made significant contributions to the field through presentations at international conferences, hands-on workshops, and instructional courses. Prof Hess is also an active member of various editorial boards and scientific committees and has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in prestigious professional journals and textbooks.
Peter Hubka
Complex Reorganizations in the Auditory System after Bilateral and Unilateral Deafness – Clinical Implications (Saturday 7 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Peter Hubka is an auditory neuroscientist interested primarily in understanding the principles of neuroplasticity and exploring its potential for neurorehabilitation in the auditory system. We study the interplay between the auditory activation, coding, and neuromodulation to achieve controlled functional recovery in hearing disorders following peripheral correction with hearing aids or cochlear implants.
Peter Hubka is currently leading a joined lab at the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University, Slovak Academy of Sciences, and University Hospital in Bratislava, Slovakia. He obtained a master’s degree from the Slovak Technical University (1992) and a doctoral degree from the Comenius University (2005) in Bratislava, Slovakia. Peter has studied the consequences of auditory deprivation in an animal model of binaural and unilateral congenital deafness on the functional and structural properties of adult auditory neuronal networks at the J. W. Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main (2000-2002), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (2007-2009), and Hannover Medical School (2009-2024), Germany.
Professor Andrej Kral, MD, PhD
Congenital hearing loss requires treatment within the first year of life (Thursday 5 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Andrej Kral is a Professor of Systems Neuroscience at Macquarie University and Professor of Auditory Neuroscience at Hannover Medical School, where he holds the Chair in Experimental Otology.
Professor Kral specializes in auditory neurophysiology in both animals and humans. His research interests include hearing loss, central effects of deafness on brain development and cognition, neuroplasticity, cochlear implants, and neuroprosthetics. He serves as Chair of the PhD Program “Auditory Sciences” at Hannover Medical School and is a member of the editorial board of Hearing Research. In 2017, he was elected a member of the German National Academy of Science, and in 2018, of the Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum. He received the 2024 Pioneer Award in Basic Science from the Association for Research in Otolaryngology for his fundamental work on understanding brain plasticity following hearing loss.
Together with H. Maier and F. Aplin, he co-authored the textbook Prostheses for the Brain: Introduction to Neuroprosthetics (Academic Press, 2021), and with A. N. Popper and R. R. Fay, he edited the volume Deafness (Vol. 47, 2013) in the Springer Handbook of Auditory Research. His lab has received funding from, among others, the German Research Society, the National Science Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, the European Union, the Oticon Foundation, and the cochlear implant industry.
Peter Kummer
Congenital Cytomegalovirus infection (cCMV): challenge and opportunity in the diagnosis and treatment of early childhood hearing loss (Thursday 5 June 2025, 14:00–14:30)
Professor Aude Lagier, MD, PhD
Cough assessment in swallowing disorders (Saturday 7 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Professor Aude Lagier is a specialist in ENT, with a focus on phoniatrics, laryngology, and anatomy. Her specialisation in ENT (2004–2010) and the four years of fellowship that followed were completed in Marseille, France. She also spent six months in Rouen to learn laryngeal reinnervation techniques. From 2014 to 2016, she worked as an assistant professor of anatomy and laryngology in Marseille before moving to Liège, Belgium. Since 2016, she has been working as a supervisor at the University Hospital of Liège and as a professor at the Department of Anatomy at the University of Liège. Her doctoral thesis was entitled “Experimental approach to the collision between the vocal folds during phonation: studies in vivo and on excised human larynges.”
Her main fields of interest are the anatomy and physiology of the voice and swallowing, the diagnosis and treatment of voice and swallowing disorders, neuro-laryngology including the diagnosis and treatment of impaired vocal fold mobility, and the laryngological aspects of neurological disorders (neurological dysphonia, dysarthria, and dysphagia).
Vlasta Lungova, RNDr, PhD
Stem cells in the vocal folds (Saturday 7 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Dr Vlasta Lungova is a Scientist in the Department of Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, at University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA. Her journey in voice research began in collaboration with Prof Dr Jan Švec at Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. In 2013, she moved to the United States to join the laboratory of Prof Dr Susan Thibeault at UW–Madison.
Recently, she co-received a five-year research grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, USA, which emphasizes the role of vocal fold epithelial stem cells in maintaining epithelial homeostasis and investigates the mechanisms underlying the formation of vocal fold hyperplastic lesions.
Dr Lungova's research has been published in several prestigious scientific journals, including Nature Communications, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, Disease Models and Mechanisms, and Development. Her work focuses on the guided differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells into vocal fold cell lineages, with applications in clinical and pharmaceutical research. Additionally, she investigates the mechanisms underlying laryngeal and vocal fold development in humans and transgenic mouse models. Her work aims to advance the understanding of congenital laryngeal disorders, disease- and aging-related laryngeal pathologies while paving the way for tissue-engineering strategies to create neo-vocal fold tissue.
