Ann McNeill is a Professor Emeritus of Tobacco Addiction in the National Addiction Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. She graduated from the University of Nottingham with a first class joint honours degree in zoology and psychology and then carried out her PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry focusing on the development of dependence on smoking. Since that time Ann has held a variety of academic and public sector posts focusing largely on tobacco control research. She has published more than 450 peer-reviewed publications and her research ranges across prevention, cessation, harm reduction and local, national and international policy. Ann has a particular interest in the relationship between smoking, mental health and inequalities and co-chaired a national Mental Health and Smoking Partnership led by the charity Action on Smoking and Health for 10 years. Ann has been the recipient of several awards including a World Health Organisation World No Tobacco Day award for contributions to tobacco control, the Doll-Wynder Award by the international Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, and she was made a CBE in the New Years Honour’s list in 2026.  

Robert West is Professor Emeritus of Health Psychology at University College London. He specialises in behaviour change and addiction. He is former Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal, Addiction, and has acted as an advisor to the English Department of Health on tobacco control and currently advises the Public Health Wales Behavioural Science Unit. He helped write the blueprint for the UK’s national network of stop-smoking clinics and is co-founder of the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model of behaviour, the Behaviour Change Wheel framework for intervention development, and the PRIME Theory of motivation. He has authored more than 900 scientific papers and is one of the world’s top cited smoking cessation experts. For more information see https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/10502-robert-west.

Professor Linda Bauld is the Bruce and John Usher Chair in Public Health in the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh and Chief Social Policy Adviser to the Scottish Government. Her research focuses on the prevention or treatment of the main modifiable risk factors for Non-Communicable Diseases with a particular focus on nicotine and tobacco. She is Principal Investigator for Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK) - funded by the ESRC as a leadership hub for behavioural research across topics and disciplines. Linda is Vice Chair of Diabetes UK and a board member of the Faculty of Public Health, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Academy of Social Sciences. She chairs Cancer Research UK’s international cancer prevention advisory group and is a member of the scientific advisory group for the Canadian Institutes for Health Research Institute of Population and Public Health. Former roles include as scientific adviser on tobacco control to the UK government and as cancer prevention adviser for Cancer Research UK. Her contribution to the 2026 Nicotine Summit is in her academic role only and not any of her other roles.

Dr Emma Beard is an Associate Professor in Statistics and Quantitative Methods in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London (UCL), with a focus on tobacco, alcohol and public health. She has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed publications and is Senior Statistics and Methodology Editor for Addiction. Emma’s research spans tobacco use, vaping, smoking cessation and population health, including work using the Smoking and Alcohol Toolkit Studies to monitor trends and evaluate changes in policy and practice. More recently, her work has focused on health inequalities and inclusion health, including developing novel approaches to account for hidden and under-represented populations in national estimates. Her research and methodological expertise have contributed to national tobacco-control policy and evidence, including the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) reports. She has worked closely with organisations including ASH, the Office for National Statistics, UK Health Security Agency and NICE. Emma is a Chartered Psychologist, Graduate Statistician of the Royal Statistical Society and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr Nathan Davies is a specialty registrar in public health at Lincolnshire County Council and honorary assistant professor at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His research broadly focuses on the commercial determinants of health, with a particular focus on translating research into public health practice. His PhD at the University of Nottingham focused on the acceptability, implementation and potential effects of the UK's smokefree generation policy (also known as a generational tobacco sales ban). He is an Associate Editor at Public Health in Practice and is involved in supporting local authorities to use and produce research evidence.

The Science Media Centre a UK charity set up in 2002 to help scientists communicate the evidence on controversial issues to the public through the national news media.  Tom has degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Bioinformatics, and he joined the SMC in April 2008.  In that time he has worked on a number of high profile stories including mobile phones and cancer, GM crops, fracking and climate change; in every case it was vitally important that the voices of the very best scientists were heard among the uproar.  Although independent, the SMC is unashamedly pro-science and has no ‘brand’ to promote.  This gives them the freedom to concentrate on what is important: keeping sound, evidence-based science at the top of the news agenda.

