Prof. YoungSoo Shim

Prof. Shim

Tribute to Professor YoungSoo Shim, MD, PhD

Professor Emeritus Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

Professor YoungSoo Shim graduated from the College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea in 1969. After three years of military service in the Republic of Korea Navy, he moved to the United States for medical training. After medical internship and residency, he finished a fellowship in pulmonary medicine in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York in 1978. Then he worked as a director of the respiratory therapy department in Jersey City Medical Center until 1980.

In 1980, he returned to Republic of Korea, and worked as a professor in Seoul National University Hospital for 30 years until 2010 when he retired at the university. For more than 10 years, he chaired the university's Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, enhancing basic science research using molecular research techniques and improving the care of critically ill patients. As the first U.S. board-certified pulmonary specialist in the Republic of Korea, he introduced his colleagues to the American postgraduate training system.

During his career in Seoul National University Hospital, he introduced modern sleep medicine into the Republic of Korea by establishing a sleep laboratory after a fellowship in Sleep Medicine in University of California at Irvine, USA in 1988. Because he was interested in education in pulmonary medicine, he organized the education programme in Seoul National University Hospital for young pulmonologists in the Republic of Korea.

As a researcher, Professor Shim published more than 300 original and review articles. As a distinguished clinician scientist, he wrote review articles on paragonimiasis (Semin Resp Med 1991;12:35-45), endobronchial tuberculosis (Respirology 1996;1:95-106), and COPD and alpha1 antitrypsin deficiency (Respirology 2001;6:S9-S11). His main research area was COPD (J Korean Med Sci 2007;22:839-845, Respirology 2009;14:90-97) and genetics of pulmonary diseases. He published several articles on the genetics of COPD (Lung 2002;180:119-125, Respirology 2005;10:223-228)), tuberculosis (Human Immunology 2005;66:1074-1081), bronchiectasis (J Korean Med Sci 2007;22:667-671, Respirology 2007;12:49-53) and diffuse panbronchiolitis (Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1999;159:526-529).

Professor Shim has contributed substantially to the medical societies in the Republic of Korea and the Asia-Pacific region. He served as Secretary General and President of the KATRD (The Korea Academy of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease). When he was the President of KATRD, he revolutionized the structure and function of the society to its present shape. In 1992, he held the 12th APCDC (Asia-Pacific Congress on Diseases of the Chest) in Seoul, Republic of Korea, successfully as the Secretary General. Professor Shim was also a core member of the APSR Executive Committee for several decades and served as its president in 2008-2010. Mr Yasutomi Yamanaka, APSR Executive Manager, remembers that Professor Shim's management skill was very sophisticated and impressive to him. In 2009, as the President of APSR, he held the 14th Congress of the APSR successfully in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Professor Shim's colleagues remember him as the smart and enthusiastic clinician scientist, and a very kind and warm-hearted doctor to his patients.