The Guest Editors J. Strausz C.T. Bolliger J. Strausz is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and General Director of the Kora ´nyi National Institute for Tuberculosis and Pulmonology, Budapest, Hungary. He received doctorates in medicine from the Semmelweis Medical University, Budapest. He won a fellowship from the Humboldt Foundation to work at the Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, between 1987 and 1989. He obtained his PhD in 1987 and DSc in 1991. He has served as Member at Large of the Executive Committee of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), and as Secretary General then later President of the Hungarian Respiratory Society. The research interests of J. Strausz are primarily in the areas of lung cancer, and diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic procedures of the airways. He is involved in several areas of clinical and basic research, notably in thoracic oncology, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and sarcoidosis. He has published over 200 original articles, reviews and chapters. C.T. Bolliger went to medical school in Basel and Lausanne, Switzerland. During his pulmonology training at the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS), University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa, he also obtained an HonBSc in Epidemiology. From 1989–1999 he served as a consultant in the Division of Pulmonology at the University Hospital of Basel, where he obtained his PhD. He then moved back to Cape Town as Associate Professor and as of 2002 has been full Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonology, Dept of Medicine, FHS, University of Stellenbosch. C.T. Bolliger is also Director of Respiratory Research, conducting investigator-driven as well as contract research, mainly in asthma, COPD and smoking cessation. One of his early and ongoing clinical and research interests is thoracic oncology, with special emphasis on interventional bronchoscopy and thoracoscopy, both diagnostic and therapeutic. His other interests are cardiopulmonary exercise testing and tobacco control, with emphasis on smoking cessation. He maintains a close professional link with Switzerland, where he leads a national programme (Hospital QuitSupport) to implement and improve hospital-based smoking cessation clinics. He is Editor-in-Chief of Respiration as well as the book series Progress in Respiratory Research. He has a long-standing commitment to the ERS, with 12 yrs of officership, including Head of the Clinical Assembly. Eur Respir Mon, 2010, 48, vii. Printed in UK - all rights reserved. Copyright ERS 2010 European Respiratory Monograph. Print ISSN: 1025-448x online ISSN: 2075-6674. DOI: 10.1183/1025448x.00992309 vii