Hayden McRobbie is a public health medicine specialist. He is Professor of Population Health at Queen Mary University of London, where he leads the Centre for Public Health and Policy and the Health and Lifestyle Research Unit, and holds clinical oversight of commissioned stop smoking and weight management services across several East London boroughs. He was among the first researchers to study novel nicotine products in a clinical trial setting, running a randomised crossover trial of an early e-cigarette device in 2010 and a randomised trial of a nicotine pouch in 2009. He went on to co-author the landmark 2013 Lancet trial comparing e-cigarettes with nicotine patches for smoking cessation and has continued that line of work ever since. His broader research and clinical work spans smoking cessation, e-cigarettes, alternative nicotine products and harm reduction, obesity and health equity, with funding from NIHR, NHMRC and the UK Medical Research Council. Before returning to QMUL in 2025, he was Regional Director of New Zealand's National Public Health Service and spent over a decade as an adviser to the New Zealand Ministry of Health on smoking cessation and tobacco control. He holds fellowships with the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine, the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine, and the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.

Dr Sharrock is a Respiratory Consultant at Gateshead Health NHS FT and Clinical Lead for Tobacco Dependency within the NENC ICS. Ruth’s passion to treat tobacco dependency arises from seeing the harm caused by tobacco on the front line within the NHS. Ruth has worked across NENC to support Foundation Trusts to implement the Tobacco Dependency Treatment Services as per the NHS Long Term Plan. She contributes to many other work streams encouraging them to embed identification of and treatment for tobacco dependency as a core component of prevention and for it’s critical role in addressing Health Inequalities. Ruth is passionate about developing barrier-free support for those who smoke has worked alongside colleagues to deliver a region wide NHS staff smoking cessation offer that saw huge success, including the adoption of vapes as part of comprehensive offer of support.

Andy worked as a mental health nurse in acute and forensic psychiatry before specialising in the field of substance misuse treatment. In 1997 he completed an MSc in Addictive Behaviour at St George’s Hospital Medical School before beginning his clinical and then academic career in smoking cessation there with Professor Robert West. In 2003 he took up post as Assistant Director of Tobacco Studies and Senior Research Nurse at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, University College London and in 2005 completed his PhD on smoking cessation. Andy was co-founder of the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training and is proud to be its Chief Executive leading a team of experts that translate research into practice through training programmes, guidance documents, and consultancy.

Dr Nicola Lindson is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford. She has been involved in tobacco smoking research since 2008. Her work has mainly focused on ways to help people to stop smoking and she is a core member of the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group, leading their living systematic reviews of ‘Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation’, and ‘Interventions for quitting vaping’, which have informed international policy and guidelines. Nicola leads the Oxford Tobacco Addiction research Group (OxTAG) and is currently carrying out research looking at the best ways to provide smoking cessation support to people experiencing financial difficulty, and is leading a programme grant investigating the provision of smoking cessation advice and e-cigarettes within outpatient mental health services.

Dr Ailsa Butler is a researcher at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, University of Oxford, with research interests in smoking cessation and the evaluation of effective approaches to help people quit smoking and vaping. She is an author of the Cochrane living systematic review ‘Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation’ and joint first author of the Cochrane living review of ‘Interventions for quitting vaping’. The latest update of ‘Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation’, published in August 2026, received substantial international media attention, and findings have informed guidance and policy documents from numerous national and international organisations. This work is undertaken with the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group and funded by Cancer Research UK. Ailsa’s research focuses on the synthesis and translation of evidence to inform public health policy and practice.With an academic training in epidemiology and infectious disease modelling, University of Oxford and Imperial College, her research has broadened to encompass major non-communicable disease risk factors, particularly smoking and obesity. Ailsa has a background in health policy, including spending more than seven years working in Parliament for an All-Party Parliamentary Group on HIV/AIDS, bringing medical and epidemiological evidence and voluntary-sector perspectives to Parliamentarians and drafting legislative amendments, speeches and policy briefings. Ailsa contributes to research governance at the University of Oxford, including as a member of the Oxford Primary Care Hosted Research Datasets Independent Scientific Committee (PrimDISC) which provides independent scientific oversight of research using primary care data. She was a contributor to the Royal College of Physicians’ report E-cigarettes and harm reduction: An evidence review. Ailsa received her DPhil from the University of Oxford.

