Editors-in-Chief
Jianxing He, MD, FACS
Dr. Jianxing He serves as Director of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine and Dean of the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Health. He is a Member of the Academic Advisory Committee of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and serves as Academic Leader of Thoracic Surgery, Transplantation, and Oncology at the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University. He is also a Leading Scientist at the Guangzhou National Laboratory and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons of England. His team performs over 13,000 thoracic surgeries and more than 110 lung transplants annually. He has pioneered five global-first technical systems: the Tubeless Non-intubated Minimally Invasive Technique (Tubeless VATS), which was included in three Harvard University textbooks in 2022; the introduction of minimally invasive techniques to the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in Asia in 1994; the establishment of an AI-assisted system for "Screening-Diagnosis-Treatment-Recovery" in lung cancer, achieving over 90% accuracy in non-invasive early diagnosis; the development of heterotopic heart-lung transplantation techniques, performing the highest number of heart-lung transplantations in China; the advancement of autologous, allogeneic, and xenogeneic lung transplantation surgeries, recognized as one of the major scientific breakthroughs in 2025; and the proposal and promotion of lung health screening for non-high-risk populations, which has increased the early detection rate of lung cancer in China by 30%.
He has published over 760 papers in renowned domestic and international journals including CA, NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, BMJ, and Cell, with 40 papers having an impact factor above 30 and 77 papers above 10; his total impact factor exceeds 5,000, with over 55,000 citations and an H-index of 71. He has been selected for the Elsevier Lifetime Influence List and ranked among the "Top 10 Highly Cited Researchers in Respiratory and Thoracic Surgery" in China.
His numerous awards and honors include the First Prize for National Scientific and Technological Progress (2020), Second Prize for National Scientific and Technological Progress (2018), National Innovation Champion Individual Award (2023), National Innovation Champion Team Award (2021), National Outstanding Physician, Special Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Guangdong Province (2021), First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Guangdong Province (2023 and 2015), China's Trustworthy Physician, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Medical Award (2024), First Prize for Science and Technology of the China Anti-Cancer Association (2024), National Most Beautiful Physician, First Prize for Innovation Achievement Award from the China Association of Inventions (2025), National Position Model, Innovation Award from the China Association for Industry-University-Research Collaboration (2024), R&D Innovation Award from the Chinese Hospital Association (2023), National Model Teacher, First Prize for Medical Science and Technology from Huaxia (2017), Outstanding Hospital President of China (2016), Ninth China Physician Award (2014), National Advanced Worker, Second Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress from Chinese Universities (2002), Young and Middle-Aged Expert with Outstanding Contributions from the Ministry of Health, Second Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Guangdong Province (1997), Outstanding Expert of Guangzhou (1997), First Prize for Medical and Health Science and Technology Progress of Guangdong Province (1997), and First Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of Guangzhou (1996).
Calvin S. H. Ng
Research interests: thoracic surgery, lung surgery, chest wall, mediastinum, some basic science
Dr Ng is Professor in Thoracic Surgery at Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at New Territory East Cluster (NTEC) hospitals in Hong Kong. He graduated from Imperial College, London in 1999 with BSc (1st Class Honours and 1st in his class), and MBBS (Honours, Distinction in Surgery, Anthony de Rothschild Medal 1st in surgery).
He spent time working for Lord Sir Ara Darzi, Prof. Anthony P.C. Yim in Hong Kong, and as Specialist Registrar and Honorary Research Fellow at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University of Birmingham for Mr. Timothy R Graham. He was awarded FRCSEd (CTh) in 2007, and subsequently Doctorate of Medicine in Research (MD(Res)) from University of London for his work on ventilator induced and IR lung injury.
Dr Ng is a pioneer in Single Port (Uniportal) VATS in the Asia-Pacific region, performing the first single port VATS lobectomy in Hong Kong in 2012. His interest in hybrid operating room (HOR) image-guided surgery led to world's first publications of HOR use in single port VATS major lung resection in 2015, and image-guided electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (iENB) in 2016. In March 2019, he led his HOR-iENB team to perform Asia-Pacific's first HOR non-invasive transbronchial microwave ablation for lung cancer. He is a Co-PI of NAVABLATE, the international study on bronchoscopic microwave ablation for treatment of lung cancer. Their team subsequently performed the world 1st IllumisiteTM and robotic-assisted bronchoscopy transbronchial microwave ablation. He is also Co-PI of TARGET & POWER studies investigating utilization of robotic assisted bronchoscopy in diagnosis and therapy.
His academic contributions include book chapters in Pearson's Thoracic & Esophageal Surgery 3rd & 4th Eds, Shield's Thoracic Surgery 8th Eds, and more than 260 publications in indexed international journals. Dr Ng is the corresponding Editor of the book Atlas of Uniportal Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery (Springer Science), and Associate Editor of the book Lung Cancer (1st & 2nd Eds).
Dr Ng supervises a research team and postgraduate students to study molecular biology of lung cancer and therapeutic role of ablation for lung diseases. He closely collaborates with Departments of Clinical Oncology (led by Prof Tony Mok), Anatomical Cellular Pathology and Biomechanical Engineering, through several competitive grants to study targeted therapies in lung cancer, magnetic actuated surgical endoscopes, organoids, nanoparticles and aptamers in cancer therapy.
Steven P. Rowe, MD, PhD
Dr. Rowe completed the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Michigan, obtaining his medical degree and a PhD in chemistry in 2009. He subsequently undertook training in diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine at Johns Hopkins, joining the faculty in 2016. In 2023, he moved to the University of North Carolina as a Professor of Radiology and the Division Chief of Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics. Dr. Rowe has been an NIH and DoD-funded investigator and has published more than 450 papers on topics ranging from prostate cancer theranostics to renal mass characterization. His current research continues to focus on genitourinary molecular imaging, while incorporating advanced imaging analysis methods such as radiomics and artificial intelligence.