Yejin Kim, PhD

Assistant Professor
Associate Director of the Center for Secure Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare
Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

7000 Fannin, Suite 600
Houston, Texas 77030
Yejin.Kim@uth.tmc.edu
LinkedIn

My recent research areas include developing AI algorithms for disease progression modeling and therapy development for neurodegenerative diseases. My research has made significant strides in biomedical AI, as evidenced by my successful track record of securing extramural funding. As the principal investigator, I have secured $8 million in extramural funding from various grants, an outstanding and rare achievement for an assistant professor. This includes two NIH R01 grants, an R01 supplement, and a Data Access Grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Additionally, I have contributed as a co-investigator on more than ten other NIH grants. My research publications have been widely recognized, with over 50 peer-reviewed articles published in top-tier biomedical informatics journals such as npj Digital Medicine (impact factor 15), JAMIA, JMIR, Bioinformatics, JBI, and top-tier machine learning conferences, including SIGKDD, CIKM, and IJCAI.

In addition to my research activities, I have contributed to the academic community through various service. Demonstrating my research excellence and reputation, I have served on numerous grant review panels and study sections, including NIH CSR CDMA, ASPB, HSS, MABS, and NINDS Special Emphasis Panel. Recognizing my international academic reputation, I have also served on grant review panels for the United Kingdom (UK Research and Innovation), Canada and Israel (Fonds de recherche du Québec; Ministry of Innovation, Science & Technology – State of Israel), and Luxembourg (Luxembourg National Science Foundation). Furthermore, I have held critical roles in the broader academic community. I have served as an academic editor for PLoS Biology and a reviewer for prestigious journals such as Nature Communications, JAMA Network Open, npj Digital Medicine, JAMIA, JBI, and Briefings in Bioinformatics. I have held leadership roles at the International Conference on Intelligence Biology Medicine (local chair) and AMIA Working Group (Women in AMIA). Additionally, I have served on the program committees for flagship machine learning conferences, including ACL, EMNLP, AAAI, IJCAI, and SIGKDD

Education and Career

  • 2024 - current Associate Director, Center for Secure Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare, McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • 2018 - current Assistant Professor, Department of Health Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • 2012 - 2017 Ph.D. in Computer Science, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, South Korea
  • 2008 - 2012 B.S. in Industrial Engineering (Magna cum laude), Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, South Korea

Membership

  • 2019 – current Member, Association for Computing Machinery
  • 2018 – current Member, American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)
  • 2010 – 2017 | Member, National Academy of Engineering of Korea Young Engineer Honor Society

Honor, Awards, and Media Coverage

  • 2025 Selected as top 10 most cited npj Digital Medicine paper in 2024
  • 2023 Public media coverage by Yahoo Finance
  • 2022 Public media coverage by CNN, NPR, and ScienceDaily; invited to testify before U.S. Department of Health & Human Service for Alzheimer’s claim data study
  • 2021 Selected as the top 10% most cited PLoS One paper in 2016
  • 2020| Rank 2nd place (out of 54) in the International DREAM Challenge for Drug Repurposing Competition
  • 2020 | Selected as Highlight Poster in Alzheimer’s Disease Association International Conference 2020 Technology and Dementia
  • 2020 Microsoft Research Faculty Gift

Grant Review Panels and Study Section

  • 2025 NIH CSR ASPB Analytics and Statistics for Population Research panel B Study Section
  • 2024 NIH CSR HSS (Health Services & System) ZRG1 HSS-B (02) M
  • 2024 NIH NINDS Team Science COMBINE RM1 Special Panel Review ZNS1 SRB-S (21)
  • 2024 NIH CSR MABS (Modeling and Analysis of Biological System) Study Section
  • 2023 NIH CSR Clinical Data Management and Analysis Special Emphasis Panel ZRG1 HSS-P
  • 2022 UK Research and Innovation, Clinician Scientist Fellowship Referee, United Kingdom
  • 2021 Fonds de recherche du Québec, Canada, Ministry of Innovation, Science & Technology - State of Israel
  • 2020 Luxembourg National Science Foundation, Industrial Fellowship, Luxembourg

Reviewers and Program Committee

Journal Editors

  • Academic Editor for PLoS Biology