sarcoidosis”. Between 2008 and 2013, he was research fellow and subsequently Assistant Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospital of Modena (Modena, Italy), where he joined the Centre for Rare Lung Diseases lead by Professor Luca Richeldi. Since 2015, Paolo Spagnolo has been Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health of the University Hospital of Padua. Paolo Spagnolo’s main research interests include ILD and sarcoidosis with emphasis on genetic predisposition, prediction of disease behaviour and clinical trials of novel therapies. Paolo Spagnolo is the author or co-author of over 100 journal articles, review articles and editorials. Paolo Spagnolo is a member of the editorial boards of BioMed Research International and BMJ Open Respiratory Medicine, and is a Section Editor (ILD) for Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine. He is the Treasurer of the WASOG (World Association of Sarcoidosis and Other Granulomatous diseases) and Secretary of the Study Group on Sarcoidosis of the European Respiratory Society. Athol U. Wells Athol U. Wells graduated at Otago University (Dunedin, New Zealand) in 1979, trained in New Zealand, and eventually moved to the UK permanently in 1999 and regrets not having done this 10 years earlier. He was given professorial status in 2005 and has focused on clinical research in ILD for the last 20 years (including diagnosis, prognostic evaluation and functional–morphological relationships). He has recently been honoured by a European Respiratory Society life-time award but does not see this as an indication that he should retire in the near future! He is very active in guideline groups and has nearly 500 peer-reviewed articles and editorials/review articles. viii https://doi.org/10.1183/2312508X.10033319