Sebastian Schoppmann is deputy head of the Department of Surgery, head of the Upper GI Service, and principal investigator in the Upper GI Research Group of the Surgical Research Laboratories at the Medical University of Vienna. Since 2013 Dr. Schoppmann has headed the University Clinic of Surgery's Manometry unit at the same university. Dr. Schoppmann's training included periods as a fellow at the Clinical Institute of Pathology and the Surgical Department at the Medical University of Vienna, and in 2001 he completed a PhD at IMP - the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna. Further he worked as a senior clinical expert at the Prince Court Medical Center, Kuala Lumpur. He was appointed Associate Professor for Surgery at the Department of Surgery, Medical University of Vienna in 2006, and from 2009 to 2011, he served as director of the European Society of Quality in Health (Vienna Office). In 2019 he became president of the Austrian Society of Surgical Oncology (ASSO). He has absolved various Visiting-Professor-ships at the University of California Los Angelos (John Lipham) or the University of Milano (Luigi Bonavina) Dr. Schoppmann has received several awards, including the , Billroth Prize or ACO-ASSO Prize in 2007. He is an associate editor of the European Journal of Surgical Oncology and is a reviewer for several leading journals. He is a member of various professional organizations, including the Austrian Society of Surgery, the European Society of Medical Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology and founding member of the European Foregut Society.
Martin Riegler is a well-known surgeon with an excellent national and international reputation in the field of GERD and Barrett's esophagus. Dr. Riegler completed his medical education in 1988 at the Medical University Vienna (MUW) and his subsequent training included 5 years as a research fellow at the Department of Gastroenterology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard University, Boston. In 2003 Dr. Riegler was a visiting professor at the Keck School of Medicine, where he was jointly responsible for developing a novel, histopathology-based diagnosis and treatment algorithm for GERD and Barrett's esophagus. Between 2005 and 2013 Dr. Riegler headed the manometry unit at the University Clinic of Surgery at the Medical University Vienna (MUW); during this time he introduced further new diagnostic tools and launched highly innovative treatments for Barrett's esophagus and GERD. In 2013 Dr. Riegler initiated the first Reflux Medical Center in Vienna, which focuses solely on the diagnosis and treatment of GERD, Barrett's esophagus, and cancer prevention. Since 2003 Dr. Riegler has been Editor in Chief of European Surgery, the official publication of the Austrian and seven other European surgical societies. He is also a member of the Committee of the Austrian Society of Surgeons and has organized numerous international scientific meetings, symposia, and courses on esophagology in Europe.