Université de Montréal, Canada
Prof. Bruce D. Murphy is a Senior Scientist at the Centre de recherche en reproduction et fertilité (CRRF), Université de Montréal, and a globally recognized leader in reproductive biology. Former Director of the CRRF and founder of the Quebec Reproduction Network (RQR), he has held visiting appointments at Cornell University, the University of Melbourne, and the Louis Pasteur University. His research on embryo implantation and ovarian function has been continuously funded throughout his distinguished career. Dr. Murphy has authored more than 270 scientific publications, served as President of the Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR), and received numerous prestigious awards, including the Marshall Medal of the Society for Reproduction and Fertility (SRF, 2025), the SSR Carl Hartman Award and the SSR Distinguished Service Award. A Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and Distinguished Fellow of the SSR, he has trained over 60 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and remains an influential figure in reproductive science worldwide.
Jena University Hospital, Germany
Udo R. Markert, immunologist, is Professor at Jena University Hospital, Germany, where he leads the Placenta Laboratory and coordinates the BMBF-funded Center for Early Pregnancy and Reproductive Health (CEPRE). Following medical training in Düsseldorf and research fellowships in France, Canada, Spain, Italy, and the USA, he established an internationally recognized research program in reproductive immunology and placental biology. His work focuses on implantation, maternal-fetal immune interactions, extracellular vesicles, and placental function in health and disease. Prof. Markert has received several international awards, including the John Christian Herr Award of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology and the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology Award. He has served as President of both the American and the European Societies of Reproductive Immunology and is currently President of the German Society of Reproductive Medicine. He is European & African Editor of Placenta and has published 185 peer reviewed papers and has supervised more than 100 doctoral and PhD theses.
Dr. Tzviya Zeev-Ben-Mordehai is an associate professor at Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research of Utrecht University in the Netherlands.
An expert in cellular structural biology of mammalian gametes. Zeev-Ben-Mordehai received her PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2008. In 2015, she established her group in the Division of Structural Biology of Oxford University. Since 2017, her group has been part of the Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research of Utrecht University.
Her group combines biochemistry, biophysics, and advanced cryo-electron microscopy to unravel the molecular basis of reproduction.
Among her group's achievements are the first in-cell structures of mammalian sperm flagella (EMBO J 2021 PMID 33694216) and the structure of conserved protein arrays that tether mitochondria to the underlying cytoskeleton (PNAS 2021 PMID 34737233). Recently, her group resolved the native axonemal doublet microtubule structure from sperm (Cell 2023 PMID 37327785, Nature 2025 PMID 39743588) and the SUN5 lattice reinforcing the sperm head–tail junction (PNAS 2026 PMID).
Zeev-Ben-Mordehai is a recipient of a Wellcome Trust and The Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowship (2015), NWO START-UP (2018), ERC-consolidator grant (2023) and an NWO-Vici grant (2025).
