Dr. Oriol Angerri
Head of the Lithiasis Division
Urology Department, Fundació Puigvert, Barcelona

Dr. Angerri is a worldwide well known endourologist, specialized in supine PCNL and High Power Holmium laser. He has more than 15 years of experience as Urologist and extensive training in different fields of the specialty. He has obtained various scholarships for his academic achievements, being able to train at the Karolinksa Institutet, in Sweden or to stay in the Urology Department of the University of Miami, US.

Specifically, his areas of interest and specialization are endourology and laparoscopic surgery: percutaneous nephrolithotomy, semi-rigid and flexible ureteroscopy treated with Holmium laser, radical laparoscopic and Thullium laser nephrectomy and bipolar TURP for BPH, among other pathologies and urological procedures. He has performed more than 5,000 surgical procedures, ranging from the simplest such as circumcision or vasectomy to the most complex such as living donor transplantation.

Throughout his career, he has combined health care work with scientific and research activity and he has actively contributed to several research projects. He is also a regular guest speaker in national and international urology congresses and scientific meetings and he has more than 200 papers presented, some of them awarded. He has authored over 60 scientific publications and co-authored textbook chapters on the specialty.

He also carries out an intensive teaching activity as coordinator and organizer of Urology courses and as professor of seminars and skills training at the Faculty of Medicine of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) – Santa Creu i Sant Pau Hospital.

He is currently Head of the Lithiasis Division of Fundació Puigvert’s Urology Department in Barcelona.

Dr. Ralph V. Clayman is a graduate of Grinnell College and the University of California – San Diego, School of Medicine.  Following his residency in Urology at the University of Minnesota, he completed an AUA research scholarship at the University of Texas – Southwestern studying cholesterol metabolism in renal cell cancer.  He then spent relocated to Washington University in St. Louis; attaining the rank of Professor of Urology and Radiology. In 1984, he initiated the first fellowship program in Endourology; more than 30 fellows have been trained, many of whom have current leadership positions in academic urology.  In 1990, he and his surgical team performed the world’s first laparoscopic removal of a kidney.  In January 2002, he became Chair of the newly formed Department of Urology at the University of California, Irvine; within four years, the department was listed among the top 20 programs in the country.  In 2009, he became Dean of the School of Medicine at UC Irvine, completing a 5-year term during which time the school of medicine secured full LCME accreditation, achieved a positive financial balance, opened over 750,000 square feet of new space, and initiated the first totally tablet based medical school curriculum.  Based on input from medical school deans across the country, in 2016, he published a book focused on academic leadership entitled, “The Compleat Dean” which has sold over 1,000 copies.

Dr. Clayman is a co-founder of the Endourology Society and served as co-editor of the Journal of Endourology from 1986-2020. He holds 23 patents and has published over 475 peer reviewed manuscripts. Presently he is a Distinguished Professor of Urology in the Department of Urology at UC Irvine.  He has an active clinical practice in urolithiasis and co-directs the Curiosity and Innovation endourology research laboratory and the  fellowship program at UC Irvine.

Dr. Brian Eisner is the Co-Director of the Kidney Stone Program at the MGH. He specializes in kidney stone surgery, kidney stone prevention and related research.

Dr. Eisner was born in Miami, FL and attended Harvard College and the University of Michigan Medical School. He completed urology residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in endourology and urinary stone disease at the University of California, San Francisco. His clinical practice focuses on kidney stone prevention, minimally invasive and surgical treatments for kidney stones, and laparoscopic surgery. He is actively involved in research involving kidney stone prevention, risk factors for kidney stone disease and surgical treatment of kidney stones.

Khurshid R. Ghani, MBChB, MS, FRCS is a Professor of Urology at the University of Michigan. He completed urology training in Edinburgh and London, and undertook a minimally invasive urologic surgery fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, following which he joined the University of Michigan in 2013. He has authored over 180 peer-reviewed articles, and is the co-author of Endourology: A Practical Handbook. Dr Ghani’s main research interests are endoscopic stone surgery, and quality improvement. He has extramural funding to study optimal parameters for holmium laser lithotripsy and has been advancing a Dusting technique for ureteroscopy. He is the Course Director of the Developments in Ureteroscopic Stone Treatment (D.U.S.T.) symposium, which has exposed hundreds of urologists to ureteroscopy techniques. Dr Ghani also serves as the Director of the MUSIC collaborative, a quality group in the State of Michigan comprising 260 urologists and 46 urology practices, with the goal to improve the quality of care for patients with kidney stones, prostate cancer and kidney cancer. Dr Ghani is an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Urology, the Endourology Section Editor for the Urology Video Journal, and serves on the advisory board of Nature Reviews Urology.

