Dr. Seza Ozen graduated from Hacettepe University Medical School as salutatorian. She completed her training in Pediatrics at the relevant departments of Hacettepe University. After her post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University, California, she returned to the Department of Pediatrics at Hacettepe University. Currently, she works in the field of pediatric rheumatology and is the Head of the Department of Pediatric Rheumatology at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine. She received the annual award of the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council (TUBITAK) in 2010 for her scientific achievements and the Familial Mediterranean Fever Award of TUBITAK in 1998. She has also received the Medical Award of Eczacıbası and Hacettepe University. She has participated in many national and international projects. Moreover, She has authored many chapters in Textbooks of Pediatric Rheumatology and Nephrology, as well as Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. Dr Ozen is the President-elect of the European Pediatric Rheumatology Society.
Dr. Erdal Sag is a Paediatric Rheumatologist and Associate Professor working at Hacettepe University, Department of Pediatric Rheumatology Ankara (Turkey). He completed his pediatric rheumatology fellowship at Hacettepe University, and he also obtained his MSc degree in Paediatric Autoinflammatory Disease Programme from Hacettepe University Institute of Child Health. He had previously conducted some basic research on juvenile dermatomyositis at Prof Lucy Wedderburn’s lab at Institute of Child Health, University College London (UK) and also visited the Paediatric Rheumatology Clinic of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK as a clinical visiting fellow with the support of “EULAR scientific training bursary”. He received the “FOREUM International Exchange Fellowship Grant” and worked as a guest researcher at Institute of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. He has been a member of the Paediatric Rheumatology European Society (PReS) since 2013. He is the founder and the first chair of “Turkish Young Pediatric Rheumatologists” group. He is a member of many national/international professional societies, as well as a member of the scientific committee and the organization committee of national/international congresses. He was one of the founders of the EMERGE group and served as the lead for Educational Activities Subcommittee from 2016 to 2022. He is currently the chair of the EMERGE group.
