Italy
Francesco Montorsi is Professor of Urology and Chairman of the Department of Urology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy.
Prof. Montorsi has co-authored more than 1,830 peer reviewed journal articles according to PubMed and several book chapters. At present, Prof. Montorsi’s h-index is 153, according to Google Scholar. His most recent contributions to the literature have been on the management of urological malignancies, sexual dysfunctions, and benign prostatic hyperplasia. Prof. Montorsi’s articles have been published in many prestigious journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Journal of Clinical Oncology, The British Medical Journal, and European Urology. Between January 2006 and December 2013, Prof. Montorsi served as Editor-in-Chief of European Urology, the official journal of the European Urological Association. Between 2015 and 2019 Prof. Montorsi served as Adjunct Secretary General of EAU.
In 1998, Prof. Montorsi received the Matula Award, assigned by the EAU to a urologist younger than 40 years of age with the best scientific production. In 2017, Prof. Montorsi was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. In 2018, he was included in the Highly Cited Researchers list produced by Clarivate Analytics. This list includes researchers who produced multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations in the field and year in Web of Science. In 2018, Prof. Montorsi received the American Urological Association’s Hugh Hampton Young Award for seminal scientific contributions to the study of urologic oncology and andrology, as well as mentorship and global leadership in academic urology. In 2019, Prof. Montorsi received the EAU’s Frans Debruyne Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the development of the EAU. In 2022, he presented the Ramon Guiteras Lecture during AUA’s annual meeting in New Orleans.
India
Dr. Kulkarni is an internationally-recognized expert in urethral reconstruction. He trained in urology in England and returned to India to serve its citizens. He and his wife, Dr. Jyotsna Kulkarni, were pioneers in laparoscopy in India and started India’s first animal lab for laparoscopy training. Dr. Kulkarni established the Centre for Reconstructive Urology in 1995. The centre performs one of the largest numbers of genito-urinary reconstructive surgeries in the world. The centre is ethical, and no patient is denied surgery for economic grounds.
The Kulkarni School of Urethral Surgery was established in 2006. The centre is engaged in permanent educational activities for urologists who are interested in in-depth training in reconstructive urethral surgery. Dr. Kulkarni has been invited to demonstrate urethroplasties in 50 countries and has invented many reconstruction techniques. The “Kulkarni Urethroplasty” for pan urethral stricture is popular around the world and is published in Hinman’s Atlas of Urology. Dr. Kulkarni authored a chapter on the urethra and penis in the 2022 Edition of Bailey & Love’s Short Practice of Surgery.”
Dr. Kulkarni was awarded the “President’s Gold Medal” by the Urology Society of India for outstanding contribution to urology in India in 2011. In 2016, Dr. Sanjay Kulkarni was awarded “Dr. BC Roy” award by the President of India for developing a new speciality. In 2017, he was conferred Honorary membership of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and made Honorary member of the British Association of Urological Surgeons and Urology Society of Australia and New Zealand.
Dr. Kulkarni was the President of the Society of Genito Urinary Reconstructive Surgeons in 2014 and is the Past-President of the Société Internationale d’Urologie (2019-21). Dr. Kulkarni is currently President of the Urological Society of India.
United Kingdom
Mr. Graham Watson graduated from Cambridge University and King’s College Hospital in 1975 and then trained at the Institute of Urology under John Wickham, John Blandy, and Richard Turner-Warwick. Mr. Wickham suggested investigating the use of lasers to break stones, in which Mr. Watson was successful. In collaboration with the Massachusetts’ General Hospital and Candela Corporation, Mr. Watson produced the pulsed dye laser. He was awarded the Leon Goldman award for the development of lasers in medicine in 1985.
