Aayushi is currently an MD-PhD student at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD is being conducted at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Department of Paediatrics at the UoM. Her topic will be covering chronic pain characterisation in children with cerebral palsy. Aayushi has completed a Bachelor of Biomedicine with a Major in Neuroscience at the UoM and is part way through her medical degree. She is keen on becoming a clinician & researcher in the future with a key focus on paediatric pain, neurodisability & rehabilitation.

Kelly Nguyen is a PhD student in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Kelly’s research interests include the use of digital and non-pharmacological interventions to promote self-management and pain management in children with chronic health conditions. Her decision to pursue a PhD was inspired by her previous research work involving children with arthritis and her clinical experiences as a nurse at The Hospital for Sick Children.

Adam Hirsh, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Indiana University (Indianapolis) and a licensed clinical psychologist. He leads a multidisciplinary research program focused on preventing and managing chronic pain through patient-centered coaching, clinician training, investigations of pain-related injustice, music-based interventions, and virtual patient/clinician and AI applications. Using clinical, laboratory, and epidemiologic approaches, his work identifies psychosocial mechanisms and translates them into pragmatic, scalable interventions. He also mentors numerous PhD students and early-career scholars through NIH-funded training grants and holds leadership roles in national and international organizations. 

Harrison is a doctoral candidate at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). His PhD focuses on applying and advancing causal inference methods to strengthen the use of observational data in guiding evidence‑based management of musculoskeletal conditions. He is passionate about supporting early career researchers and trainees and has been a member of the Education Committee of the IASP ECN since 2023.

Dr. Michele Sterling is a Professor at the RECOVER Injury Centre, Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence: Better Health Outcomes for Compensable Injury at the University of Queensland, an NHMRC Leadership (L2) Fellow, and a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists. Michele’s research focuses on the mechanisms underlying the development of chronic pain injury, predictive algorithms for outcomes, and developing effective interventions for musculoskeletal injury and pain. Michele has served the IASP in many roles, including as a Section Editor of Pain and Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the 2024 World Congress on Pain in Amsterdam.  

Dr. Morika Williams is a veterinary clinician scientist with a focus on pain mechanisms, assessment, and treatment. She obtained her B.S. degrees in Laboratory Animal Science and Animal Science from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from North Carolina State University, completed a residency in Laboratory Animal Medicine, and is a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. Dr. Williams earned her PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences at NC State, exploring the effects of early life injury on chronic pain such as osteoarthritis. 

Dr. Williams joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) as a Clinical Fellow and Veterinarian, quickly advancing to Assistant Professor. She is the Director of the UNC Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency Program. She leads the Pain, Aging, and Interdisciplinary Neurobehavioral (P.A.I.N.) Laboratory, where she spearheads innovative research in behavioral neuroscience. Her work is dedicated to advancing acute and chronic pain management and assessment in newborns and adults, enhancing the quality of life in both animals and humans. Dr. Williams is the Chair-elect of the IASP Early Career Network and Co-Chair of the ECN Nominations Committee. She is committed to educating future scientists in biomedical research.

Dr. Nahman-Averbuch is an Assistant Professor at the Washington University Pain Center and the Division of Clinical and Translational Research at the Department of Anesthesiology, Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch has a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. During her Ph.D, she worked with Dr. David Yarnitsky and specialized in pain modulation mechanisms in adults with chronic pain. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch completed her post-doctoral fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital with Dr. Robert Coghill where she studied the neural changes in pediatric patients with chronic pain and after interventions such as cognitive-behavioral therapy. In her Pain Across the Lifespan (PAL) lab, she focuses on studying the impact of sex hormones on pain specifically in adults and adolescents with migraine, endometriosis and arthritis. Dr. Nahman-Averbuch is involved with IASP and USASP and seeks to promote early career programs and is the past president for the IASP Early Career Network.  

Dr. Marie-Eve Hoeppli is a Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellow in the lab of Prof. Susanne Becker at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. In her current research, she focuses on the study of mechanisms, in particular brain mechanisms, underlying functional disability.

Dr. Hoeppli completed her PhD in Dr. Petra Schweinhardt’s lab at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). For her PhD, she worked on behavioral responses and cerebral representations of muscle pain and fatigue in healthy individuals. She then completed a first post-doctoral fellowship in the lab of Dr. Robert Coghill at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. She worked extensively on the brain mechanisms of individual differences in the experience of pain. She also conducted and collaborated on studies investigating mechanisms of pediatric chronic pain conditions and recovery from these conditions.

