Yoon Appoints Lee Kyung-woo as AI and Digital Secretary and Professor Choi Seon as Advanced Bio Secretary

Two Private Sector Experts Appointed as Science and Technology Chief and Two Secretaries

President Yoon Suk-yeol appointed Professor Lee Kyung-woo of Yonsei University’s Department of Computer Science as the AI and Digital Secretary under the newly established Office of Science and Technology, and Professor Choi Sun of Ewha Womans University’s Department of Pharmacy as the Advanced Bio Secretary.

Following the appointment of Professor Park Sang-wook of Seoul National University’s Department of Science as the inaugural Chief of Science and Technology, the government is increasing expertise by appointing scholars as secretaries, while also aiming to broaden connections with the science and technology community.

According to the Presidential Office on the 25th, President Yoon recently approved the appointments of Professors Lee and Choi. With the addition of these two secretaries, appointments for three of the four secretary positions under the Office of Science and Technology (Research and Development (R&D) Innovation, AI and Digital, Advanced Bio, Future and Strategic Technology) have been completed.

President Yoon Suk-yeol appointed Lee Kyung-woo, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Yonsei University (left), as the AI and Digital Secretary under the newly established Office of Science and Technology, and Choi Seon, a professor in the Department of Pharmacy at Ewha Womans University, as the Advanced Bio Secretary. Photo by Yonsei University, Ewha Womans University websites

Professor Lee graduated from Yonsei University’s Department of Computer Science and earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine. He is an expert in the fields of Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning. From 1997 to 2003, he worked as a senior researcher at LG Electronics’ DTV Research Center, and has been serving at Yonsei University since 2011.

Professor Choi graduated from Ewha Womans University College of Pharmacy and received her Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She specializes in computer-aided molecular modeling and drug design. She has published over 110 international SCI-level papers, including in the world’s top-tier journal Cell Metabolism, and was elected as a full member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, the highest scholarly institution in the science and technology field, in December last year.

Meanwhile, Choi Won-ho, former Science and Technology Secretary, has moved to the position of R&D Innovation Secretary. Secretary Choi, who comes from the Ministry of Science and ICT, led the Science and Technology Secretary’s Office until the organizational restructuring. The vacant Future and Strategic Technology Secretary position is also expected to be filled soon.