Euan was elected in 2024 as the Member of Parliament for Falkirk, following a 2-year stint as a councillor for the Falkirk South ward. Euan is chair of the APPG for responsible vaping, in that role he has called for evidence-based regulation on vapes as the Tobacco and Vapes Act is implemented. A member of the bill committee for the recent Tobacco and Vapes Act, Euan has been closely involved in the parliamentary debate on smoking cessation and a champion for retaining vaping as a pathway for adult smokers to quit while reducing youth uptake.

Tessa Langley is a health economist specialising in the field of tobacco control. She graduated with an Honours degree in Economics and Economic History from the University of Warwick in 2007 and went on to work as a Junior Researcher at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Health Technology Assessment in Vienna and as a trainee in DG Health and Consumers at the European Commission in Brussels. She completed a Masters in Public Health at the University of Nottingham in 2009 before continuing to a research role, PhD and subsequently a lectureship at UoN. She currently holds the role of Associate Professor in Health Economics. The main focus of Tessa's research is on polices designed to reduce consumption of unhealthy commodities including tobacco, alcohol and foods high in fat, salt and sugar. Tessa has undertaken consultancy for the World Bank and Cancer Research UK and is a member of the Royal College of Physicians' Tobacco Advisory Group, which has published numerous reports on tobacco, smoking and e-cigarettes which have informed national policy in the UK. She is a Deputy Editor for the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research. She currently convenes two Masters in Public Health modules and teaches on a number of other modules. She supervises PhD students undertaking research in tobacco control and a range of other public health and health economics topics. Tessa is Deputy Director of Doctoral Programmes for the School of Medicine.

Kate Pike is the Lead Officer for Tobacco and Vaping for the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and Co-ordinator for Trading Standards North West. She supports the delivery of Operation Joseph through National Trading Standards to tackle the supply of illegal vapes, and sales of vapes to children. She sits on the Vaping Expert Panel, which provides support to Trading Standards Officers across the country in delivering regulation around vaping as well as to businesses to enable them to comply with the complex legislation around vaping. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) is a professional association which represents and trains trading standards professionals working in local authorities, business and consumer sectors and in central government in the UK and overseas. She has been involved for many years on the regulatory side and was a member of the Department of Health tobacco expert group for many years.

Dr Eve Taylor is a Lecturer in Nicotine and Tobacco Research. Her work focuses on nicotine and tobacco policy, examining patterns of use, perceptions, and health effects associated with a range of nicotine and tobacco products, including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco products, cigars, shisha, chewing tobacco, and cannabis. Dr Taylor’s policy-focused research examines the promotion, packaging, and marketing of nicotine and tobacco products. She has led some of the first studies on standardised packaging for vapes, nicotine pouches, and heated tobacco products. Her work has been cited in government consultations and policy documents, including evidence relating to the UK Tobacco and Vapes Act.

The founder and managing director of ECigIntelligence, Tim is a UK-qualified attorney, having worked at the European Commission, BSkyB and Herbert Smith (an international law firm), AOL Europe, as director of public affairs at Betfair (IPO in 2010 valued at £1.5bn), and as a partner in a New York VC-funded start-up in the diamond sector. Tim holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Law, London and a Masters in Geology from Oxford University.

Prof Sarah Jackson is a Professorial Research Fellow in the UCL Alcohol and Tobacco Research Group. Her work focuses on monitoring population trends in smoking, vaping, and alcohol use and evaluating the effectiveness of smoking cessation aids, interventions, and policies at the individual and population level. To do this, she makes use of large, population-based datasets such as the Smoking and Alcohol Toolkit Study. She has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications relating to nicotine and tobacco, alcohol, and other health-related issues such as obesity and cancer. She has also contributed to influential reports on smoking, vaping, and health by the Royal College of Physicians. The contribution of her work has been recognised by several awards, including the Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA)'s Impact Prize and early career awards from the SSA (Fred Yates Prize) and UK Society for Behavioural Medicine. Prof Jackson holds leadership positions in associations relating to nicotine and tobacco research. She is Past President for Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco's European Chapter (SRNT Europe) and sits on Action on Smoking and Health’s advisory council. Dr Jackson is also a Senior Editor at the journal Addiction and Social Media Editor for Nicotine & Tobacco Research. She has served as a reviewer for numerous peer-reviewed publications, including large evidence reviews on nicotine vaping in England commissioned by Public Health England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.

