Finance Committee

Professor Benjamin Solomon is a medical oncologist and head of the lung medical oncology service at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Following his training in medical oncology, he was a recipient of an IASLC fellowship in 2004 and proceeded to do a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado under the supervision of Professors Paul Bunn and Fred Hirsch. He returned to Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in 2006, where he heads the Lung Medical Oncology Service and is a Group Leader of the Molecular Therapeutics and Biomarkers Laboratory in the Research Division. His clinical trial work focuses on the identification of novel therapies for lung cancer, including novel targeted therapy and immunotherapy approaches. He has been involved in practice-changing clinical trials with novel inhibitors of ALK, ROS1, NTRK, BRAF, cMET, RET, and KRAS, including pivotal trials leading to registration of drugs including crizotinib, ceritinib, lorlatinib, repotrectinib, and selpercatinib.

He has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). He is a founding board member of the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia (TOGA) and is a Board Member of the Cancer Council of Victoria. He has served on several committees for the IASLC, including the fellowship committee, and was chair from 2016-2018. 

Jhanelle E. Gray, M.D. is the Department Chair, Program Leader and a Senior Member for Thoracic Oncology at the Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC), Co-Leader of the Cancer Center Support Grant Molecular Medicine Program, and Professor in the Department of Oncologic Sciences at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. 

A renowned Thoracic medical oncologist and clinical investigator, Dr. Gray is actively involved and leads numerous clinical research trials that investigate novel immunotherapeutic and targeted therapy drug combinations for lung cancer which have greatly influenced standard of care treatment. Her research has generated over 80 publications in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals, including original manuscripts and reviews. A leader in NCI cooperative group trials and Chair of the IASLC Membership Committee, Dr. Gray received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Florida, Medical Degree from Cornell University Medical College, and completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at The New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell. Following, she completed her Hematology/Medical Oncology Fellowship at Moffitt Cancer Center. 

Dr. Gray is actively involved as a member of the MCC Scientific Leadership Council and Clinical Research Action Committee. Globally she is the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022 Meeting Education Program Chair-elect while also serving as a member of the ASCO Lung Scientific Program Committee, IASLC Women in Thoracic Oncology Working Group and Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) Lung Working Group.

Dr. Joachim Aerts is a board-certified pulmonologist with a special interest in thoracic oncology. He began his training as a pulmonologist in 1997 and became a board-certified pulmonologist in 2002. He subsequently worked in two teaching hospitals, during which he was appointed at the Erasmus University Rotterdam to organize and supervise the comprehensive cancer network in the southwest of The Netherlands and the basic, translational, and clinical research in oncology. He was appointed as professor of thoracic oncology in 2014 at Erasmus University Rotterdam. In 2018 he became head of the Department of respiratory medicine at the Erasmus University Medical Centre and, in 2021, division chair of the Department of respiratory medicine, cardiology, and thoracic surgery. 

During his professional career, Dr. Aerts has been heavily involved in many research projects and has initiated different basic, translational, and clinical studies, leading to over 200 peer-reviewed publications. He has supervised over 20 PhD students. Dr. Aerts is active in major scientific societies, both national and international, the IASLC, ASCO, ESMO, ERS, and ATS, and is frequently invited as a speaker and member of organizing committees. He is a member of the board of directors of the IASLC.