Dr. Hoeppli is the current Chair of the Early Career Network and a committee member of multiple committees and task forces within IASP. She is very invested in supporting and promoting early career members of IASP in their professional development within and outside the association

Dr. Morika Williams is a veterinary clinician scientist with a focus on pain mechanisms, assessment, and treatment. She obtained her B.S. degrees in Laboratory Animal Science and Animal Science from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from North Carolina State University, completed a residency in Laboratory Animal Medicine, and is a Diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine. Dr. Williams earned her PhD in Comparative Biomedical Sciences at NC State, exploring the effects of early life injury on chronic pain such as osteoarthritis. 

Dr. Williams joined the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) as a Clinical Fellow and Veterinarian, quickly advancing to Assistant Professor. She is the Director of the UNC Laboratory Animal Medicine Residency Program. She leads the Pain, Aging, and Interdisciplinary Neurobehavioral (P.A.I.N.) Laboratory, where she spearheads innovative research in behavioral neuroscience. Her work is dedicated to advancing acute and chronic pain management and assessment in newborns and adults, enhancing the quality of life in both animals and humans. Dr. Williams is the Chair-elect of the IASP Early Career Network and Co-Chair of the ECN Nominations Committee. She is committed to educating future scientists in biomedical research.

Calabrese is a Professor of Medicine, Vice Chair of the Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Rheumatic and Immunologic Diseases and the Co-director of the Centre for Vasculitis Care and Research. He also serves as Director of the RJ Fasenmyer Centre for Clinical Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic. He also holds appointments in the Department of Infectious Diseases and the Wellness Institute. He has particular interest in vascular inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, primary and secondary immunodeficiency states and the intersection of infections and autoimmunity. Over the course of his academic research career, Professor Calabrese has authored over 500 publications including book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles.

Luana Colloca is an NIH-funded physician-scientist who conducted ground-breaking studies that have advanced scientific understanding of the psychoneurobiological bases of endogenous systems for pain modulation in humans including the discovery that the vasopressin system is involved in the enhancement of placebo effects with a dimorphic effect. Currently, her team conducts basic and translational research on genomics of orofacial chronic pain, brain mechanisms of expectancy - and observationally-induced hypoalgesia - and immersive virtual reality. Her research has been published in top-ranked international journals including Biological Psychiatry, Pain, Nature Neuroscience, JAMA, Lancet Neurology, Science and NEJM. The impact of her innovative work is clear from her outstanding publications, citation rate, numerous invited lectures worldwide and media featured by The National Geographic, The New Scientist, Washington Post, Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Nature, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, News and World Reports.

Giovanni is a Senior Research Fellow and National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader at the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, University of Sydney, Australia. Giovanni’s research focuses on investigating the effectiveness of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, as well as new models of care, to improve outcomes for people with chronic pain. 

Rob is a physiotherapist who conducts research into the effectiveness of physiotherapy interventions, as well as muscle physiology and biomechanics. He has a long-standing interest in the design and analysis of clinical trials. He retired from full-time research in 2023 but retains honorary positions as Emeritus Professorial Fellow at NeuRA and Conjoint Professor at UNSW Sydney. He is an accredited statistician and now runs a statistical consulting business focusing on the design and analysis of randomized trials. 

Harrison is a doctoral candidate at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). His PhD focuses on applying and advancing causal inference methods to strengthen the use of observational data in guiding evidence‑based management of musculoskeletal conditions. He is passionate about supporting early career researchers and trainees and has been a member of the Education Committee of the IASP ECN since 2023.

Dr. Eleonora Galosi, MD, is a clinical neurologist and research fellow in the Department of Human Neuroscience at Sapienza University of Rome. Her work focuses on translational research in peripheral neuropathic pain and nociplastic pain. 

Her research integrates advanced clinical, neurophysiological, and molecular phenotyping of peripheral nervous system disorders, with skin biopsy serving as a central methodological pillar. By combining structural nerve fiber biomarkers with functional and clinical measures, Dr. Galosi has contributed to advancing diagnostic strategies and improving the mechanistic understanding of neuropathic and nociplastic pain conditions. 

William Renthal, MD, PhD, is Chief of Headache and Facial Pain in the Department of Neurology at Mass General Brigham and Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. He provides care for patients with refractory headache and facial pain at the John Graham Headache Center. 

Dr. Renthal leads a research laboratory focused on the genomic and epigenomic mechanisms underlying chronic headache and pain. He also directs the Harvard PRECISION Pain Center, a collaborative initiative that brings together clinicians and scientists to apply advanced multi‑omic approaches to identify the cellular drivers of chronic pain using human tissue and patient‑derived samples. 

