Kim Yeon-wook, a professor of respiratory medicine at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital (SNUBH), became the first Korean to receive the Early Career Achievement Award in the Thoracic Oncology category at the meeting of the American Thoracic Society 2025 (ATS 2025), which was held in San Francisco, California, USA, from April 16 to 21, the hospital said on Tuesday.

Founded in 1905, ATS is the world's leading respiratory society with more than 16,000 members, setting the global standard of care and research in major respiratory diseases, including lung cancer.

ATS’ Early Career Achievement Award recognizes researchers for their achievements and international impact. Kim is the first Korean to receive this award for lung cancer research.

Kim has focused on analyzing the characteristics of lung cancer in non-smokers and proposing screening criteria that can effectively screen them to improve the early diagnosis of lung cancer. This is a new strategy that goes beyond the existing smoker-centered lung cancer screening system and is contributing to improved treatment outcomes, especially in East Asia, including Korea, where the incidence of non-smoker lung cancer is relatively high.

“Lung cancer has few early symptoms, so it is crucial to have an early diagnosis system that focuses on high-risk groups,” said Kim. “Especially in regions with a high proportion of non-smoking lung cancer, such as Korea and East Asia, customized screening strategies are needed.”

Kim has served as a multidisciplinary committee member of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), and a planning committee member of the Thoracic Tumor Section of the ATS. He is a key founding member of the Asia-Pacific Coalition Against Lung Cancer (APCLC). In 2020, he received the IASLC’s Young Investigator Grant.