H.E. Mr. Qian Minjian, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to Swiss Confederation. Han ethnicity. Born in August 1975. Master of Laws. Member of the CPC.

Franco Cavalli, born in 1942, was the founder and Scientific Director of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI) in Bellinzona (Switzerland). He is currently President of the Foundation, which manages the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR), also located in Bellinzona. He is Professor (Titularprofessor) of medical oncology at the Medical Faculty in Bern (Switzerland) and honorary Professor at different universities.

Prof. Cavalli has an international reputation for the treatment and research in malignant lymphoma. Every second year he organizes in Lugano the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML), which is the most important congress on this topic worldwide. He has been very active also in the field of the clinical evaluation of new cancer drugs. The quality of his work has been recognized by the award of 25 national and international prizes, including recently the Lifetime Award by AACR. He has published more than 600 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

He was Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Oncology, Europe’s premier medical oncology journal. In 1996, he founded the International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group (IELSG), which encompasses now more than 300 institutions in 4 continents. IELSG is the leading cooperative group in the field of the biological and clinical studies in the field of extranodal lymphomas.

Franco Cavalli was President of the Swiss Group for Clinical Research (SAKK), of the Swiss Cancer League and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the European School of Oncology (ESO) and of the World Oncology Forum (WOF). Between 2006 and 2008, he was President of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC). He was also member of WHO committee of selection of essential medicines for cancers from 2015 to 2021.

Prof. Cavalli was member of the Swiss Parliament between 1995 and 2007 and Head of the socialist parliamentary group from 1999 to 2002.

Since 1985 he has been leading medical and humanitarian projects in Central America and Cuba with the association AMCA (Associazione per l’aiuto medico al Centro America) and MediCuba, both funded by him. Since 2012, he has been President of MediCuba Europe. For UICC he led medical projects in Vietnam, Tanzania and Kirgizstan.

June

Dr Emanuele Zucca was born in Turin (Italy) in 1957, he is married and father of two daughters.

He trained in internal medicine and medical oncology in Italy, the United States and England.

Since 1989, he has been working at the Division of Medical Oncology of the Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland (IOSI), where he is presently a consultant and the head of the Lymphoma Unit.

His research programmes in the 1990s resulted in pioneering works on the application of molecular methods for the detection of minimal residual disease in lymphomas, to the elucidation of the effect of antibiotic therapy in low-grade gastric MALT lymphomas as well as the study of the antigen dependent mechanisms in the development of the latter.

Later he focused his research interest on the extranodal lymphomas. Dr Zucca is a co-founder of the IELSG (International Extranodal Lymphoma Study Group), which runs several co-operative clinical and pathological studies; Dr Zucca is author or co-author of more than 100 scientific papers published on peer-reviewed journals and of more than 80 communications at major international scientific meetings.

He is an active member of the European Society for Clinical Oncology (ESMO) and of the American Society of Haematological Oncology (ASCO).

In 2003 Dr Zucca was awarded with the University teaching degree of “Privatdozent” of Oncology/Haematology (associate professor) by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Prof. Andrea Alimonti is the Director of the Institute of Oncology Research (IOR), where he is also head of the Molecular Oncology Group. He is full professor at Università della Svizzera italiana and ETH Zurich.

Prof. Alimonti received his MD degree from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and his medical and training in oncology from the National Cancer Institute of Rome. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer biology first at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and then at Harvard Medical School in Boston. In 2010 he joined the IOR, as head of the Molecular Oncology Group and in January 2024 he was appointed the new IOR Director. During his career, he has obtained important awards and competitive grants (EMBO Young Investigator, Swiss Bridge Award, ERC Starting, Consolidator and Advanced Grants, J. Steiner Cancer Research Award, Prostate Cancer Foundation Award, Award from the Benioff Initiative for Prostate Cancer Research). He is the author of many clinical and basic research publications in major scientific journals (e.g. Science, Nature, Cell, Nat. Gen etc).

Dr. Yulin Qiao received his Medical Diploma from Sichuan Medical College, Master Degree in Medicine from Dalian Medical College in China, PhD from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and Postdoc fellow and Visiting associate in Cancer Prevention Studies Branch, NCI/NIH, USA. He has been involved in many national and international projects to study etiology, primary intervention including HPV vaccines, and early detection of cervical/lung/esophageal/breast cancers through multidisciplinary and global collaborations for helping to promote cancer prevention and control programs in developing countries.