Dr. Thomas Knoll is Associate Professor of Urology at Mannheim University Hospital, Germany, and Head of the Department of Urology, Sindelfingen Medical Center, University of Tuebingen, Germany. Dr. Knoll was previously staff member and Head of Endourology and Minimal-invasive surgery at the Department of Urology, University Hospital Mannheim, Germany. Dr. Knoll’s field of expertise includes endourologic, laparoscopic and robotic surgery for urolithiasis, benign prostatic hyperplasia and uro-oncology.

His extensive scientific and clinical work focuses on the interventional treatment of urolithiasis and benign hyperplasia. He performed a large experimental work on the pathogenesis and prevention of calcium oxalate and cystine stone formation.

Dr. Knoll won a total of 9 awards pertaining to his innovation and research, including the Arthur-Smith-Award of the Endourology Society, the best abstract in stone disease of the American Urological Association (AUA), the 2^nd best experimental abstract of the European Association of Urology (EAU) and the Felix-Martin-Oberländer Award of the German Urological Society (DGU)

Dr. Knoll has published over 150 manuscripts in peer-reviewed literature and 16 book chapters.

Dr. Knolls serves an Editorial board member of the Journal of Endourology, the World Journal of Urology, and Urolithiasis. He is Vice-Chair of the EAU Guideline Office and member Member of the EAU Scientific Committee.

Bodo Knudsen, MD, FRCSC is the Director of the Comprehensive Kidney Stone Program at the Ohio State University Wexner Center and holds the rank of Associate Professor with Tenure.   He holds the Henry A. Wise II Endowed Chair in Urology and is currently the Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs within the Department of Urology.  Dr. Knudsen completed his medical school at the University of Manitoba in 1997 and his residency in 2002.  He then completed fellowship in Endourology under the supervision Drs. John Denstedt and Stephen Pautler at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada.  Dr. Knudsen joined the Ohio State University in 2005 and has been on faculty since then.  He served several years as the Interim Department Chair during a period of transition.  His clinical practice is focused on stone disease.  Dr. Knudsen is a member of the R.O.C.K. Society and the EDGE Research Consortium.  Dr. Knudsen has published extensively in the field of Endourology but also strives to achieve appropriate work/life balance and has been proactive in physicians achieving overall well-being. 

Dr. Lipkin received his medical degree from New Jersey Medical School in 2003. He completed his urology residency at New York University Medical Center in 2009. In 2011, he completed an Endourology and Minimally Invasive Urologic Surgery Fellowship with Dr. Glenn Preminger at Duke University Medical Center. His main clinical and academic interests are in the surgical and medical management of kidney stones. His particular research focus is in patient radiation exposure and urologic imaging. He has over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has co-authored several chapters. He was awarded for Best of AUA for an abstract on stone disease in 2012. He also was awarded for Best Endourology Presentation at the World Congress of Endourology in 2012.

Dr. Nicole Miller currently holds the position of Professor of Urology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, TN.  She joined the department in 2007.  She completed her M.D. degree at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2000, and received her urology residency training at the University of Virginia.  Dr. Miller went on to complete a 2 year fellowship in Endourology and Minimally Invasive Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine under the mentorship of Dr. James E. Lingeman.  She specializes in the medical and surgical treatment of kidney stone disease as well as laser surgery for BPH.  Dr. Miller’s research interests include investigation of Randall’s plaque in the pathophysiology of nephrolithiasis, new laser technologies for kidney stone and BPH treatment, novel platforms for BPH surgery and investigation of pathophysiologic pathways for refractory BPH/LUTS.  She has been the major contributor of transition zone prostate tissues from men undergoing surgery for refractory BPH/LUTS as part of Vanderbilt University’s Biorepository in the Center for Benign Urologic Diseases (CBUD) and has co-authored work on this developing resource. She has served as course faculty member and moderator both nationally and internationally for the American Urological Association and Endourological Society in the area of surgical treatment of BPH and nephrolithiasis.  Dr. Miller has served as an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Urology and Journal of Endourology.  She is currently the Director of the Minimally Invasive Surgery and Endourology Fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She also served as a member of the AUA guidelines panel for the Surgical Management of Nephrolithiasis and AUA Leadership Class of 2017. 

