Professor Michael Bourke of the University of Sydney is Director of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy at Westmead Hospital. He is previous Co-editor of Endoscopy (Journal of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 2011-2019), past Chairman of the Australian Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Association (2007-2009), the Australian and New Zealand Endoscopy Leaders Forum, and the NSW Department of Health Bowel Cancer Screening Program Advisory Group and Colonoscopy Study Implementation Committee. He is a member and a former Councillor of the Gastroenterology Society of Australia (GESA), the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the American Gastroenterology Association.

Professor Bourke is a world-renowned international authority in gastrointestinal endoscopy. His special interests include colonoscopy, advanced endoscopic resection (EMR or ESD) of mucosal neoplasia, polyps and early cancer at all sites in the gastrointestinal tract, third space (submucosal) endoscopy, and ERCP. Through scientific research, he has invented, pioneered, developed and established key techniques in advanced therapeutic endoscopy. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed research papers, expert reviews and editorials with more than 9000 citations, in the leading Gastroenterology and Endoscopy journals.

Professor Bourke is a co-founder of the National Endoscopy Training Initiative (NETI) and Convenor of the Sydney International Endoscopy Symposium (2008-2021, https://www.sies.org.au). He has been an invited speaker at more than 250 international conferences including all 5 continents, delivering numerous lectures and live Endoscopy demonstrations. He has received numerous Visiting Professorships, honours and awards including the GESA Distinguished Clinician Award for contributions to the specialty, research, and the society (2012), the Christopher Williams medal from British Society of Gastroenterology (2017) and the GESA Distinguished Researcher Prize (2019).