UF Health Cancer Center member Alex Yoon, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Population Health Sciences in the UF Department of Surgery, who has been awarded a University of Florida Superior Accomplishment Award.
Yoon received the Rookie of the Year award in Division 5, which includes the six health colleges and other academic and research units under UF Health. The award acknowledges newcomers who have excelled and positively impacted UF during their initial tenure.
Since joining UF in 2023, Yoon has demonstrated remarkable dedication, expertise, and innovation in his research and services. He has devoted his research career to investigating and addressing critical cancer health issues, with a focus on lung cancer.
At UF, Yoon has lead multiple population-based cohort studies that examined associations between lung cancer risk and factors such as poor oral health, diet, and Helicobacter pylori infection. These studies provide a foundational understanding of how social determinants of health influence the root causes of lung cancer.
“In his short time at UF, Dr. Yoon has shown an unwavering commitment to collaborative research, leveraging multidisciplinary approaches to yield meaningful insights into lung cancer risk factors,” said Dejana Braithwaite, Ph.D., associate director for population sciences at the UF Health Cancer Center. “His impactful work promises to transform cancer prevention and survivorship strategies.”
Yoon, who is part of the center’s Cancer Control and Population Sciences research program, is the lead investigator on a National Cancer Institute-funded metabolomics study of menthol cigarette smoking and lung cancer risk.
He has also received several awards and honors since joining UF. In 2023, he received an American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant from the UF Health Cancer Center for his project, “Prognostic impact of blood-based biomarker panel among patients with surgically resected early-stage non-small cell lung cancer.” He was also selected to participate in the 2023 Integrative Molecular Epidemiology Workshop led by the American Association for Cancer Research.
Last year, Yoon won an award in the category of New Opportunity Award for Research Related to Health Disparities, Community Health at the UF College of Medicine’s Celebration of Research for his poster, “Isomeric Forms of Plasma Tocopherol and Lung Cancer Risk Among Low-Income Americans.”
Recipients of the UF Superior Accomplishment Awards are invited to an award ceremony and receive a $200 cash award. They are considered for university-level cash awards of $1,000 or $2,000.
Congratulations, Dr. Yoon!