Dr. Ru‑Rong Ji, PhD, is the William Maixner Professor of Anesthesiology and Director of the Center for Translational Pain Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. His laboratory investigates glial mechanisms of neuropathic pain, with a particular emphasis on neuro–glial interactions following nerve injury and diabetes. His recent work has revealed a critical role for mitochondrial dysfunction in neuropathic pain and has identified multiple therapeutic targets for pain relief and resolution. 

Angelika Lampert, MD, is the Director of the Institute of Neurophysiology at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. She coordinates the Sodium Channel Network Aachen and serves as speaker of the Scientific Center for Neuropathic Pain Aachen (SCNAACHEN), focusing on inherited neuropathic pain syndromes such as small fiber neuropathy linked to sodium channel mutations. Her research emphasizes translational basic science, including patient-derived stem cells, Patch-Seq, sodium channel biophysics, and pharmacology. Angelika is co-chair of the IASP Global Year 2026 on Neuropathic Pain. 

Daniela Maria Menichella, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Pharmacology at Northwestern University in Chicago. She directs the Peripheral Neuropathy Multidisciplinary Clinic and the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association Center for Excellence. Dr. Menichella provides care for patients suffering from neuropathic pain due to peripheral neuropathy. In addition to her clinical work, she is actively involved in basic and translational research and takes part in NIH NeuroNext and NIH HEAL EPICC clinical trials. Her research focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms that underlie neuropathic pain and axonal degeneration in both hereditary and acquired peripheral neuropathies, with a particular emphasis on painful diabetic neuropathy. Her laboratory utilizes an integrated approach that combines pain behavioral testing, electrophysiology, in vitro and in vivo calcium imaging, confocal microscopy, chemogenetics, and single-cell RNA sequencing, using conditional and transgenic mouse models. Recently, her lab has begun to validate therapeutic targets using human tissue, such as dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and skin biopsies from patients with well-characterized painful peripheral neuropathies. 

Diana Tavares Ferreira, PharmD, MS, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas. She earned her PharmD and MS degrees from the University of Coimbra and completed her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield, followed by postdoctoral training at UT Dallas. 

Her research focuses on axonal transport, RNA regulation, and plasticity in neurodegeneration, peripheral neuropathies, and chronic pain. She employs a broad range of omics, experimental, and computational approaches to investigate mechanisms underlying nervous system dysfunction. 

Patrick Dougherty, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Pain Medicine–Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. 

Throughout his career, his research has focused on understanding the neurochemical and physiological consequences of peripheral nerve injury and inflammation on central nervous system activity. His laboratory’s recent work centers on elucidating the mechanisms of pain in cancer patients, with the goal of identifying interventions for chemotherapy‑induced neuropathic pain and cancer‑related hyperalgesia. This work includes complementary clinical and preclinical studies, combining quantitative sensory testing with skin biopsy to define the specific sensory nerve fibers involved in chronic chemoneuropathy.

His research was among the first to demonstrate that cancer itself can contribute to neuropathy prior to treatment and that pre‑existing differences in distal innervation influence pain vulnerability. More recent studies have characterized anatomic, physiological, and transcriptomic changes in human dorsal root ganglia associated with neuropathic pain, revealing sexually dimorphic molecular mechanisms underlying ectopic neuronal activity and persistent pain. 

Dr. Alessandro Chiarotto has a background in physiotherapy (BSc, University of Padua, 2005) and clinical epidemiology (MSc ‘cum laude’, VU University Amsterdam, 2014). During his PhD, he coordinated an international group of researchers, clinicians and patients consumers to develop a core outcome measurement set for clinical trials in patients with low back pain. He completed his PhD in 2018 (VU University Amsterdam) with a thesis entitled “A core outcome measurement set for low back pain”. Since 2018, he works at the Department of General Practice of Erasmus MC. He also works part-time at the VU Department of Health Sciences.

Dr. Chiarotto’s research currently focuses on the clinical management of patients with spine-related musculoskeletal disorders, and on methodological research on the assessment and interpretation of patient-reported outcome measures. He was co-promotor of one PhD student who successfully defended his PhD (2020, Erasmus MC). He now supervises 7 PhD students and one post-doctoral researcher. He has > 40 articles published in international scientific journals (Scopus H-Index 16), including high ranking journals like BMJ, Pain, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. Two years and half after the end of his PhD, he acquired > 500.000€ in research funding.

Laura A. Frey Law is a Professor of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at the University of Iowa, where she leads research within the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory. Her work centers on two major areas of investigation: pain heterogeneity and the dynamics of muscular strength and fatigue.

Dr. Frey Law’s research on pain seeks to understand the multifactorial contributors to individual pain variability, including biological sex, psychological traits, genetics, and activity levels. Utilizing experimental human pain models—such as intramuscular infusion, cold pressor testing, and induced muscle fatigue—along with survey-based measures of pain perception and personality characteristics, she investigates why women appear more likely than men to exhibit referred pain despite similar local pain responses.