Dr Philipp Mathmann
New perspectives on psychogenic voice disorders (research protocol involves MRI-Spectroscopy, fMRI and therapeutic interventions) (Thursday 5 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Fascinating results of the world's first low-threshold hearing screening program for people with intellectual disabilities (N=1050) (Saturday 7 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Dr Philipp Mathmann is the lead senior physician and deputy director in the Department of Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology at Münster University Hospital and an internationally active opera singer. He specializes in phoniatrics and pediatric audiology and publishes in both fields. His research focuses on newborn hearing screening and hearing care for people with intellectual disabilities. During his medical training at the University of Cologne and the Charité Berlin, he coordinated a music-medicine research collaboration at the Royal College of Music London.
Since 2021, he has served as Co-Representative for the German Society of Phoniatrics and Pediatric Audiology (DGPP) in the WHO Program on Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Loss (PDH) and acts as Audiology Advisor for Germany within the World Hearing Forum of the World Health Organization. In addition, he is a founding member of the Center for Transgender Health (CTH) at Münster University Hospital and co-founder of “Next Generation DGPP”, the professional policy working group of early-career phoniatricians and pedaudiologists in Germany.
In 2023, he was appointed Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, for founding and leading an international cooperation on musical education for children and students as well as vocal health since 2013.
As an opera singer, Philipp Mathmann has worked with some of the most renowned orchestras and conductors of the international baroque scene. He has performed as a soloist on CDs, in television, film, and radio productions, and on prestigious stages such as the Vienna State Opera, Konzerthaus Vienna, State Opera Berlin, Teatro Real Madrid, Semper Opera Dresden, and the Stanislavski Theatre Moscow.
Professor Dr Joachim Müller
Consideration for an initial results of the totally implantable Cochlea Implant (Friday 6 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Professor Joachim Müller’s research interest focus on reconstructive middle ear surgery and tympanoplasty procedures, cochlear implants, i.e. binaural hearing with cochlear implants and computerized documentation systems for ear surgery. In his PhD thesis he studied the mechanics of the normal and reconstructed middle ear with laser Doppler vibrometry (1997/98).
Müller’s scientific work has resulted in over 80 scientific publications. His enthusiasm and commitment to teaching and training of young ear surgeons is reflected in the organization of numerous own and in the support of more than 100 international surgical courses for middle ear and cochlear implant surgery.
In 1999 the German ENT Society paid attention to his clinical scientific work by inviting him to read a keynote lecture to discuss tympanoplasty procedures in children based on the database he created with his coworkers. In 2005 he was asked to summarize and to present on the important developments in the field of cochlear implantation during the past decade. In 2007 his commitment to cochlear implants, especially his dedication in the field of paediatric cochlear implants was honoured by the German ENT Society by awarding his video “cochlear implants in infants and toddlers”. His international expertise was recognized by numerous otosurgical courses and key note lectures. And, again, the german ent society honored his international commitment when in 2009 he was invited to read a paper on invitation within the international forum of the German ENT Society during the annual meeting of the German ENT Society in Rostock on: “cochlear implants – a view on current indications and a glimpse into the future
In 2014 he served as president of the 13th international conference on cochlear implants and other auditory prosthesis, which was held in Munich - it was the biggest CI conference so far.
About a decade ago he was asked to contribute his surgical and clinical experience to the development of the MED-EL TICI.
Joachim Müller works in Munich as an associate professor for otology and leads the Section Otology and Cochlear Implants at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Munich UniversityLMU (Head: Univ. Prof. Dr. med. Dr. med. h.c. Martin Canis).
He is honorary member of the Austrian ENT society, the Hungarian ENT society and the British Cochlear Implant Group. He is also appointed as a visiting Professor at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas; at Beijing University, Peoples Hospital and at the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines.
Dirk Mürbe
Phonosurgery in artistic voice (Friday 6 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Associate Professor Dr Rodica Elena Mureșan, MD, PhD
Presbyphagia versus dysphagia in elderly (Friday 6 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Associate Professor Rodica Elena Mureșan is an ENT consultant and phoniatrician at the ENT Department of the Emergency Hospital Cluj-Napoca. She also serves as an associate professor at the “Gheorghe Dima” Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, the Faculty of Theatre and Film at Babeș-Bolyai University, and the Faculty of Special Psychopedagogy.
