Monika Gappa is Professor of Paediatrics and Director of the Children’s Hospital, Evangelisches Krankenhaus Düsseldorf. She is the current President of the European Respiratory Society (ERS). Her main areas of interest are paediatric respiratory physiology, particularly  assessment of lung function, early origins of lung disease, severe asthma, and allergy. She has been Associate Editor of Paediatric Pulmonology for many years and is on the Editorial Board of a number of respiratory journals. She has been active member of the ERS for more than 30 years, has contributed to a number of Task Forces and led the paediatric HERMES program. In 2020, she received the ERS Educational Award.