Palle Osther, MD, PhD

Professor of Urology, University of Southern Denmark. Head of the Danish National Center for treatment of Urolithiasis in Children. Past President and Honorary Member, EAU Section of Urolithiasis (EULIS). Honorary Member, Swedish Urological Association. Associate Editor, BJU International.

William W. Roberts, MD is Professor of Urology and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan.  He earned a B.S. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992, an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1997, and completed his urology training at the Brady Urological Institute at Johns Hopkins. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 2004 and has been Director of the Division of Endourology since 2016. His clinical practice is focused on minimally invasive surgery, endourology, and urinary stone disease.

Dr. Roberts is part of the multidisciplinary scientific team at the University of Michigan that developed histotripsy, a non-invasive, focused ultrasound technology that induces controlled cavitation to mechanically ablate targeted tissues within the body.  He is the director of the Endourology Translational Research Laboratory which is focused on the optimization and safety of laser lithotripsy.   

Dr. Roberts has presented his work at international and national meetings and has authored over 115 peer-reviewed publications.  His research contributions have been recognized in the form of multiple grants and awards from the National Institutes of Health, American Urological Association Foundation, Coulter Foundation, Engineering and Urology Society, and Industry partners.  He was the 2014 recipient of the prestigious AUA Gold Cystoscope Award.

Dr. Scotland is Assistant Professor and Chief of Endourology Research at UCLA. She earned her medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University  and her doctorate at the Tri-Institutional Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering MD-PhD Program. She then completed her urology residency at Thomas Jefferson University and an endourology fellowship at the University of British Columbia. 

Dr. Scotland’s clinical interests include the treatment of kidney stones, benign prostatic hyperplasia and upper tract urothelial carcinoma. Her basic research at UCLA investigates stone pathogenesis, stone- associated infection and the physiology of peristalsis. She has a particular clinical research interest in developing techniques aimed at improving quality of life for nephrolithiasis patients and has focused recent work on patient engagement with medical management regimens. She is the President of the Collaborative for Research in Endourology (CoRE), an international group of endourologists focused on developing innovative solutions to the care of kidney stone patients and the Vice President of the Society for Infection and Inflammation in Urology.

Dr. Michelle Jo Semins has been a staff urologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) since 2011 and is currently Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Kidney Stone Clinic at UPMC Mercy Hospital.

She completed urology residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital with additional specialty training in the field of endourology.

Dr. Semins has a clinical research focus in kidney stones and is a past awardee of the Young Investigator Research Grant by the Northeastern Section of the AUA. Her special interests are reducing radiation exposure to both patient and provider, managing kidney stones during pregnancy, and minimizing infections in the management of kidney stones. She is a published author of over 40 articles, over 50 abstracts, and 9 book chapters. She is Associate Editor for the journal Urology. She also routinely reviews abstracts and videos for the AUA national meeting and moderates those respective sessions at the annual conference.

Dr. Semins is very active in the NSAUA/AUA. She currently sits on the NSAUA Board as the Pennsylvania Representative and serves on the NSAUA Scholarship Research Committee as Chair, the NSAUA Committee for Nominations, the AUA Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Committee, the AUA Urologic Video Education Committee, and the AUA Publications Committee. She was selected to participate in the 2018-2019 AUA Leadership Program. She is Co-Chair of the Taskforce on Diversity and Inclusivity for the Society of Endourology, She is also an active member of the Society of Women in Urology and Research on Calculus Kinetics Society.

Dr. Semins is a recognized leader in the field of endourology and has been invited faculty at conferences and courses both nationally and internationally. She was named Young Urologist of the Year by the AUA in 2016.

In her spare time, Dr. Semins enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and being outdoors.

Dr. Mario Sofer graduated from medical school in 1988 at The Carol Davila Faculty of Medicine, Bucharest University, Romanian receiving his medical practicing licence after one year of rotation internships in Israeli hospitals. He completed his residency in Urology at Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (TASMC), Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv Israel in the period 1990-1996 when he joined the department of Urology at TASMC as staff urologist. In 1999, Dr. Sofer extended his expertise in Endourology accomplishing a 1 year Endourology Society accredited fellowship with Dr. John Denstedt at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada. This year was followed by a 1-year fellowship in uro-oncology with Dr. Mark Soloway at The University of Miami, USA.

