Every year, the American College of Chest Physicians honors clinicians who are making significant contributions to chest medicine. With over 20,000 members, CHEST is home to clinicians who are advancing work in chest medicine, mentorship, training, and more. To recognize your work, CHEST presents awards and honor lectures at the annual meeting each year. Past award recipients reflect on what winning has meant to them:
Master FCCP
This award serves as the highest level of recognition conferred by the College for achievement of professional preeminence in chest medicine. Recipients are chosen because of their personal character and leadership; extraordinary contributions to medical research, clinical practice, quality improvement, or medical education; and years of enduring and outstanding service to CHEST while they have advanced chest medicine.
Distinguished Service
This award is presented to a CHEST Fellow (FCCP) or group who has held a leadership position at CHEST and led significant achievements and/or donated time, leadership, and service to CHEST.
“Most people have an internal barometer they use to assess how well they are performing in professional activities. However, two people equally active in an organization may have very different opinions of where along that continuum their contributions lie. Rarely if ever do we get confirmation of these assessments. Simply being nominated for Master Fellow or the Distinguished Service Award indicates a critical level of peer confirmation of the importance of one’s contributions to CHEST. This type of validation of one’s career activities is the most important form of recognition one can receive. Even if I had not been honored with these awards, the fact that one or more of my respected colleagues thought to nominate me was incredibly appreciated and uplifting. Being selected to receive the awards was the highlight of my professional career, capturing my passion for and inspiration from my involvement with CHEST.”—David Gutterman, MD, Master FCCP 2018 Distinguished Service and Master FCCP recipient
Master Clinician Educator
This award recognizes a clinician-educator who has 20 years or more of clinical practice; is dedicated to educational outcomes and medical education throughout their career, demonstrated through the conduct of educational research or publication of educational outcomes; and has service on a CHEST committee, NetWork Steering Committee, subcommittee, or work group.
“I joined and became active in CHEST because it was clearly the home for clinician educators. The quality and creativeness of CHEST educational programs is always outstanding, and I have been very proud to be a faculty member over the years. As you can imagine, then, I can think of no greater honor than to be recognized by CHEST for my teaching. I am extremely humbled, especially looking at those who have been given the award before me—Dr. Stephanie Levine and Dr. Jack Buckley—and after me—Dr. Eric Edell! I hope to be able to pay it forward by mentoring young educators and encouraging them to continue in this career path and by nominating experienced educators for this wonderful award.”—Lisa K. Moores, MD, FCCP
2018 Master Clinician Educator recipient
Murray Kornfeld Memorial Founders Lecture
This lecture honors a CHEST Fellow (FCCP) who is a leader in pulmonary and critical care medicine, particularly in the areas of infection and inflammation, who is developing innovative approaches and therapies expected to guide medicine for decades to come.
“To be chosen as the recipient of the Murray Kornfeld award was not only one of the biggest surprises in my lifetime but one of the greatest honors. To be recognized by peers for one’s accomplishments is the best one can hope for in their career. I also learned so many facts about Murray Kornfeld—that he was not a physician but rather an entrepreneurial businessman; that his interest in chest medicine was spurred by his treatment for tuberculosis while in the Sanatorium at Saranac Lake, that he not only founded the Federation of American Sanatoria later named the American College of Chest Physicians but that he also started a journal, which addressed diseases of the chest later known as CHEST®. WOW—what an inspiration to us all and what a visionary!
As for me, I am thrilled and most grateful to have received this award in recognition of my accomplishments and importantly from my peers of this most prestigious society. It serves as an inspiration to do more and my lifetime achievement award and…my ‘Oscar.’ Thank you, most sincerely and with much gratitude.”—Diane E. Stover, MD, FCCP 2019 Murray Kornfeld Memorial Founders Lecture recipient
College Medalist
This award is given to a clinician, author, teacher, or investigator who holds the CHEST Fellow (FCCP) title for their meritorious service in furthering work in chest medicine.
“My whole journey at CHEST has been most rewarding: from the time I received a college fellowship status, to the time Dr. Kalpalatha Guntupalli, who was then CHEST President, nominated me to serve on the Women’s Health NetWork so many years ago, to serving as Vice-Chair, then Chair. I was then so pleased to be invited to serve on the Women & Pulmonary initiative. It always felt like a natural progression for me, given my clinical and research interests and my passion for these areas of pulmonary and sleep medicine. I thoroughly enjoyed what I did for the society because I believed it was important and fun, but most of all, because it served an area of pulmonary medicine that has historically been ignored. All of it was truly gratifying and wonderful. However, receiving the College Medalist Award was definitely the highlight of my ‘relationship’ with the society. Being nominated by Dr. Carolyn D’Ambrosio, 2018 Chair of the Women’s Health NetWork, and then recognized by the society and my peers for my contributions to science and the field was truly humbling and a real honor. So, I am most grateful to CHEST and my colleagues for making this journey such a special one.”—Ghada Bourjeily, MD, FCCP 2018 College Medalist recipient