She is a member of the International Committee of World Voice Day and the national coordinator for Romania. Dr Mureșan is a past president of the Romanian Society of Phoniatry and an active member of the Romanian ENT Society, the European Laryngological Society, and the Union of European Phoniatricians.
She is the author of several books, including Principles and Techniques of Voice Rehabilitation (2021), Voice Rehabilitation and Vocal Hygiene, Second Edition (2015), and the First Edition of the same title (2010).
Katrin Neumann
Developmental language disorders (Thursday 5 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Stephen O'Leary
Electrophysiology in CI and hearing preservation (Friday 6 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Enrico Piccirillo, MD, PhD
Cochlear implantation in vestibular schwannoma (Thursday 5 June 2025, 14:00–14:30)
Dr Enrico Piccirillo is an ENT specialist with a strong background in middle ear, skull base, and endoscopic sinus surgery. He has been a member of the Gruppo Otologico Piacenza-Roma since 1998, working under the direction of Prof Mario Sanna. He obtained the Italian Licence of Professorship in Otorhinolaryngology in 2015 and taught at the University of Brescia from 2017 to 2018.
He regularly teaches in international surgical courses focused on middle ear and skull base surgery. He is also a co-author of several textbooks, including Middle Ear and Mastoid Microsurgery, The Temporal Bone, and Atlas of Acoustic Neurinoma Surgery.
Professor Justin Roe, MBE, PhD, FRCSLT
Pre-habilitation in managing Dysphagia in H&N cancers (Thursday 5 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Professor Justin Roe is a Consultant and Professional Lead for Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (RM) in London. In addition to his clinical work, he leads on multidisciplinary rehabilitation service provision to people receiving treatment from head and neck, lung cancers and neuro-oncology services at the Marsden. He also leads the laryngology / airway reconstruction service at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He is a Professor of Practice in Speech and Swallowing Rehabilitation in the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London.
Justin has published extensively and contributed to key policy and position papers, acting as an expert adviser to several national organizations. He was the Allied Health Professions Council Member for the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists and is currently SLT Council Member for the British Laryngological Association. He was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in 2018 and made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2022 Queen's New Year's Honours in recognition of his contribution to the SLT profession.
John Rubin
Looking after singers, psychological perspectives (Friday 6 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Jan Rusz
Voice analysis with AI and machine learning (Friday 6 June 2025, 14:00–14:30)
Jan Rusz's research focuses on the development of speech-based digital biomarkers, aiming to provide deeper insights into the pathophysiology of neurological diseases and to identify sensitive markers of disease progression for future neuroprotective trials. His work centers on multidisciplinary quantitative analysis of speech, drawing from movement disorders, data analysis, machine learning, and digital signal processing. He has contributed to a range of scientific topics related to speech and language disorders, primarily associated with basal ganglia dysfunction and cerebellar impairment, as well as other features of movement disorders such as bradykinesia, gait disturbances, and eye movement abnormalities.
Professor Josef Schlömicher-Thier, h.c.Dr
Some thoughts about laryngology from the viewpoint as Singer (Thursday 5 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Professor Josef Schlömicher-Thier was born 1954 in Styria, He began his Voice Training as a Bariton at the Conservatorium of Music in 1982–1986 and at University of Music and Dramatic Art in Graz in 1986–1990 and started his musical career in 1990 in Graz in the Ensemble of the Opera in Graz .After finishing his Degree in Medicine at the Karl Franzens University of Graz, he was trained as a General Practitioner in Graz and Leoben and became a Specialist in ENT at the Main Hospital in Salzburg and for occupational Medicine in Vienna. Since 1996 he has the Responsibility as a Consultant Doctor of the Salzburg Festival for the Voice Care of the Artists and for the Occupational Medicine of all the employed Persons. In particular, he organized several international Meetings in Salzburg, focussing on the interdisciplinary Care of the professional Voice and Phonosurgery since 1995. As a guest Lector, Josef Schlömicher-Thier works in Salzburg at the University of Music Mozarteum and at the Department of Neuro-Linguistics at the Paris Lodron University. He is married with Luise, Dentist and has four Children, Markus 35 (Cardiac Surgeon) Thomas 33 (Master of Engineering) Johanna 24a, (Songwriter), Clemens 22 (Student of Engineering) He is a Member Collegium Medicorum Theatri (CoMeT) and the founder of the Austrian Voice Institute 1996. From 2009 to 2013, he was a Member of the Salzburg Parliament and Health Care Expert of the Socialist Party of Salzburg. Since 1996 he works in his ENT Office and got 2015 the official license for the International Voice Center Austria of the Salzburg government. In October 2021, he was awarded the Title of Professor honoris causa by the Austrian Federal President Van der Bellen.
