Massimo Cuzzolaro is a renowned psychiatrist and former researcher with longstanding service as professor of psychiatry at the University of Rome Sapienza, Italy, where he was chief of an eating disorders unit from 1981 to 2008 and a consultant psychiatrist in a bariatric surgery unit from 1995 to 2008.Massimo Cuzzolaro is a past president of the Italian Society for the Study of Eating Disorders. He has been a member of various international and national scientific societies and has been an editorial board member of several scientific journals. Since 1996 he has been Editor-in-Chief of Eating and Weight Disorders – Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia, and Obesity. His research interests have included clinical psychiatry, psychotherapy, eating disorders, obesity, and body image disorders. Massimo Cuzzolaro is the author or co-author of more than 300 scientific articles and book chapters and of ten books.

Secondo Fassino is Full Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Turin, where he has been Director of the Regional Expert Centre (Centro Esperto Regionale) for Eating Disorders since 2002. His research interests include clinical psychiatry, psychotherapy, and clinical psychopharmacology, with a closer focus in more recent years on consultation-liaison psychiatry, personality disorders, and eating disorders. Professor Fassino is Section Editor of BMC Psychiatry. He is a member of the editorial boards of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, Eating and Weight Disorders, Rivista di Psicologia Individuale, and other journals. Since 2012 he has been President of the Italian Society of Medical Psychotherapy and in 2013 was appointed Director of the School of Specialization at the University of Turin. Professor Fassino has authored more than 350 publications, including research articles, reviews, and books.  Much of his research has been published in leading journals.