Roger B. Fillingim, Ph.D., a Clinical Psychologist, is Distinguished Professor in the University of Florida (UF) College of Dentistry and Director of the UF Pain Research & Intervention Center of Excellence. Dr. Fillingim maintains an active research program investigating individual differences in pain, including sex-related influences on pain. He has been continuously NIH-funded since 1994, and his current grants include a MERIT Award from the National Institute on Aging, which investigates biological and psychosocial factors contributing to ethnic group differences in osteoarthritis pain. He also serves as Director of the UF Center for Advancing Minority Pain and Aging Science. He has published more than 300 scientific articles and and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. He served as President of the American Pain Society from 2012-2014, served as Co-Chair of the Federal Pain Research Strategy Disparities Workgroup, and is currently a member of the US Department of Health and Human Services Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee. He has received several awards, including a University of Florida Term Professorship, as well as the Fordyce Clinical Investigator Award and the Distinguished Service Award, both from the American Pain Society.

Dr. Dib-Hajj is a Senior Research Scientist in the Yale School of Medicine and Graduate School, and Deputy Director of the Center for Restoration of Nervous System Function at the US Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Service. He received his undergraduate education from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and his PhD from the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. His research for the past 2 decades at Yale and the VA has centered on understanding the molecular basis of excitability disorders in humans including pain, with a focus on the role of voltage-gated sodium channels in the pathophysiology of these disorders, and as targets for new therapeutics. He has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Paralyzed Veterans of America Educational Foundation, and is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the National Disease Research Interchange. He serves on the editorial boards of several journals, and as a permanent member of the Neurobiology B merit award panel at the VA, and as ad hoc reviewer for the NIH and international funding organizations. He has published more than 200 primary papers and reviews, and has established national and international collaborations with academic and pharmaceutical groups.