Provisional Head of the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Bielefeld University, Germany.

Author of over 150 publications, with a specialized focus on Otology, Neurotology, Hearing Implants, Robotics, and Data Science. Expertise includes Plastic Surgery, Skull Base Surgery, and Head & Neck Surgery.

Recent research contributions include groundbreaking work on intracochlear pressure induction for cochlear implant hearing preservation, MRI behaviour of cochlear implants, and electrophysiologic estimation of cochlear implant electrode positioning.

Karen Gordon, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and a Graduate Faculty Member in the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. She works at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, as a Senior Scientist in the Research Institute and an Audiologist in the Department of Communication Disorders. She is Director of Research in Archie’s Cochlear Implant Laboratory and holds the Bastable-Potts Health Clinician Scientist Award in Hearing Impairment and Cochlear Americas Chair of Auditory Development. Karen’s collaborative research focuses on auditory development in children who are deaf and use auditory prostheses including cochlear implants. Her work is supported by research funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the American National Institute of Health along with the Cochlear Americas Chair in Auditory Development and generous donations.

Dr. Soman is an educator, mentor, and professor in the field of Deaf Education. In 2008, she earned the Listening and Spoken Language Specialist Auditory-Verbal Educator (LSLS AVEd) certification from the AGBell Academy. She was awarded a PhD in Hearing and Speech Sciences from Vanderbilt University in 2017.

Over the last 20 years, Dr. Soman has worked with children and families in special schools, mainstream schools, and clinical settings. Dr. Soman is a mentor to teachers and therapists in USA and India pursuing LSLS AVT/Ed Certification. She has been training masters level students in the USA since 2009.

Dr. Soman provides online training and mentorship in English, Hindi, and Marathi to teachers of DHH students, therapists, and special educators around the world.

Professor Thomas Lenarz is a renowned expert in otology and neurotology, specialized in hearing research and cochlear implant technology. He serves as the Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and is the Director of the German Hearing Center (DHZ).

Prof. Lenarz has significantly advanced the field of auditory implants through his groundbreaking research on cochlear and auditory brainstem implants. Under his leadership, the ENT-clinic at Hannover Medical School has become a leading international institution for hearing research, patient care, and innovation.

He has authored numerous publications and received prestigious awards for his contributions to hearing sciences. Prof. Lenarz is also actively involved in clinical research and collaborates with leading global experts to improve hearing rehabilitation and implant technologies.

His work continues to shape the future of audiology and offers hope to patients worldwide.

Dr David Roytowski treats diseases of the brain, spine and peripheral nerves, and performs a range of cranial and spinal surgeries for both adult and paediatric patients.

Dr Roytowski makes an effort to offer minimally invasive surgeries wherever clinically indicated.

These approaches may include:
- Microsurgical (use of an operating microscope)
- Endosurgical (use of an endoscope)
- Endoscopically assisted (use of both micro and an endoscope)

He often makes use of stereotactic guidance – computer guided surgeries to achieve 1mm accuracies.

Dr Roytowski has a particular interest in skull base surgeries, which require operating at deep parts of the brain with the use of surgical magnification. Other special fields of interest include pituitary and oncological surgery for the treatment of cancer and tumours.

Dr LM Hofmeyr (Louis Murray Hofmeyr) qualified as a medical doctor (MBChB) at the University of Pretoria (UP) in 1993. He has managed more than 600 patients with vestibular schwannomas (acoustic neuromas), one of Africa’s most extensive case series. He has performed over 400 cochlear implants, including all three devices currently on the South African market. He also described and managed the first patient in South Africa with superior canal dehiscence syndrome (SCDS) in 2006 and has since treated and operated on more than 200 patients with SCDS.

Dr Hofmeyr is a member of the South African Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery (SA ENT Society) and the current President of The South African Cochlear Implant Group (SACIG).

He is a founder member and director of Cape Hearing Implants (CHi), a non-profit company specialising in implantable hearing devices. His other interests include vertigo, dizziness, balance problems, ear disease, hearing loss, Bell’s palsy, tinnitus and the rare genetic condition sclerosteosis.

Dr Hofmeyr has a particular interest in all types of inner ear surgery.

Dr. Ashen Nanan is a distinguished Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) Specialist based in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a particular focus on otology and endolaryngeal surgery.

Educational Background:
1998: MBChB from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
2007: Fellowship in Otorhinolaryngology (FC ORL) from the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa.
2008: MMed in Otolaryngology from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Professional Affiliations:
- Practices at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre.
- Honorary Consultant in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Areas of Expertise:
- Allergy
- Halitosis
- Headache
- Hearing and Dizziness
- Voice Disorders

Dr. Nanan's extensive training and dedication to his field have established him as a leading ENT specialist in the region.