Thank you very much, Professor, for sharing with us your personal life philosophy.

As far as I know, you are the only one among all our alumni who still remains active

in academic medicine, at age 82, and in my humble opinion you deserve without any qualification

a lifetime achievement award in an academic medical career.

I personally admire what you have achieved and are doing, and wish you all the best always!

You make me feel humbled, Dr. Lee.

Not much different from others but that was the only option for me as '배운게 도둑질' as 조선 상말 says.

Anyhow, I was lucky to have quite a few mentors who did not save their advice through these many years to guide me through and now it is my turn to pay back through my junior colleague for what I owe to them and shamelessly accept the invitation when I feel like it is worthy to them.  

Warm regards,

BB Lee

With your permission I would like to bring the biography of yours from

the website of George Washington School of Medicine Faculty Information.

to this page.

You are certainly one of the greatest prides of our SNUCMAA.

Congratulations to you from all of us for all your achievements, all your pioneering works,

and all your contributions to medicine!

Byung-Boong Lee Clinical Professor of Surgery Office Phone: 202-741-3157 Email: Email Department: Surgery

Education

• MD, Seoul National University, 1963
• PhD, Seoul National University, 1968

Biography

Professor B.B. Lee began his career as a founding member of the transplant and vascular surgery program at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., in 1979. He is now better known as a leading vascular surgeon in the field of veno-lymphatic disorders in the U.S. and a world authority on congenital vascular malformation and lymphedema.
 
Prof. Lee, a disciple of the late David Hume of the Medical College of Virginia (Richmond, Virginia), has also made far-reaching contributions in the field of transplant surgery. During his tenure at Johns Hopkins University as clinical professor of surgery, he established a world-class living-related liver transplantation program in Seoul, Korea, as the founding professor and chairman of the Surgical Sciences Department at Samsung Medical Center and SungKyunKwan University.
 
In recognition of his contributions to vascular surgery, Prof. Lee was named Distinguished Fellow by the Society for Vascular Surgery in the U.S. He has published over 800 original papers and abstracts in addition to more than four dozen book chapters, mainly in the field of vascular malformation and lymphedema. He has also given more than 500 lectures around the world.
 
Prof. Lee has been serving on numerous national and international peer-reviewed journals as an editor as well as a reviewer specializing in the field of vascular malformation and lymphedema. He has played a critical role in introducing vascular malformation into the mainstream of vascular surgery.
 
Consequently, Prof. Lee was invited by the Royal Society of Medicine and the American College of Phlebology Foundation to contribute as guest editor to a special issue of Phlebology on venous malformation in 2007. He was also invited by the American Venous Forum to write a chapter on AV malformation for the Handbook of Venous Disorders. Most notably, he was invited by the Society of Vascular Surgery/Journal of Vascular Surgery editorial board to write the vascular malformation chapter for Rutherford's Vascular Surgery, which remains the leading textbook for vascular surgeons around the world. Recently, both societies invited Prof. Lee back to write for, and update, their new editions.
 
Prof. Lee has served as president or vice president on many national and international societies, including the IUA (International Union of Angiology) and the IUP (International Union of Phlebology). He has been elected to honorary as well as emeritus member status by numerous phlebology and lymphology societies throughout the world. For decades, he has led the IUP in addition to the IUA, boosting the image of both societies through his outstanding academic contributions. He has also successfully organized numerous world consensuses, including the consensuses on Primary Lymphedema and Venous Malformation for the IUP, in addition to the consensuses on AV malformation for the IUA.
 
Until recently, Prof. Lee served on the ISVS (International Society of Vascular Surgery) as Vice President and also the American Specialty Board of Venous and Lymphatic Disease as a member of the Board of Directors, to promote this new specialty throughout the U.S.
 
In 2011, Prof. Lee moved from Georgetown University to George Washington University, Washington, D.C., to provide worldwide services as the director of the Center for Vascular Malformation and Lymphedema. He also regularly contributes to the Uniformed Services University/Walter Reed Army Medical Center as Adjunct Professor and to Johns Hopkins University as Visiting Professor in addition to Georgetown University. 
 
Prof. Lee is currently dedicating most of his time updating the second edition of the Handbook of Lymphedema Compendium, which he first organized in 2011 with his mentor, the late John Bergan. He is also editing the Vascular Malformation Handbook, working with an international roster of world authorities.

Oh, no, you made me feel so embarrassed and humbled again, Dr. Lee.

Thanks for the compliments on my humble career but I was happened to be lucky to be with so many outstanding scholars/friends, right time and right place, I lived long enough to have met and learned through these many years, believe me. I simply have taken advantage of them.

I still feel grateful to so many senior colleagues in particular for such unconditional encouragement with plain words 'Hurry back, BB' whenever they had a chance during my absence while in Korea and further gave me an unlimited warm embrace on my return home.

Indeed, I almost cried when my friend Peter Gloviczki of Mayo presented me during SVS Congress right after I got back home for the award ceremony over the dinner, saying 'Welcome back home, BB'. I owe so much to them I will never be able to pay back enough!

I love this country, no matter how badly it is being destroyed in these days because I had and also have genuine friends who appreciate me as much as I do to them, NOT like my motherland giving me the memory only for 'cold shouldering' despite I spared my golden period as a career surgeon for them. 

The house arrest by the Coronavirus Crisis in these says for over 6 months made me feel wonder whether I could fulfill the pledge I gave to the colleagues to organize two more books.

Warm regards,

BB

P.S. I would like to share one lament I included in my talk over the dinner during PanAmerican Venous Forum held in Buenos Aires years ago and also repeated through subsequent Meeting in Bogota/Colombia per request in regard to my sad memory on my mistake to cause such tragic outcome.