Meet the 2026 Awardee: Jonas C. Schupp, MD, MPVD, ATSF
Jonas C. Schupp, MD, ATSF, is a clinician-scientist and pulmonologist specializing in interstitial lung diseases (ILD) and translational respiratory medicine. He currently heads the Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases at Hannover Medical School (MHH), Germany, where he also holds the prestigious Else Kröner-Fresenius Clinician-Scientist Professorship (W2), awarded in 2024. In addition, he is a Principal Investigator at the German Center for Lung Research (DZL BREATH), and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Yale School of Medicine, USA.
Dr. Schupp studied medicine at Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany, and completed his doctoral thesis “summa cum laude” in 2014, alongside a Master of Pulmonary Vascular Diseases from the University of Bologna. Following residency training in Freiburg, he joined the lab of Prof. Naftali Kaminski at Yale School of Medicine as a postdoctoral research associate from 2017 to 2021, before returning to Germany as a Returning Scholar Fellow. He completed his Habilitation in Internal and Respiratory Medicine in 2023 and was recognized as a Fellow of the American Thoracic Society (ATSF) in 2024.
His research focuses on the cellular and molecular underpinnings of pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, and lung transplantation, with a particular emphasis on single-cell and spatial transcriptomics. Dr. Schupp has led and contributed to landmark multi-institutional studies, including a comprehensive single-cell atlas of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, of human pulmonary endothelial diversity published and, most recently, a deep generative model for deciphering cellular dynamics and enabling in silico drug discovery in complex diseases. His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Research Award of the German Respiratory Society (2018) and several abstract scholarships from the American Thoracic Society. He has secured competitive research funding from sources including the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation, the German Research Foundation, the Ann Theodore Foundation, and the US Department of Defense.
Dr. Schupp’s current research interests center on precision medicine for chronic lung diseases, leveraging single cell and spatial omics and artificial intelligence to uncover disease mechanisms and identify novel therapeutic targets across a spectrum of rare and progressive pulmonary conditions.
Award Description
The ATS SGG Early Career Investigator Achievement Award recognizes early career investigators for outstanding contributions to advancing the scientific understanding of genetics, genomics, omics technologies (including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and metagenomics), and systems biology applications in the fields of respiratory, critical care, and sleep medicine.
Nominators are encouraged to address the following areas, as applicable: (1) Scientific and scholarly productivity, (2) Educational and mentoring contributions, (3) Contributions to the scientific field, (4) Participation in the American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Assembly on Allergy, Immunology & Inflammation (AII), and/or SGG activities, and (5) Overall impact of the nominee.
The recipient will present their scientific contributions in a five-minute presentation during the Section on Genetics and Genomics (SGG) Annual Meeting held in conjunction with the ATS International Conference. This award does not include a monetary prize. One award certificate (framed and/or digital) is presented annually to an SGG member within the Assembly on Allergy, Immunology & Inflammation (AII).
Eligibility Criteria
Nominees must:
- Be members of the ATS Section on Genetics and Genomics (SGG).
- Be within 10 years of their first faculty appointment (or equivalent). Requests for an exception due to extenuating circumstances must include a written justification and will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
- Demonstrate active participation in and contributions to SGG and ATS activities.
- Not have previously received another ATS Early Career Award.
- There are no nationality or citizenship requirements for this award.
Nomination Requirements
Nominations must be submitted by someone other than the nominee. Nominators may be ATS members from any Assembly or Section.
All nominations must be submitted through the ATS award nomination form which includes: nominator information, nominee information, ATS Code of Conduct attestations, summary paragraph of the application and document upload section.
Upload a nomination letter summarizing the nominee's contributions to the field, demonstrating alignment with the purpose of the award, and highlighting the evaluation criteria listed above.
Upload the nominee's NIH Biosketch and/or curriculum vitae (CV), limited to five pages, documenting the achievements and contributions described in the nomination letter.
An optional supplementary document may also be uploaded. Examples include an additional biosketch or CV, a representative publication, a citation report, letters of external support, nomination co-signatories, or similar supporting materials.