Professor TaeYong Jung

Students with an interest in environmental policy, sustainable development, or climate change and energy issues will welcome the addition of Prof. TaeYong Jung to the KDI School faculty.

Prof. Jung has been in the climate change and energy arena for two decades, having held posts at the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and Korea Energy Economics Institute. He was a founding member of the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan and was instrumental in setting up South Korea''s Global Green Growth Institute.

With economic degrees from The State University of New Jersey, USA, Prof. Jung is particularly interested in the inclusion of global climate challenges within the economic development planning of countries.

After sixteen years abroad, he is excited to be back home and at the KDI School, where he can pass on his knowledge and experience to the next generation.

“I am always happy to work with people from developing countries because I don''t like the knowledge in this room or in this school, I like knowledge that can be realized in normal life... The students in this school have their own experience in their own countries as policy makers and decision makers.”

Prof. Jung is currently creating curricula for his classes and is set to start lecturing and learning in the summer.

“I want to learn something from you guys. I want to enhance not just the student''s capacity but my capacity also. It could be very interesting to me, I am very excited.”

Reported by Kendra Griffith (2013 MDP, Belize)

Professor Sherzod Shadikhodjaev

Prof. Sherzod Shadikhodjaev joined the KDI School faculty on 31st Dec 2012 and began the new year with a new role.

Prof. Shadikhodjaev specializes in international economic law, a field within international law that deals with regional economic integration agreements such as the European Union & the ASEAN, dispute settlement systems under the WTO and International commercial arbitration, International business regulation, etc.

Korea has been home to Prof. Shadikhodjaev for over 10 years now and he earned his Ph.D. in Law from Korea University. Prior to joining the KDI School, Prof. Shadikhodjaev spent several years at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) conducting research and has published widely in English, Russian & Korean. While law is generally seen as a practice oriented field, Prof. Shadikhodjaev interest has always been to teach & develop research themes on practical issues. His current research deals with the implications of duty drawback structure under Korea’s FTA with the EU.

Prof. Shadikhodjaev will teach the International Trade Law & Practice course this summer and he is eagerly looking forward to it.

“The KDI School’s mission to educate public sector leaders from developing countries is unique. It would be a great opportunity for me to teach such a diverse student body and learn from their experiences.”

So what can the students look forward to?

“I like to engage students in discussions and debates. The only thing I expect them to bring to the classroom is an open mind full of ideas.”

Sounds like an opportunity that no student would want to miss this summer. Thank you Prof. Shadikhodjaev for taking the time out to speak to the Globe team and once again, welcome to the KDI School!

Reported by Manish Joshi (2012 MPP, India)

Professor Seulki Choi

Upon entering Prof. Choi’s office, the more than sufficient number of books and academic journals on population and social development engulfed my presence as a stranger. It was Prof. Choi’s bright optimistic smile that welcomed me in. Prof. Seulki Choi is a new faculty member to our already brilliantly fabulous line-up of star professors and academic figures in the KDI School. He specializes in the field of research methods, quantitative methodology, population and social development.

From what I know about Prof. Choi’s class, he likes to focus his classes on discussions and on a more “fun” background. Upon my asking, he cared to elaborate that the term “fun” refers to the diversity of activities and academic learning as well as the general comfortable atmosphere of the class as a whole. Whilst striving to create an “academically comfortable” classroom for the students, as well as for himself, he is also very much engrossed in the topic of current social issues such as happiness and the associated variables of it, specifically our income levels.

He enthusiastically questioned that “if income is truly a mediating variable, or a variable that causes a spurious relationship with happiness, could we really say that we have become much happier than we used to be 30, 40, or even 50 years ago?” Of course, I could not readily answer such a profound question on the spot, but simply admired his enthusiasm for the subject.

Prof. Choi believes that the merit of our KDI School is in the extensive diversity of the student population. He confessed that the KDI School student body’s level of motivation is something that he has not seen anywhere else during his academic career: “It motivates me as a teacher and also leads me on to learn more in depth about my own field of study.”

Reported by Tae Jun Cha (2013 MDP, Korea)

Without a doubt, we genuinely welcome such passionate literati to our KDI School family with optimistic smiles.