Her second line of research focuses on mathematical modeling and empirical study of strength and fatigue, conducted in collaboration with the Virtual Soldier Research group. This work explores static and dynamic strength indices, aging-related differences, sex-based variations, and muscle-specific fatigue patterns to better understand human physical performance capacity and its clinical implications.

Paul W. Hodges DSc MedDr PhD BPhty(Hons) FAA FACP APAM(Hon) is an National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow (Level 3), Professor and Director of the Centre for Innovation in Pain and Health Research (CIPHeR) at The University of Queensland (UQ). He is lead chief investigator on an NHMRC Synergy Grant that includes colleagues from the Universities of Queensland, Adelaide and South Australia, and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. Paul is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, which is a Fellowship of the nation's most distinguished scientists, elected by their peers for outstanding research that has pushed back the frontiers of knowledge. He is also a Fellow of the Australian College of Physiotherapists, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science, and was made an Honoured member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association, their highest honour.

Stephanie Smith is a researcher within the Pain Centre Versus Arthritis at the University of Nottingham, studying pain management in osteoarthritis knee pain. Stephanie completed a BSc and MRes in Sports and Exercise Science at Nottingham Trent University, followed by a PhD at Glasgow Caledonian University exploring neuromuscular control in knee osteoarthritis. Stephanie then continued working as a post-doc researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University investigating the biomechanics of knee osteoarthritis before joining the University of Nottingham. Her interests lie in bridging the gap between basic science and clinical applications which a particular focus on neuromuscular control, muscle function and pain in osteoarthritis, rheumatic diseases and musculoskeletal conditions. She has also published in phenotyping and ultrasound in osteoarthritis.

Curatolo is professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at the University of Washington, endowed professor for medical education, and research and director of the interventional pain program. His expertise is in pain management, education and research. Having published over 220 publications, his research focuses on studying nociceptive processes in humans to improve the understanding of pain and facilitate the development of treatments. Curatolo was one of the initiators of the field of ultrasound-guided interventional pain procedures. With an extensive experience in university teaching and mentoring, he has been invited to hold over 300 lectures, courses and workshops in national and international meetings. He has served as reviewer for multiple high ranked scientific journals, funding agencies and external academic institutions.

Luana Colloca is an NIH-funded physician-scientist who conducted ground-breaking studies that have advanced scientific understanding of the psychoneurobiological bases of endogenous systems for pain modulation in humans including the discovery that the vasopressin system is involved in the enhancement of placebo effects with a dimorphic effect. Currently, her team conducts basic and translational research on genomics of orofacial chronic pain, brain mechanisms of expectancy - and observationally-induced hypoalgesia - and immersive virtual reality. Her research has been published in top-ranked international journals including Biological Psychiatry, Pain, Nature Neuroscience, JAMA, Lancet Neurology, Science and NEJM. The impact of her innovative work is clear from her outstanding publications, citation rate, numerous invited lectures worldwide and media featured by The National Geographic, The New Scientist, Washington Post, Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Nature, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, News and World Reports.

Dr. Staja “Star” Booker, PhD, RN, FAAN is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Florida, College of Nursing, widely recognized for her pioneering scholarship on pain disparities, injustices, and health equity. She leads a transformative program of research on the science of pain and aging, advancing understanding of the lived experiences and management of chronic pain among older adults—particularly those who identify as African American/Black. Dr. Booker’s research portfolio is distinguished by multiple NIH-funded studies, reshaping how pain in later life is conceptualized and managed and improving health and quality of life for older adults experiencing pain and disability. Her current NIH-funded R01 is a randomized controlled trial testing an innovative pain self-management intervention designed to address social determinants influencing chronic musculoskeletal pain in African Americans/Blacks.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, she has authored over 110 peer-reviewed publications and editorials, eleven book chapters, and delivered 140 scientific presentations. She is a distinguished scientist, nurse, and advocate. She served on the inaugural Board of Directors for the United States Association for the Study of Pain, helping to develop a new scientific organization in the U.S. Her exceptional contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including the University of Florida Excellence Award for Assistant Professors—the first ever awarded to College of Nursing faculty—as well as the Southern Nursing Research Society’s Early Science Investigator Award, the IASP Pain in Older Persons SIG Junior Investigator Award, and the American Society for Pain Management Nursing® Excellence in Nursing Award for Pain Management of the Older Adult. Dr. Booker remains an influential leader and active member in several national and international pain, gerontology, and nursing organizations, where she continues to advance equity, innovation, and excellence in pain research, care, and education.