Martin has recently retired as Tobacco Control Programme Lead for (OHID) The Office of Health Improvement and Disparities (previously Public Health England). He joined PHE in February after 7 years at Action on Smoking and Health. Martin has worked in Public Health since the mid 1980’s when he was involved in HIV prevention work. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health.

Professor Caitlin Notley leads the Public Health Research Department and the Addiction Research Group at the University of East Anglia. She is a social scientist, with research expertise in clinical trials and applied mixed methods. Her particular areas of expertise are tobacco smoking cessation, relapse prevention and harm reduction. She is Editor-in-Chief for the journal ‘Nicotine and Tobacco Research’, co-chairs the Cancer Research UK E-Cigarette Research Forum, and is also an author of the Cochrane ‘E-cigarettes for smoking cessation’ living systematic review.

Dr. Karl Erik Lund is currently senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. He was Research Director at the Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research from 2006-2018. He has been involved in tobacco control work since the mid-1980s. Dr Lund has been a member of several expert committees including WHO’s International Agency for Cancer Research (IARC) and served as Associate Editor in Nicotine & Tobacco Research. Dr. Lund has delivered keynote lectures and chaired scientific committees for several international conferences. He has served as an expert witness for the plaintiff in several tort liability lawsuits against the tobacco industry and given statements before the UK High Court of Justice and in the European Court of Justice. Dr. Lund has received the Norwegian Medical Association’s Award in preventive medicine, he holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from 1996 and was formally assessed with qualifications as Professor in 2009.

Tord Finne Vedoy’s career has been dedicated to advancing knowledge of substance abuse and tobacco use in Norway. His research has significantly advanced understanding of the impact of e-cigarettes, snus, and nicotine replacement therapy products on smokers and non-smokers alike. Vedoy’s work has been pivotal in shaping public health policies and addressing the challenges posed by substance abuse in the country

Dr. Jonathan Foulds has spent most of his career finding ways to help smokers beat their addiction to tobacco. He has been a principal investigator on grants totaling well over $27 million and has been invited to speak on smoking cessation in more than 15 countries. Dr Foulds trained as a clinical psychologist at the University of Glasgow, and obtained his PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London. He worked at St George’s Hospital Medical School as the UK’s first “lecturer in tobacco addiction” and then moved to University of Surrey and continued to work as a principal clinical psychologist at Broadmoor Hospital, a large maximum security facility for mentally disordered offenders. He has spent most of his career developing and evaluating methods to help smokers beat their addiction to tobacco. He was on the Management Group of the Hungarian Anti-Smoking Campaign (1995-6), has been a technical leader of a World Health Organization project to improve the regulation of tobacco dependence treatment in Europe (2000), and was Director of Research for the UK charity, Quit, which ran the largest telephone helpline for smokers in the world at that time. From 2000-2010 he was the director of the Tobacco Dependence Program at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers) – School of Public Health. Although primarily funded for service activities, TDP program members published over 90 articles on tobacco during that period. He has been a principle investigator or co-PI on grants totaling over $50 million and has published over 200 scientific papers and book chapters on tobacco and nicotine. He has been invited to speak on smoking cessation in over 15 countries. He acts as a consultant to pharmaceutical companies developing smoking cessation products, and has testified to FDA on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco on regulation of nicotine replacement therapies. He continues to teach on smoking cessation and conduct research on tobacco and health at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA. In 2025, along with Jill Williams MD, he published the book "Treating Addiction to Tobacco and Nicotine Products" (American Psychiatric Association Publishing).