Division of Adolescent Medicine, KY Children's Hospital, Department of Pediatrics, Lexington, Kentucky, USA National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Jerusalem, Israel Division of Pediatrics, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Centers, Mt Scopus Campus, Jerusalem, Israel School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Joav Merrick, MD, MMedSci, DMSc, born and educated in Denmark is professor of pediatrics, child health and human development, Division of Pediatrics, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Mt Scopus Campus, Jerusalem, Israel and Kentucky Children’s Hospital, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky United States and Professor of Public Gealth at the Center for Health Development, School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States, the Medical Director of Health Services, Division for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services, Jerusalem, the founder and director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Israel. Numerous publications in the field of pediatrics, child health and human development, rehabilitation, intellectual disability, disability, health, welfare, abuse, advocacy, quality of life and prevention. Received the Peter Sabroe Child Award for outstanding work on behalf of Danish Children in 1985 and the International LEGO-Prize (“The Children’s Nobel Prize”) for an extraordinary contribution towards improvement in child welfare and well-being in 1987.