Ignacio Tapia, MD, Receives ATS Award Named in Honor of Late CHOP Researcher

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Ignacio Tapia, MD, received the inaugural Carole L. Marcus Outstanding Achievement Award from the American Thoracic Society (ATS), named in honor of his CHOP colleague who was a leader in pediatric sleep medicine research.

“It was a great honor to receive this award named after my mentor,” Dr. Tapia said. “I am working hard every day to live up to the expectations.”

ATS established the award to recognize the accomplishments and future potential of investigators who are beyond formal training, but not yet fully established in their research careers in the area of pediatric sleep and respiratory neurobiology. The medical association is dedicated to advancing clinical and scientific understanding of pulmonary diseases, critical illnesses, and sleep-related breathing disorders.

Dr. Marcus, who died in 2017, served as director of CHOP’s Sleep Center and the Clinical and Translational Research Center/Center for Human Phenomic Science. She was also associate director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Tapia and Dr. Marcus frequently collaborated on research projects and then published papers that reported their results.

Dr. Tapia received the award at the 2018 ATS international conference in San Diego in May. He is an attending pulmonologist in the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at CHOP, specializing in understanding the central nervous system complications of obstructive sleep apnea in children.

In addition, Dr. Tapia is committed to helping shape the future of pediatric pulmonary and sleep medicine, serving as the director of CHOP’s Pulmonary Medicine Fellowship Program and as an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Tapia earned his medical degree at the University of Concepcion in Concepcion, Chile, and a master’s degree in Translational Research at Penn. He completed residencies at CHOP and Roberto del Rio Children’s Hospital in Santiago, Chile. Dr. Tapia also completed fellowships in pediatric pulmonology at CHOP, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, and Exequiel Gonzalez Cortes Children’s Hospital in Santiago, Chile. He is board-certified in General Pediatrics, Pediatric Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine.