Submit Your Nominations

The IASLC Distinguished Service Awards recognize the "luminaries" in lung and thoracic cancers with lifetime achievement awards for their outstanding contributions to the field and to the IASLC. The four awards are the Paul A. Bunn, Jr. Scientific Award, the Adi F. Gazdar IASLC Merit Award, the Mary J. Matthews Pathology/Translational Research Award, and the Joseph W. Cullen Prevention/Early Detection Award.
You may nominate up to five qualified IASLC members for each award. The deadline to nominate colleagues is Wednesday, February 1, 2023. Self-nominations are also allowed. The deadline to self-nominate and/or accept a nomination is Wednesday, February 15, 2023.
Click on the button below for more information on each of these awards, including eligibility criteria and nominating instructions. Before submitting any nominations, please ensure that the candidate you are nominating meets the eligibility criteria (to the best of your knowledge). On behalf of the IASLC Board of Directors, we thank you for your nominations for these important awards. Please direct any questions to lectureshipnominations@iaslc.org.
Paul A. Bunn, Jr. Scientific Award
The Paul A. Bunn, Jr. Scientific Award recognizes an IASLC scientist for a lifetime achievement of scientific contributions to thoracic cancer research. Dr. Paul Bunn’s studies set worldwide standards for the treatment of lung cancer and identified issues of natural history and biomarkers of prognosis and therapy selection. Robert Ginsberg, MD, a thoracic surgeon from Toronto, Canada, earned the first award in 1994 for his contributions to the surgical treatment of early stage lung cancer. Initially named the Scientific Award, the IASLC renamed the award in honor of Dr. Bunn after he served as its executive director and CEO for 10 years.
- 1994: Robert Ginsberg, Canada
- 1997: John D. Minna, USA
- 2000: Daniel C. Ihde, USA
- 2003: Paul van Houtte, Belgium
- 2005: Thierry LeChevalier, France
- 2007: Frances Shepherd, Canada
- 2009: Bruce Johnson and Thomas J. Lynch, USA
- 2011: Nagahiro Saijo, Japan
- 2013: David R. Gandara, USA
- 2015: Yi-Long Wu, China
- 2016: Roy Herbst, USA
- 2017: Tony Mok, Hong Kong
- 2018: Charles Swanton, UK
- 2019: Charles Rudin, USA
- 2020: Joan Schiller, USA
- 2021: David P. Carbone, USA
The Adi F. Gazdar IASLC Merit Award
THE ADI F. GAZDAR IASLC MERIT AWARD
In 2019, the IASLC Board of Directors unanimously voted to elevate its recognition of Dr. Adi F. Gazdar to one of its highest honors by renaming the IASLC Merit Award for Dr. Gazdar. The Adi F. Gazdar IASLC Merit Award proudly recognizes and honors Dr. Gazdar’s lifelong dedication to lung cancer research through his pioneering work in molecular pathology. The recipient of the annual Adi F. Gazdar IASLC Merit Award is chosen by the IASLC Executive Committee and is announced and recognized at the annual World Conference on Lung Cancer.
- 1991: Clifton F. Mountain, USA
- 1994: Norman Bleehen, UK; Yukio Shimosato, Japan
- 1997: Heine H. Hansen, Denmark
- 2000: Desmond N. Carney, Ireland
- 2003: Paul A. Bunn Jr., USA
- 2005: Harubumi Kato, Japan
- 2007: Peter Goldstraw, UK
- 2009: Giorgio V. Scagliotti, Italy
- 2011: David Ball, Australia
- 2013: James Jett, USA
- 2015: Harvey Pass, USA
- 2016: Keunchil Park, South Korea; Sumitra Thongprasert, Thailand
- 2017: Ramon Rami-Porta, Spain
- 2018: Francoise Mornex, France
- 2019: Hisao Asamura, Japan
- 2020: Alex Adjei, USA
- 2021: Michael Boyer, Australia
Recipients of the annual Adi F. Gazdar IASLC Merit Award are announced at the annual World Conference on Lung Cancer.
Mary J. Matthews Pathology/Translational Research Award
The Mary J. Matthews Pathology/Translational Research Award recognizes an IASLC scientist for a lifetime achievement in pathology and translational research of thoracic malignancies. Dr. Matthews served as a senior investigator and pathologist at the National Cancer Institute’s Medical Oncology Branch. She was pioneer in the foundation of the histologic subtypes of lung cancer and the relationship between those subtypes and the clinical course of lung cancer. Geno Saccommano, MD, PhD, a physician and cancer researcher who dedicated his life to developing a pioneering technique to assist in the early detection of lung cancer was the first to receive the award in 1994.
- 1994: Gene Saccomanno, USA
- 1997: William D. Travis, USA
- 2000: Yukio Shimosato, Japan
- 2003: Adi Gazdar, USA
- 2005: Elisabeth Brambilla, France
- 2007: Fred R. Hirsch, USA
- 2009: Masayuki Noguchi, Japan
- 2011: Philip Hasleton, UK
- 2013: Tetsuya Mitsudomi, Japan
- 2015: Ming Tsao, Canada
- 2016: Keith Kerr, UK
- 2017: Yasushi Yatabe, Japan
- 2018: Ignacio Wistuba, USA
- 2019: Andrew Nicholson, UK
- 2020: Caroline Dive, UK
- 2021: Deepali Jain, India
Joseph W. Cullen Prevention/Early Detection Award
The Joseph W. Cullen Prevention/Early Detection Award recognizes an IASLC scientist for a lifetime achievement in the prevention of thoracic malignancies. Dr. Cullen served as the Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Division of Cancer Prevention and Control. He created the Smoking, Tobacco and Cancer Program at the NCI in 1982. The winner of the first award in 1994 was Jesse Steinfeld, MD, the U.S. Surgeon General when the National Cancer Act of 1971 was enacted into federal law.
- 1994: Jesse Steinfeld, USA
- 1997: Clifford Douglas, USA
- 2005: Nigel Gray, Australia
- 2007: James Mulshine, USA
- 2009: Stephen Lam, Canada
- 2011: John Field, UK
- 2013: Pieter Postmus, Netherlands
- 2015: Jacek Jassem, Poland
- 2016: Ugo Pastorino, Italy
- 2017: Carolyn Dresler, USA
- 2018: Nise Yamaguchi, Brazil; Fadlo Khuri, Lebanon
- 2019: Denise Aberle, USA
- 2020 Pan-Chyr Yang, Taiwan
- 2021: Gabriella Sozzi, Italy