Dr. Jang-Moo Lee
President
Seoul National University

Dr. Jang-Moo Lee was appointed the 24th president of Seoul National University (SNU) effective July 20, 2006. President Lee served as the dean of the College of Engineering from 1997 to 2002. In addition, he served as the chairman of the Korean Council for University Education from April 2007 to March 2008.

As the president, Dr. Lee has established the SNU Vision Plan 2025 and a 4-year action plan to lead SNU in new directions. He has also executed the comprehensive internationalization of the University in recent years in diverse ways including the appointment of 150 new foreign professors, joint classes, and dual degree programs with foreign universities. Thanks to his initiative, promotion and tenure reviews have become very rigorous and the reviews and rewards for the top 10% professors and academic departments have been greatly reinforced. In addition, many actions have been taken to promote the interdisciplinarity of teaching and research such as the establishment of a new College of Liberal Studies, which focuses on creative and individual studies, and a Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology.

From 1998 to 1999, President Lee served as a member of the National Presidential Advisory Committee on Science and Technology. He served as the president of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers in 2000 and of the Korean Society for New and Renewable Energy from 2004 to 2006.

Dr. Lee has received prestigious awards from the National Academy of Sciences and the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers. After earning a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from SNU in 1967 and a doctoral degree in engineering mechanics from Iowa State University (ISU) in 1975, he began his academic career as a professor in the College of Engineering at SNU in July 1976. In addition, Dr. Lee is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers; International Academy of Production Research; and Korean Academy of Science and Technology. He was conferred an honorary doctor degree by the Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, a renowned Romanian institution of higher learning, in 2009 in recognition of his achievements in higher education and research.