Dr. Chang is a thoracic radiation oncologist with more than 30 years of experience with clinical care and research focusing on lung cancer. He holds a tenured Texas 4000 Distinguished Professorship and is Director of Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Radiation Oncology and has been recognized with the Best Doctors of America award. He is a voting committee member of NCCN thoracic guidelines and co-chair of the international particle therapy PTCOG scientific program committee. As one of the pioneers in the field of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR, or SBRT: stereotactic body radiation therapy), proton therapy, and immunotherapy for lung cancer, he published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals, including LANCET, Nature, JAMA, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, RED J, Green J, and various others. His prospective studies including randomized studies comparing surgery vs. SABR in operable stage I lung cancer, stereotactic proton vs. photon radiotherapy in challenging early-stage lung cancer, immunotherapy plus SABR (I-SABR) vs. SABR alone in early-stage lung cancer were the first reported studies in the world. He led the first concurrent proton therapy and chemotherapy in stage III lung cancer, and his team implemented the first intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) in lung cancer. His research has helped to establish the role of SABR, proton therapy, and I-SABR in lung cancer. Additionally, on behalf of national and international societies, including the IASLC ART committee, he has led several important consensus statements that have significantly impacted the radiation oncology community about SABR, proton therapy in lung cancer, IMPT in moving thoracic cancers, management of small cell lung cancer, oligometastasis, and re-irradiation of thoracic cancer. 

Dr. Kelly is the CEO of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the only global network dedicated to the study and eradication of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. She is an internationally recognized lung cancer expert dedicated to providing enhanced cancer care through cutting-edge clinical trials. Her research spans the spectrum of this disease from prevention to treatment. Dr. Kelly is widely published, and she frequently lectures on lung cancer topics, nationally and internationally. Dr. Kelly is a long-standing active member of IASLC, ASCO, and SWOG. She served as the SWOG Lung Committee Chair from 2016 until 2022.

Dr. Kelly earned her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency and oncology fellowship at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Kelly was appointed faculty at the University of Colorado where she spent many years building her academic career in thoracic oncology prior to accepting a faculty appointment at the University of California, Davis where she held the Jennifer Rene Harmon Tegley and Elizabeth Erica Harmon Endowed Chair in Clinical Cancer Research and was the Associate Director for Clinical Research for their NCI designated comprehensive cancer center.

Dr. Natasha Leighl leads the Thoracic Medical Oncology Group at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, and is an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She holds the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation OSI Pharmaceuticals Foundation Chair in Cancer New Drug Development. She has published over 350 peer-reviewed papers, held multiple peer-reviewed grants, and mentored many trainees who have gone on to leadership roles in oncology around the world. In 2019, she was awarded the American Society of Clinical Oncology Excellence in Teaching Award. Her passion for improving patient care has driven her research in lung cancer drug development lung cancer diagnostics, including liquid biopsy, guideline development, and outcomes research.

She has led several international and cooperative group studies in lung cancer, served on the Lung Disease Site Group Executive of the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Group (CCTG), was Co-Chair of the CCTG Committee on Economic Analysis, Congress Co-President of the 2018 World Conference on Lung Cancer, and serves on the ASCO Thoracic Guidelines Advisory Group, ESMO Guidelines Group (Lead, non-metastatic lung cancer), is Faculty Coordinator (Metastatic Lung Cancer) for the ESMO Education Committee, Chair of the International Society of Liquid Biopsy Education Committee and co-Chair of the 2024 European Lung Cancer Congress. She is Deputy Editor of Critical Reviews in Hematology/Oncology, Section co-editor of Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology, and serves on multiple editorial boards, including the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, and was a previous Web Editor. She is a strong supporter of patient advocacy and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lung Cancer Foundation of America, she is the Past President of Lung Cancer Canada (2009-2016) and an Honorary Chair of the Exon20 Group. 

Wen-Zhao Zhong received his Ph.D. in Oncology, specializing in thoracic surgery, from Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. At present, he is serving as the chief physician of thoracic neoplasms surgery at Guangdong Lung Cancer Institute. Wen-Zhao is broadly interested in the area of clinical trials and translational research involving early-stage and locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer, which include systemic treatment modality of stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), personalized perioperative treatment, diagnosis and management of pulmonary nodules as well as early screening of lung cancer. His recent projects involve personalized treatment modalities for localized mutant non-small cell lung cancer and ctDNA-guided personalized treatment.

Recent relevant research has been published in high-impact journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, NPJ Precision Oncology, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, etc. In 2022 WCLC, he achieved the TSUGUO NARUKE Lectureship award for surgery in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the field of thoracic oncology and particularly to thoracic surgery.