Emiel F.M. Wouters Professor Emiel F.M. Wouters studied medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven (Leuven, Belgium), where he graduated in 1978. He was trained in internal medicine at the Annadal Hospital Maastricht (Maastricht, the Netherlands) and the University Hospital Leuven (Leuven). In 1981, he started his residency at the Department of Pulmonology of the University Hospital Maastricht (Maastricht) and was registered as a pulmonologist in July 1984. He received his PhD for his thesis, entitled ‘‘Bronchial response in COPD measured by forced oscillation technique’’, at the same university in 1987. After his appointment to Associate Professor of Pulmonology in 1988, he became Full Professor and Chairman of the Department of Respiratory Medicine of the University Hospital Maastricht in 1992 and Chairman of the Medical Board of the Asthma Centre Hornerheide (Horn, the Netherlands). He is currently involved in research into inflammation and multi-component pathology of COPD. Professor Wouters has acted as Chair of the Scientific Board of the Dutch Asthma Foundation, as well as Chair of the Rehabilitation and Chronic Care Group of the European Respiratory Society (ERS). He was Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Monograph (ERM) until 2005. Professor Wouters is the Director of the Centre for Chronic Diseases of the Maastricht University Medical Centre (Maastricht, the Netherlands), the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Integrated Rehabilitation of Chronic Organ Failure (CIRO Horn) and the research leader of the COPD Centre of Excellence of the NUTRIM (Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism) Research School (Maastricht University Medical Centre). He is also visiting professor at the University of Vermont (Burlington, VT, USA). Professor Wouters fulfils different memberships of the scientific boards and task forces of respiratory medicine, and has published as (co)author of more than 500 papers in scientific journals, largely related to COPD. viii