2025 Speaker Announcements

Sun Protection Conference 2025
24-25 June 2025
Royal College of Physicians, London

2025 Speakers so far

Adjunct Associate Professor Craig Sinclair

Head of Prevention
Cancer Council Victoria
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Presentation Title Coming Soon!
  • Biography

    We are amazingly privileged to have Professor Craig Sinclair in-person, to open the Sun Conference with the first Keynote. For most in this industry, Professor Sinclair needs no introduction. He is the Head of Prevention at the Cancer Council Victoria, Australia, the Chair of the Technical Committee for Sunscreen Agents Australia, the Director of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Collaborative Centre for UV Radiation and is also a recent recipient of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s ‘Montreal Protocol Award’ for his substantial contribution to human health protection. Prof Sinclair had led the worlds’ most coherent, successful and long-running public education campaigns in the prevention of skin cancer, in the country with its highest rate, and will speak to us directly from his vast, life-long experience.

  • Presentation Outline

    Coming Soon!

Professor Richard Weller

Professor of Medical Dermatology
University of Edinburgh
SPEAKER
Sunlight- Reconsidering Benefit : Risk Ratio
  • Biography

    I graduated in medicine at St Thomas' Hospital, University of London (now part of King's College, London) and undertook my general/internal medicine training in the north of England and in Australia. Having gained my MRCP, I trained in dermatology at the Institute of Dermatology (St John's) in London and in Aberdeen and Edinburgh. I spent some time out of my clinical training to complete a research MD degree. Having completed my dermatology training, I gained a scholarship from the University of Edinburgh, and spent three years in postdoctoral research training in the laboratories of Professor Victoria Kolb-Bachofen, Heinrich-Heine Universität, Dusseldorf, and of Dr Tim Billiar, University of Pittsburgh, USA. I was recruited from America to the post of Senior Lecturer and, latterly, Reader in Dermatology and Principal Investigator at the Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh. My time is divided between clinical duties, where I am an honorary NHS Consultant Dermatologist with a particular interest in medical dermatology and eczema, and the University where I am active in research, particularly on the effects of UV on systemic health.

  • Presentation Outline

    Excess ultraviolet radiation is a risk factor for skin cancer and photo-aging in white skinned people. Equally important however are the significant health benefits which sunlight produces, and the essential nature of these have probably driven the repeated evolution of pale skin phenotypes in humans who have moved to high latitude, low light environments. I have identified a vitamin D independent pathway by which sunlight releases nitric oxide from stores in the skin, to the circulation where it lowers blood pressure and thus cardiovascular disease. More recently, using the data from the UK Biobank, we have shown that for a UK population, increased sunlight exposure correlates with markedly reduced all cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality. In view of the robust data that increased sunlight improves overall health, we must reconsider our attitude to sunlight protection.

  • Biography

    Last, but certainly not least in this first announcement of Sun Conference speakers, we are equally delighted to welcome Roman Mokry to the stage, in-person. Mr Mokry is the Policy Officer within the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW), responsible for overseeing the re-opening and revision of the 2006 European Commission Recommendation on Sunscreen Products which, for 18 years, has formed the fundamental framework for the way sunscreen products are tested and labelled for half a billion consumers. Mr Mokry will provide to the Sun Conference audience a comprehensive update on this crucial process from his unique perspective.

  • Presentation Outline

    Coming Soon!

Dr. Carys Mitchelmore

Director and Professor
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
SPEAKER
Presentation Title Coming Soon!
  • Biography

    Dr. Carys L. Mitchelmore is a professor and interim director of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, Maryland. Her expertise is in environmental health and toxicology spans fundamental and applied questions concerning the exposure, fate and effects of pollutants. Her research is directed towards the detection of chemical contaminants and understanding their toxicity and implications to ecosystem health for risk assessment, regulation, and management activities.

    Dr. Mitchelmore has been building a framework of collaborative interdisciplinary research with NGOs, trade associations, and industrial partners to address societal concerns regarding the environmental risk of emerging personal care product chemicals, including sunscreen ingredient UV filters, especially to endangered and/or understudied species like corals. Her expertise in the impacts of oil and oil spill dispersants was called upon to provide research and expert advice regarding the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil incident.

    Dr. Mitchelmore is invested in integrating scientific research for management and regulatory communities and serves on numerous international and national science advisory groups as an environmental toxicologist, including five National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine committees. She was involved in many advisory groups for the Deepwater Horizon Natural Resource Damage Assessment, provided a report estimating sea turtle losses, and continues to be involved in working groups concerning oil impacts in the environment. She has also provided testimony at Federal, State, and local hearings and served as an expert witness in courts on aquatic toxicity, hazard assessment, and environmental regulations and management.

    Additionally, she is committed to educating the next generation of scientific leaders. She teaches numerous MEES graduate courses and previously was chair of the UMCES Policy, Course, Curriculum, and the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory’s graduate education committees, and serves on the MEES program committee.

    Dr. Mitchelmore received a BSc (Hons) Biology and MSc Applied toxicology from the University of Portsmouth (U.K.), and her Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham (U.K.) in 1997 investigating the metabolism and toxicity of organic contaminants. Prior to joining CBL as an Assistant Professor in 2022 she held three postdoctoral positions at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory (U.K.), University of Kent at Canterbury (U.K.) and Oregon State University.

  • Presentation Outline

    Coming Soon!

Professor Marc Pissavini

Sun Research Lab Director
Coty
SPEAKER
Presentation Title Coming Soon!
  • Biography

    Marc Pissavini is a renowned scientist with extensive experience in the field of photoprotection and method development. He obtained his PhD in chemistry and joined the solar research department of the Coty-Lancaster group in 1998.

    In 2024, he became a visiting professor at the Department of Chemistry Education at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Montpellier. As the head of Coty Sun Research laboratory, he is responsible for leading photoprotection research and developing advanced methods to evaluate the effectiveness of sunscreen products.

    One of his major contributions to the field has been the development of ISO methods for determining UVA protection and in vitro SPF. His work in this area has helped improve the accuracy of sun protection factor testing and has greatly contributed to the development of new protocols. His research areas also include the effects of cream distribution on the skin and its impact on protection factors.

    He is an associate editor of the International Journal of Cosmetic Science. He has served as Chairman of the working group on sunscreen methodology for Cosmetics Europe since 2012. He is also currently the Chairman of the working group 7 of ISO TC217 - Sunscreen Testing Methods, where he continues to lead the development of new standards and protocols to assess the effectiveness of sunscreen products.

  • Presentation Outline

    Coming Soon!