Dr Vidhyadharan Sivakumar
Onco Phagosurgery – Concepts in Surgical Management of Head & Neck Cancer patients with Dysphagia (Thursday 5 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Dr Vidhyadharan Sivakumar is a highly specialized head and neck surgical oncologist and laryngologist with over 15 years of experience. He currently serves as the Clinical Director and Senior Consultant Surgeon at The Head and Neck Centre & Hospital in Chennai.
He is an internationally trained Head & Neck Surgical Oncologist and Laryngologist with special interests in the treatment of head and neck cancers, including cancers of the mouth, thyroid, larynx and pharynx, as well as neck swellings. His clinical focus also includes swallowing disorders, voice problems, and snoring issues.
His surgical expertise includes minimally invasive techniques such as the da Vinci Robotic Surgical System, laser surgery, and the endoscopic endonasal approach to the skull base. He is one of the few surgeons in India with overseas fellowship training in Transoral Robotic Surgery, Transoral Laser Microsurgery, reconstructive microsurgery for head and neck cancers, anterior skull base surgery, and in the management of swallowing and voice disorders.
He has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences, both in person and online, and his international clinical experience includes positions in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Dr Sivakumar has held several academic and leadership roles, including Lead Academic and Research Coordinator for the Foundation for Dysphagia Research and Education (FDRE), National Observer representing India in the Asian Dysphagia Society (ADS), and Executive Committee Member of the Association of Phono Surgeons of India (APSI). He also served as Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Head & Neck Surgery and Oncology and as Clinical Lead Consultant at a Swallowing Disorders Centre at a major institute in Kochi.
He has authored several publications in peer-reviewed high-impact journals and contributed to the field through editorial work as the editor of the textbook Comprehensive Management of Head & Neck Cancers and co-author of multiple chapters on head and neck oncology and dysphagia management. He was part of the team that performed the first tracheal transplant in India and led the team that carried out India’s first Transoral Robotic Surgery-assisted total laryngectomy in 2022 — a surgery likely to be the first of its kind in the Indian subcontinent.
Jan Svec, PhD
Mucosal waves on the vocal folds: Insights and Updates (Saturday 7 June 2025, 10:00–10:30)
Dr Jan G. Švec. is an internationally renowned Czech physicist performing basic and clinical research on production of human voice. His is interested in better understanding the basic mechanisms and principles of voice production and in transferring the basic knowledge to clinical practice and to voice pedagogy. He holds a MSc degree in fine mechanics and optics and PhD degrees in biophysics as well as in medical sciences. He has worked as a research scientist at the Center for Communication Disorders (Medical Healthcom) in Prague, the Czech Republic, at the National Center for Voice and Speech in Denver, CO, USA and at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Currently he is at the Palacky University Olomouc, the Czech Republic and serves as an associate research scientist at the Voice and Hearing Centre Prague. He designed videokymography, the method for high-speed visualization of vocal-fold vibrations, which is used for advanced diagnosis of voice disorders. His broad research interests include detecting voice disorders through laryngeal vibrations, acoustics, biomechanics, voice measurement methodology, singing voice and related fields. He collaborates with numerous research teams in Europe and USA and lectures worldwide. From 2004 to 2011, he served as the chairman of the Voice Committee of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP). In 2013 he was, together with Dr J. Vydrová, the chair of the 10th Pan European Voice Conference (PEVOC 2013) in Prague.
Josef Syka
Development of the auditory system, its disorders and gene therapy (Saturday 7 June 2025, 09:30–10:00)
Professor Virginie Woisard
Assessment of pharyngo-laryngeal efficiency (Friday 6 June 2025, 14:00–14:30)
Professor Virginie Woisard is an ENT specialist and phoniatrician based in Toulouse, France, renowned for her expertise in voice, speech, and swallowing disorders. In 1992, she founded the Voice and Deglutition Unit within the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at Toulouse University Hospital. In 2014, she established two additional units at the Cancer University Institute of Toulouse: the Oncorehabilitation Unit and the Intensive Rehabilitation Unit for Laryngectomized Patients. Prof Woisard holds a PhD in Language Sciences and actively contributes to clinical research, particularly in the rehabilitation of dysphagia and the assessment of speech disorders. Her work emphasizes the integration of physiological, therapeutic, and technological approaches to improve patient outcomes. She currently works in all three units as a practicing physician and continues her academic activities as a member of the teaching team at the University Training Center for Speech and Language Therapy in Toulouse (Paul Sabatier University - Toulouse III). She is also affiliated with the Neuro-Psycho-Linguistic Laboratory at Jean Jaurès University - Toulouse II, for her research activities and serves on the boards of several scientific societies.
