About the guest editors

Kai-Håkon Carlsen Kai-Håkon Carlsen is Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine and Allergology at the University of Oslo (Oslo, Norway), senior consultant of the Paediatric Clinic of Oslo University Hospital and Professor of Sports Medicine at the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences (Oslo). He was President of the European Paediatric Respiratory Society (1991–1993), President of the Norwegian Society of Allergy and Immunopathology (1989–1993), Head of the Paediatric Assembly of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) (1997–2001), Chair of the ERS School (2002–2005) and Chair of the European Lung Foundation (2007–2010). He has also been an Associate Editor of the European Respiratory Journal (ERJ) (1998–2003), an Associate Editor of Acta Paediatrica (2008–2011) and a member of the editorial board of Allergy (1999–2011). He has been a member of the editorial board of Paediatric Allergy and Immunology since October 1997. Kai-Håkon was also a member of the editorial board of Paediatric Pulmonology (1997–2004) and the first Chief Editor of Breathe, the educational journal of the ERS (2004–2005). He gave the prestigious JeanClaude Yernault Lecture at the ERS Annual Congress in September 2007 and received the Life Time Achievement Award of the Paediatric Assembly of the ERS in 2010. Kai-Håkon is presently a member of the Tobacco Control Committee of the American Thoracic Society (ATS), has been a member of several Task Forces of the ERS, ATS and the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), and is presently part of the ERS/ATS Task Force on Bronchial Hyperresponsiveness, the ERS Task Force on Rare Lung Diseases and the Paediatric Asthma ICON Task Force of EAACI.