He is an author on over 770 peer reviewed publications in both English and Chinese with 31,530+ citations and h-index 89. He has been one of the Most Cited Chinese Researchers for exceptional research performance in the field of Medicine for 11 consecutive years from 2014 to 2024 (by Elsevier).

Dr. Yuqin Song graduated in 1993 from the Medical English Program of the Clinical Medicine Department at Shandong Medical University. In 1998, she completed her studies in Clinical Hematology (a five-year program) at Shandong Medical University and obtained her Doctorate in Medicine. She then worked in the Oncology Center of the Department of Medical Oncology at Shandong Provincial Hospital.

From March 2004 to May 2006, she conducted postdoctoral research at Peking University Medical Center’s Oncology Center, focusing on tumor etiology and cell biology. Between October 2009 and June 2010, she trained in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of lymphoma at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in the United States.

Since June 2006, Dr. Song has been working in the Lymphatic and Hematological Oncology Department at Peking University Cancer Hospital. Her primary research and clinical focus is the standardized diagnosis and treatment of malignant lymphoma.

Dr. Song is the chairperson of the Lymphatic and Hematologic Tumor Committee of Beijing Anti-Cancer Association, Council Member of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology, Standing Committee Member of the Tumor Hematology Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association.

Dr. Qiang Wei is the director of the Urology Disease Center, Director of the Institute of Urology, Director of the Department of Urology, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of West China Hospital, Sichuan University. He is the Consultation Expert of Central Cadre Health Committee, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Medical Association’s Urology Branch, Vice President of the China Physicians Association’s Urology Branch, Vice Chairman of the Prostate Cancer and Kidney Cancer Committee of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology, Vice Chairman of the Male Genital Oncology Committee of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association. His research areas include: Urological tumors, prostatic tissue inflammation and prostatic diseases, evidence-based medicine, inflammation-cancer transformation.

Dr. Bo Xu is President of Chongqing Cancer Hospital, and he also serves as President of National Society of Artificial Intelligence in Oncology, China Anti-Cancer Association（CACA).

His previous positions include Vice President of Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, as well as Distinguished Fellow and Chairman of Oncology Department at Southern Research Institute (SRI) and Professor of Pathology at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in the United States, where he headed the long-standing cancer research program at SRI. Currently he also serves on the Board of Directors of CACA, an oversea fellow the Royal Society of Medicine of UK, and the editorial board of Radiotherapy and Oncology (the Green Journal) and the Biomedical Journal.

Dr. Xu received Ph.D. degree (1998) in Radiation Oncology from the Peking Union Medical College and he completed his postdoctoral training at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. In 2002, Dr. Xu started a faculty position at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, serving as tenure-tracked Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics. He joined SRI in 2006 as Associate Professor and Head of the Molecular Radiobiology Laboratory. Between 2009-2012, he had served as Professor and Director of Molecular Radiation Oncology in The Houston Methodist Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University.

Dr. Xu’s major research interest is on molecular mechanisms of the DNA damage response. He has published more than 75 peer-review papers in major biomedical journals (including Nature, Cell, Molecular Cell), with more than 8000 citations. Six of his papers have been recommended by Faculty 1000.

Zhao Wei-Li, M.D., PhD, Professor of Hematology, First Deputy Director of Shanghai Institute of Hematology and Vice President of Shanghai Ruijin Hospital. She mainly focuses on the clinical and basic research of hematological malignancies, especially the molecular mechanism and targeted therapy of malignant lymphoma. She innovatively proposed the molecular pathways of apoptosis, angiogenesis and cell differentiation involved in lymphoma progression and the availability of targeted agents for treatment. She has been awarded National Award and is now leading projects granted by National High Technology Research and Development Program of China. She has published over 100 articles on leading hematology journals with total impact factors over 1200.

Dr. Li received his Bachelor Degree from Sun Yat-sen University in 1997 and his Doctoral Degree in Oncology from Sun Yat-sen University in 2002. Dr. Li research has been focused on the treatment and developing of solid tumor especially in lymphoma. At present he holds the position of secretary in Committee of Malignant Lymphoma, Chinese Anti-cancer Association and Committee of Chemotherapy, Guangdong Anti-cancer Association. He has been extensively involved in many several researches sponsored by Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), Chinese Postdoctoral Science Foundation and Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (GNSF) and edited “Cancer Biotherapy”.