Distinguished Fellows

Prof. Mohamad Hamady started his clinical and interventional radiology training at the American University of Beirut and subsequently joined King’s College Hospital. He concluded his interventional radiology training with a clinical research fellowship at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals under Prof. Andy Adam. He started his consultancy career at Imperial College NHS Trust in 2003 and was promoted to Prof. of Practice in Image-Guided Surgery and Interventional Radiology at Imperial College London in 2009.

Prof. Hamady is a world-renowned expert in aortic and peripheral vascular interventions and advanced embolisation techniques. He has done extensive research work in complex endovascular aortic repair, simulation training, and endovascular robotics. He has led the world’s first robotic endovascular aortic repair and the world’s first robotic fibroid embolization. He has published more than 185 papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as 16 book chapters. His current research interests include advancing safety in thoracic endovascular aortic repair and improving the efficacy of peripheral vascular interventions. He is currently co-investigator in four NHIR-funded trials in the fields of endovascular and embolization techniques.

Prof. Hamady has contributed to several aspects of interventional radiology training at local, regional and international levels. He runs regular simulation courses for IR trainees covering manual, communication, and human factors – aspects essential for successful teams. He is currently head of the training program for interventional radiology in Greater London. He collaborated with colleagues in the Middle East and North Africa region to develop the Pan Arab Interventional Radiological Society (PAIRS), which is one of the most successful IR societies in the world today. He served as Chair of the Scientific Organising Committee for PAIRS 2018 (Dubai) and is currently a member of the PAIRS Scientific Committee.

He has served in several offices in the British Society of Interventional Radiology (BSIR), including as Chair of the Scientific Committee, Chair of the Education Committee, and as the society’s secretary. Currently, Prof. Hamady is the BSIR council lead for the IR Workforce in the UK. He also served as Chair of the Scientific Committee of IDEAS/CIRSE from 2020 to 2022. He is currently a member of CIRSE Endovascular Committee and a member of its Online Education Committee. Prof. Hamady has also contributed to the writing of multiple scientific guidelines in the field of endovascular interventions for both CIRSE and the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Riad Salem, MD MBA is Professor of Radiology, Surgery and Medicine, Vice-Chair, Image-Guided Therapy and Section Chief, Interventional Radiology in the Department of Radiology at Northwestern University in Chicago. He is a graduate of McGill University in Montreal, where he received the Wood Gold Medal, as well as the J Francis Award in Internal Medicine.

He completed his residency in Washington DC, a fellowship in interventional radiology (University of Pennsylvania), as well as a Master’s in Business Administration (Finance). He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and a fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology. He has delivered over 800 lectures nationally and internationally, and written extensively on the subject of interventional oncology and TIPS, with 410 publications, more than 32,000 citations, and an h index of 97.

Prof. Salme’s current research focuses on advances in minimally invasive therapies for HCC and CRC, complex trans-splenic TIPS in patients with porto-systemic thrombosis, as well as prostate artery embolization. He serves as global PI of two international randomised phase III trials involving sorafenib +/- Y90 in HCC (STOP-HCC) and chemotherapy +/- Y90 in CRC (EPOCH). EPOCH was the first large-scale RCT to meet its endpoints in the field of interventional oncology. He was also lead investigator in LEGACY, the pivotal trial that lead to the FDA’s first PMA device approval. In 2017, he was the recipient of the SIR Leaders in Innovation Award and the 2022 Dotter Lecturer.

Prof. Bruno Sangro graduated from Complutense Univeristy of Madrid in 1983. He trained in medical oncology at Madrid’s Hospital San Carlos and in internal medicine at Navarra’s Clinica Universidad, where he completed his doctoral degree in 1994. Since then, he has worked at the University of Navarra where he is now Professor of Medicine, serves as Director of the Liver Unit and the Coordinator of the HPB Oncology Area in the University Hospital.He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hepatology and Gene Therapy Program at the Center for Applied Biomedical Research. Prof. Sangro leads a group of Translational Hepatology in the Spanish Network for Biomedical Research on Hepatic and Digestive Diseases (CIBEREHD), where he has also served in the Executive Committee.

Over the years, Prof. Sangro’s interest in medical research has focused on therapeutic innovation in the field of liver diseases and most specifically on primary and secondary liver cancer.His work has translated into more than 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals, more than 20 research projects from international and national funding agencies, and multiple investigator-initiated clinical trials.

Under his collaboration and direction, the Liver Unit and HPB Oncology Area at Clinica Universidad de Navarra have pioneered several new approaches to the treatment of liver tumors including the use of expanded criteria to indicate liver transplantation in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, and more recently advances in the field of immunotherapy of liver cancer, from peptide and cell vaccination to immune checkpoint inhibition.

A key element of Prof. Sangro’s research and clinical practice has been the improvement of platforms and techniques used for the locorregional treatment of primary and secondary liver tumors, which he has worked on in close collaboration with Prof. Ignacio Bilbao. They were the first group to perform transarterial chemoembolization in Spain back in 1986. Later on, his team took the intratumoral delivery of cytotoxic and immune-stimulating gene therapy products from bench to bedside and conducted several first-in-human clinical trials in this setting. Prof. Sangro has also significantly contributed to the development of transarterial radioembolization by helping design safer and more effective ways of using this form of intravascular brachytherapy, in a work which has shaped the way radioembolization is performed today in many centers.

Prof. Sangro is a member of numerous national and international medical societies.He has served on the International Committee of the American Society for Gene Therapy and as President of the International Liver Cancer Association. He has consulted Spanish and European Medicines Agencies and he currently serves as Co-Editor of the Journal of Hepatology.