Upon his return to Tel-Aviv, he established a high volume endourological activity in TASMC where he was assumed the role of Director of Endourology Unit.

Dr. Sofer is appointed as Associate Professor of Urology at Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University. In 2016 he joined the Department of Urology at Stanford University, California, USA as a visiting professor.

While maintaining an active clinical practice, he serves as Director of Endourology Society accredited fellowship program in his institution, tutor for students in medicine, coordinator of MD dissertations and was awarded the Excellent Teacher recognition at Tel-Aviv University. He served as the chair of the Israeli Endourology Circle, member of the Israeli Urological Association Board and he is activating in the Fellowship Committee of the Endourology Society.

Dr. Sofer is a permanent reviewer for leading Urological Journals (J. Urol, J. Endourol, Urol, WJUR, CEJU, etc) and is appointed in the board of reviewers of Central European Journal of Urology. He is the author of more than 100 peer reviewed published papers, as well as book chapters and other invited international guest lectures. His main points of interest are treatment of upper tract urothelial carcinoma, supine PCNL, bilateral simultaneous endourologic treatments, research of flows and endourologic technology.

Dr. Sofer is married to Galit Aviram MD (Professor and Chair of Cardio-Thoracic Imaging at TASMC), has 4 children, 2 grand sons and is an amateur piano player and sportsman. 

Contact Information:

Phone: +972-52-4266308

Fax: +972-3-6439516

Tweeter: @mario_sofer

E-mail: [email protected]

Roger L. Sur, MD, is a Professor of Urology at UC San Diego Health. He serves as Director & founder of Comprehensive Kidney Stone Center.  Dr. Sur retired from Navy after 21 years of service.  Lastly, Dr. Sur is also the founder and Program Director of the joint UCSD-Kaiser Permanente Endo-Lap Fellowship.

Dr Olivier TRAXER is Professor of Urology : Sorbonne University (Paris-France) and is the director of the GRC#20 (Clinical Research Group #20) and the minimally invasive surgery section in Tenon Hospital (Paris). He did a research-fellowship at Southwestern Medical School, University of Texas, by Dallas-USA (Charles Y.C PAK & Margaret Sue PEARLE) to subspecialize in Endourology and kidney stone management.

As endo-urologist, his main goal is to improve the knowledge on urinary stone disease and endourology. Pr Traxer published more than 350 per-reviewed papers.

Pr Traxer is a board member of: the EndoUrological Society, the French Association of Urology (AFU) and EAU board member of the EULIS and ESUT. He is an active member of AAEU and AAGUS. He was also the treasurer of SIU. He received in 2010 (Chicago-WCE) the Arthur Smith Award and the Ralph Clayman Mentor Award in 2020. He was also the president of the World Congress of EndoUrology in Paris 2018 (WCE2018).

Prof Ben Turney

MA – University of Cambridge 1996

MB BChir – University of Cambridge 1998

MSc – University of Oxford 2001

PGDipLATHE – University of Oxford 2005

DPhil (PhD) – University of Oxford 2008

Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England (FRCS Urol) – 2013

Positions

• Associate Professor, University of Oxford
• Consultant Urological Surgeon, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Subeditor, British Journal of Urology International (BJUI)
• Elected committee member, BAUS Section of Endourology

Ben Turney is an Associate Professor and Consultant Urological Surgeon in Oxford. HIs research is primarily focused on improving the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of kidney stones and benign prostate disease.

Ben was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge and has undertaken both a Masters and DPhil in Oxford as part of his surgical training. He was an NIHR Academic clinical lecturer in Oxford prior to appointment as consultant in 2014.

Since 2007, Ben has led the Oxford Stone Group which has examined many aspects of stone disease and its management. He has led collaborations with multiple departments within the University of Oxford. Current collaborations include: Mathematics (Profs Sarah Waters & Derek Moulton), Engineering (Profs Robin Cleveland & Jens Rittscher), Epidemiology (Prof Naomi Allen). Genetics (Prof Dominic Furniss, Prof Richard Bryant & Dr Sarah Howles). Ben is the local lead for national NIHR clinical trials in kidney stone treatment. He has supervised many academic and clinical students in research and clinical projects.