Governance 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. 

Professor Caicun Zhou joined the IASLC Board of Directors in 2019 and is the current President-elect. He serves on the association’s Tobacco Control and Cessation Committee and Education Committee from 2010-2014.

With more than 20 years of experience in clinical oncology, Professor Zhou has focused his research on early detection, molecular targeted therapy, anti-angiogenesis therapy and immunotherapy in lung cancer. Since 1998, he has served as Chief Physician and Director of the Department of Medical Oncology at Tongji University in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital. Prior to his work at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, he served as Associate Director at Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College.

Professor Zhou has published over 200 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, including the Lancet Oncology, Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Annals of Oncology, and he has written three books on lung cancer. In 2002, he worked as a visiting scientist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. He studied medicine at NanTong Medical College, earned his Ph.D. at China Medical University, and served as a fellow at Tokyo National Chest Hospital.

Dr. Carlos Gil Ferreira completed his training in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute (INCA) in Rio de Janeiro in 1997, and his PhD in Experimental Oncology at the VUMC in Amsterdam in 2001 (under the supervision of Dr. Giuseppe Giaccone). 

His Lab at INCA pioneered some of the first local independent phase I, II and III trials, and biomarker validation studies in Brazil. Dr. Ferreira has published over 150 peer reviewed articles and book chapters.  One particular focus of his work has been the improvement of access to molecular testing in Brazil. Due to these efforts to broaden access to precision medicine, Dr. Ferreira received the Partners in Progress Award from ASCO in 2020.   

Dr. Ferreira’s group has developed multidisciplinary care for lung cancer, as well as improved the awareness of lung cancer.  He was awarded the Latin America Cancer Care Team Winner in 2017 and 2019 by the IASLC. 

Dr. Ferreira is an active member of the IASLC since 2003 and has served on the IASLC Fellowship Committee since 2013 (co-chair 2015-2017) and as a member of the IASLC Bylaws Committee.  He served as a member of the AACR International Affairs Committee between 2015-2018. 

From March 2018, Dr. Ferreira was appointed as President of the Oncoclinicas Institute and Chief Medical Officer of Oncoclinicas Group in Brazil. The main goal of his current work is continuous medical education in oncology and mentorship of young Brazilian oncologists. 

Dr. Ignacio Wistuba is Professor and Chair of the Department of Translational Molecular Pathology with joint appointment in the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology (THNMO) and co-director of the Khalifa Institute of Personalized Cancer Institute at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA. He obtained his medical doctorate from Universidad Austral, Valdivia, Chile (1985), and completed surgical pathology training at Catholic University, Santiago, Chile (1989). Then, he trained for nearly five years as a post-doctoral research fellow in lung cancer molecular pathology at the Hamon Cancer Center at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, USA, under the mentorship of Drs. Adi Gazdar and John Minna (1994-1999). After spending five years in Chile as a professor of pathology at Catholic University Medical School, Dr. Wistuba joined MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2003 in the departments of Pathology and THNMO to lead a lung cancer molecular pathology program. His major research interest is the elucidation of the molecular abnormalities involved in the pathogenesis and progression of lung cancer and the development of predictive biomarkers for targeted and immune-oncology therapies.

He has co-authored over 750 papers in peer-reviewed journals and several book chapters. He is the principal investigator (PI) and co-PI on several molecular pathology and biomarker projects supported by multi-investigators and multi-institutional grants and research agreements in thoracic malignancies. Dr. Wistuba has been highly involved in IASLC activities for the last 17 years by serving as a member of various committees, including the Pathology Committee that he chaired from 2017-2020. Since moving to the United States in 2023, Dr. Wistuba has participated as a member of scientific organizing committees, speaker, and attendee to all WCLC and LALCA meetings and several regional IASLC meetings. He received IASLC's Mary J. Matthews Pathology/Translational Research Award in 2018. 

Dr. Sequist is originally from Michigan and studied chemistry at Cornell University. She received her MD from Harvard Medical School and trained in internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and in hematology/oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she also received an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. She joined the faculty at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center in 2005 and has an active clinical and translational research career, as well as a busy practice caring for patients with lung cancer. She is currently the Landry Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Center for Innovation in Early Cancer Detection at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has held grants from the NIH, the DOD, and many private foundations. Dr. Sequist’s research focuses on studying targeted therapeutics for lung cancer and novel technologies to detect cancer earlier. In her free time, she likes to spend time with her husband, two sons, and her dog, read and travel. 

Dr. Quist is an associate professor at the Copenhagen University and a Physiotherapist clinician-researcher with 20 years expertise in exercise for patients with cancer at the University Hospital of Copenhagen (Rigshospitalet). He is the co-founder of the “body and Cancer” and founder of the EXHALE program.  He received a PhD from The University of Copenhagen in 2015 on the topic of Exercise and Advanced Stage Lung Cancer.  Dr. Quist’s research area is exercise and lung cancer in all stages (early and advance) and in different treatment modalities (diagnostic, surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and immunotherapy). His focus is to prepare patients for treatment, optimizing functional capacity, and maintaining or improving quality of life.

Dr. Quist served on the board of directors of the Danish Lung Cancer Group in 2017 and was responsible for developing guidelines for rehabilitation in lung cancer in Denmark. He has been a member of the IASLC Nurses and Allied Health Professionals Committee since 2017.   

In addition to research, Dr. Quist co-founded and co-created two exercise communities in Denmark (Proof of Life and PACT) for cancer survivors and patients with cancer. Proof of life is an exercise community for young cancer survivors and PACT (physical activity after cancer treatment) is an exercise community for cancer patients. He received the Danish Cancer Society honor award in 2015 for his voluntary work to keep patients with cancer active, and in 2017 received the IASLC Nursing and Allied Health Lectureship Award.

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.