Researcher Bio
Since becoming Director of the Seoul National University Asia Center in September 2017, SooJin Park has led with a vision to make the Asia Center a hub for regional research. The center explores a diverse range of topics and regions, leading the way by putting Asian regional research at the heart of our program.
In addition, he holds continuing interest in the natural environment of the Asian region, and has gathered a wide array of relevant data through which he investigates numerous topics. An emblematic example is his publication using remote sensing technology to survey soils in North Korea, a place where direct survey is impossible. This work was awarded the 29th Prize for Excellence in Science and Technology. Furthermore, since 2014 he has been participating in research for The National Atlas of Korea, responsible for the visualization and curation of multiple types of data.
Other than this work, he is responsible for several other research projects, and participates with colleagues in collaborative research to carry out work in regions across Asia. To this end, he is leading the Data Storytelling Cluster’s research agenda, using his long experience with metrology and data to investigate the identities and dynamics of each Asian region.
Key Publications
2020, Development and Evaluation of Hillslope Position Classification using Catena Concept, Journal of the Korean Geographical Society 55(3); 231-251
2018, A Method for Predicting Soil Types in North Korea: Importance of North Korea Soil Properties and Prediction Soil Types, Journal of the Korean Geographical Society 53(5); 649-668
2018, Structural Characteristics and Meaning of the Sanjulgi (mountain ridge) Network System based on Network Science, Journal of the Korean Geographical Society 53(4); 485-500
2017, Effective Governance to Maximize Ecosystem Service in National Forest Management – A case of Gariwang-san, South Korea, Journal of the Korean Geographical Society 52(3); 321-340
2017, Reading the Future of East Asian Feng-Sui: making East Asia’s traditional knowledge scientific, Geobook
Other Experience
After receiving his PhD from the University of Oxford in the UK, he held posts as a Researcher at the University of Wisconsin in the USA (June 1998- April 2000), a Senior Researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) of the University of Bonn in Germany (April 2000-June 2003), a Senior Researcher at the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) in the USA (June 2001-June 2003), and a Visiting Scholar at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC, USA (March 2009- February 2011).
Over a period of three years he participated in a team with around 150 other authors to produce The National Atlas of Korea, which won the 2018 International Cartographic Association’s Prize for the Outstanding National Atlas. A simplified version of this publication has been translated into four languages; Korean, English, French, and Spanish.