Session 47: The Invisible Male

Michael L. Eisenberg, MD earned his bachelor degree from Rice University and his medical doctorate from Yale School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in urology at the University of California, San Francisco and a Male Reproductive Medicine and Microsurgery fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He is board certified in urology.
He joined Stanford University in 2011 to start the Male Reproductive Medicine and Surgery program. Dr. Eisenberg serves as an associate editor of Fertility and Sterility and Andrology, on the editorial board of the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, and as an ad hoc referee for dozens of leading medical journals and has himself authored numerous peer-reviewed articles. His laboratory seeks to understand the association between a man’s reproductive and overall health. He also has active collaborations with several groups examining pathways of spermatogenesis.

Professor Barratt is Head of the Reproductive Medicine Group at the University of Dundee as well as a clinical scientist (Hon) with NHS Tayside. He graduated with an Honours degree in Zoology and then completed a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (University of Wales, Swansea). His PhD, also in Zoology, was under the supervision of Jack Cohen at the University of Birmingham.
His formative post-doctoral studies and ART experience was gained at the University of Sheffield [with Ian Cooke] where they specialized in natural cycle IVF. From 1997-2005 he was the Scientific Director of the ART Centre at the Birmingham Women’s Hospital.
Professor Barratt has been awarded a number of honors for outstanding contributions to the discipline e.g. Young Andrologist of the Year (American Andrology Society), the Professor Sir Robert Edwards keynote lecture at ESHRE.
He is a regularly invited speaker at national and international scientific conferences/workshops. He was a member of the WHO Male Fertility Semen Analysis Taskforce (for both the 4th and 5th editions) and director of the WHO (2012-2017) Male Fertility Expert Working Group which devised a new system for the diagnosis and treatment of the infertile male. He was a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for 6 years. Professor Barratt has recently been appointed to editorial board of WHO for development of new Semen Analysis manual (6th edition).
He has been on the Editorial Board of Human Reproduction, Human Fertility, Biology of Reproduction, Human Reproduction Update, Journal of Andrology. He was Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Human Reproduction and is now one of the editors of RBMO. He is an Editorial Board member of Physiological Reviews

Dr. Liesl Nel-Themaat joined CU Advanced Reproductive Medicine in 2016. She is the IVF Lab Director and an assistant professor in the department of ObGyn at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science from Stellenbosch University in South Africa and received her Ph.D. in assisted reproduction from Louisiana State University under Dr. Robert Godke. Her graduate studies focused on advanced reproductive technologies in endangered species at the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans.
After completing a postdoctoral fellowship studying post-implantation embryos at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, she worked as a clinical embryologist at Reproductive Biology Associates in Atlanta. She moved to Colorado in 2011 to work at Colorado Reproductive Endocrinology.
Dr. Nel-Themaat is involved in teaching fellows about reproductive lab sciences. She also participates in collaborative research and has published several original, peer reviewed research articles. Dr. Nel-Themaat is active on several local and national professional committees. She currently serves as the Vice President for the Society of Reproductive Biologists & Technologists (SRBT), is on the Membership Committee of the College of Reproductive Biology (CRB) and is on the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology (SART) Practice Committee. Dr. Nel-Themaat also co-founded and served as the first president of the Colorado Association of Reproductive Technologists (CART) for four years. She enjoys an active, outdoors lifestyle with her husband and two children.