Dr. Kemp H. Kernstine is a distinguished Professor in the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he was the founding chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery. He earned his M.D. from Duke University and completed his internship and general surgery residency at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he also received his Ph.D., focusing on developing an implantable artificial beta cell for diabetes management. He further specialized in heart and lung surgery at The Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Board-certified in surgery and thoracic surgery, Dr. Kernstine is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American College of Surgeons, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. He has been a member of numerous consensus guideline committees and held key leadership roles, notably as vice-chair of the lung cancer staging committee for the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) during the 7th, 8th, and 9th editions.

Renowned for his clinical expertise, Dr. Kernstine has pioneered minimally invasive and robotic surgery, including performing one of the first video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lung lobectomies in the U.S. and the world’s first robotic esophagectomy. His research interests include advanced imaging and metabolomic evaluation of chest malignancies. He has published approximately 500 articles, abstracts, and books on lung and esophageal cancer and thoracic surgery. His work is internationally recognized, and he frequently serves as a keynote speaker at global conferences.