Young Shin Kim, M.D., Ph.D.

Young Shin Kim, M.D., Ph.D., M.S., MPH, specializes in developmental psychopathology, including autism spectrum disorder, and is internationally recognized in the field. In addition to her appointment at Dell Medical School, she is the division chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Dell Children’s Medical Center and the executive director of the Texas child mental health care clinical program.

Originally from Korea, Kim obtained her medical degree and completed her psychiatry residency at Yonsei College of Medicine, Seoul. She furthered her training at Yale Child Study Center, completing clinical and research fellowships in child and adolescent psychiatry alongside an MPH at Yale School of Public Health. Her career continued in Korea as chair of psychiatry at Hallym University Hospital before earning her Ph.D. in epidemiology at the University of California, Berkeley. At Yale, she advanced her research on autism, school bullying and genetic epidemiology. She was later recruited to the University of California, San Francisco, founding the UCSF Center for ASD and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, integrating clinical and research efforts.

Her research, spanning epidemiology and genetic epidemiology, aims to uncover neurodevelopmental disorders’ risk mechanisms. She has led extensive large-scale research in Korea, the U.S., the Navajo Nation, Japan and the Republic of Georgia. Kim is committed to community outreach and service, advocating for psychiatrically challenged children, adolescents, youth and their families. Her scientific and clinical contributions have been acknowledged with numerous awards, notably the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from former President Barack Obama.