In 2002, Mr. Watson was appointed Chair of The MediTechTrust. Under his leadership there was a shift to support international training and provision of basic equipment. Mr. Watson has had a long-ranging interest in travel and cultures. In 2008, he was approached by former trainee Dr. Suren Da Silva to teach percutaneous nephrolithotomy in Sri Lanka. Alongside Dr. Srinath Chandrasekara, he put on regular training courses for UK and Sri Lankan trainees. Following this, Mr. Watson taught general urology and percutaneous nephrolithotomy in Africa. He has taught PCNL in 13 countries in Africa since 2012, with a concentration on centres with national, and occasionally, international trainees.
To resolve issues with x-ray not working, Prof. Xiang and Mr. Watson have taught ultrasoundguided access in Ethiopia, Zambia, and Malawi, and to help with provision of disposables, they have formed a charity called MediGive. Irrigation is a major cost and MediGive offers a system where the local team can produce their own saline from boiled water and salt. It is their aim to teach modern surgery and to help to make it as affordable as possible. Following COVID, 3 month follow up visits were conducted via tele mentoring, such as the Proximie system Mr. Watson placed in Benin.
It gives Mr. Watson great pride to find that some of the centres where he has taught PCNL have become very proficient in the technique and can join him in teaching in neighbouring countries, which has a positive impact on training in Africa.
Türkiye
Prof. Dr. Mevlana Derya Balbay graduated from Hacettepe University Medical School in 1985. He completed his urology residency at Hacettepe University Medical School in 1992 and did a clinical fellowship in uro-oncology at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center from 1996 to 1999. Prof. Dr. Balbay is currently working at Koç University Medical School and VKF American Hospital, Department of Urology in İstanbul, Türkiye.
In 2009, Prof. Dr. Balbay started robotic surgery and has now completed and/or mentored over 1,000 robotic cases. He was the first in the world to do simultaneous robot assisted laparoscopic radical nephroureterectomy, genitalia sparing radical cystectomy, superextened lymph node dissection, and intracorporeal Studer pouch construction on the same patient who had both bladder and ureteral tumors. Prof. Dr. Balbay has developed his own techniques on 1) robotic intracorporeal Studer pouch formation; 2) endopelvic fascia sparing robotic radical cystectomy; and 3) ileal neobladder construction with enhanced antireflux mechanism by anterior repositioning of the afferent loop.
Currently an active member of International Robotic Cystectomy Consortium (IRCC) and International Prostate Forum (IPF), Prof. Dr. Balbay has been involved in many ERUS (EAU Robotic Urology Section) and IRCC joint publications. In addition to several poster and video presentation awards, he received the U.T.M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Clinical Trainee Research Award (1997), Turkish Association of Urology Service Award (2014), and the UT MDACC David A. Swanson M.D. Endowed Lecture Series Urology Distinguished Alumnus Award (2019).
As of July 1, 2023, his 248 publications in journals listed in SCI and SCIE, received 2604 international citations (2525 non-self) in 2263 articles (2213 non-self). His h-index is 23
(Web of Knowledge). According to ResearchGate, his total citations are: 3451, h-index: 29, and according to Google Scholar, his total citations are: 4891, h-index: 32, and i-10 index: 95.
United Kingdom
Christopher Chapple is an Emeritus Consultant Urological Surgeon at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Honorary Professor at the University of Sheffield, and Visiting Professor at Sheffield Hallam University. He is particularly interested in the functional reconstruction of the lower urinary tract and the underlying pharmacological control mechanisms and provided an NHS tertiary service in lower urinary tract reconstructive surgery.
Prof. Chapple trained at the Middlesex Hospital, where he completed his doctorate thesis. He continued there and at the Institute of Urology in London for his sub-specialist training. He was Secretary General of the European Association of Urology 2015-2023, having previously been Chairman of the International Relations Committee, Adjunct Secretary General Responsible for Education, and Director of the European School of Urology. He was the Network Coordinator for the European Reference Network (ERN) for rare urogenital diseases and complex conditions (eUROGEN) from 2016-2019.
Prof. Chapple served as editor-in-chief of the journal Neurourology & Urodynamics from 2006-2016 and is on the editorial board of several international journals. He is an active member of many urological associations and societies and has been awarded honorary membership of several national urological associations. BAUS awarded him the St Peter’s medal in 2011, SUFU awarded him the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, the International Continence Society made him the inaugural member of their Hall of Fame in 2020, and CAU awarded him the Shlomo Raz medal in 2022.
He has chaired several guidelines initiatives, including the NICE GDG on Male LUTS and the ICUD Consultation on Male LUTS. Prof. Chapple has co-authored 850+ articles, comments, and letters in peer-reviewed journals and has written several chapters and books.
Chile
Born October 27, 1940, in Valparaiso, Chile, Dr. Mac Millan graduated as a urologist from the University of Chile in 1967. During his career, he practiced at the Carlos van Buren Hospital in Valparaíso. Since 1969, he has been a professor of urology at the University of Chile and has led the urology service since 1987.
Dr. Mac Millan was president of the Chilean Society of Urology from 1987 to 1988. As a teacher and mentor, he trained more than thirty urologists and obtained the title of “Master of Chilean Urology”. He was recognized as Professor Emeritus in 2014.
He led the first kidney transplants in Chile with Dr. Jorge Kaplan in 1969, then later led other procurement and transplant teams. He pioneered the creation of surgical technique videos, winning awards at CAU congresses. Dr. Mac Millan developed and promoted original surgical techniques such as nerve sparing lumbo aortic lymph node dissection, and distal hypogastric ligation. He also participated as a guest and professor at international conferences, round tables and congresses in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia. He’s published original research in the Chilean Journal of Urology, and in 2014, he was named “Illustrious Son of Valparaíso”.
Dr. Mac Millan performed genitoplasty surgeries (sexual reassignment) on trans people since 1976, a pioneering activity in the public health system. Despite controversy and lack of support from the authorities, he has continued this mission for over forty years. He trained a new generation of urologists to address the demand for trans surgeries, a work in which he continues to this day.
South Korea
Dr. Kwangsung Park is a professor in the Department of Urology at Chonnam National University Medical School, the Director of the Sexual Medicine Research Center, and the Director of the Advanced Institute of Aging Science at Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Republic of Korea.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of Investigative and Clinical Urology, an official journal of the Korean Urological Association (KUA). He is a National Academy of Medicine of Korea (NAMOK) member. Dr. Park is currently the Secretary General of the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) and a Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH). He has contributed to sexual medicine education in the APSSM region. He also served as a Member-at-Large, co-Chair of the Education Committee, Editor-in-Chief of Sexual Medicine for the ISSM, and Director-at-Large for the ISSWSH.
Dr. Park has been president of the Korean Society for Sexual Medicine and Andrology (KSSMA), the Korean Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (KSSWSH), and the Korean Association of Sexual Health (KASH). He has dedicated himself to promoting sexual health in both men and women. In recognition of his contribution to the urological society, he received an External Achievement Award from the KUA in 2019.
Dr. Park has performed both basic and clinical research in sexual medicine. He received the Jean-Paul Ginestie Prize (1996) from the International Society for Impotence Research (IJIR, currently ISSM) for his pioneering work of basic research on female sexual dysfunction. He also investigated the cerebral centers of penile erection using functional MRI and received the Zorgniotti-Newman Prize (2000) from IJIR.
Dr. Park has published over 150 articles in peer-reviewed international medical journals and authored several books on male and female sexual dysfunctions.
Germany
Dr. Derya Tilki is a Professor of Urology at the Martini-Klinik Prostate Cancer Center and at theDepartment of Urology, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany. She obtained her medical degree at the University of Hamburg and received her urologic residency training in Munich, with research fellowships at Harvard Medical School in Boston and at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York. Dr. Tilki completed a uro-oncology fellowship at UC Davis in Sacramento, USA.
Dr. Tilki‘s research is focused on uro-oncology, with a particular interest in prostate cancer. She is a member of several national and international medical societies. She has authored and co-authored more than 500 publications and is an Associate Editor of European Urology Focus. Dr. Tilki is Vice-Chair of the EAU Prostate Cancer Guideline Panel.
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