The “Korean Strange Plant Research Institute” aims to interconnect the plant sciences and research institutes from other organizations working with plants. Interested plant scientists from other institutes are welcome to become associated members or partners of KSPRI.
Lead by 5 scientists, about 40 staff members in total, currently cooperate in KSPRI’s research groups.
Dr. Jang Tae
Graduated summa cum laude in Botany from Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) in 1997, Dr. Jang Tae is our residents specialist on carnivorous plants. He spent his early years in Borneo and Malaysia, sampling many species in the local rainforests. After researching and teaching at his old university, he brought his expertise to our team as a founding member and head of the carnivorous division in 2007. Currently his latest project has taken him to South America, where again he spends most of his time in the wild, cataloging known and undiscvored species.
Prof. Dr. Lim Hyuk
Following his PhD, Prof. Dr. Hyuk spent three years doing postdoctoral research at the Korea Advanced institute for Science and technology in Daejeon. After 13 years as an independent project leader in Seoul, Dr. Hyuk moved back to Daejeon as our resident Professor of botany in 2009. Prof. Dr. Hyuk’s research aims to define genetic mechanisms that control the development of plants and determine how these mechanisms have changed since plants colonized the land 500 million years ago. His research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Dr. Bae Choi
Our specialist on parasitic botany. Being the son of a professional gardener, he was always very interested in plant life and has spent time studying at many international universities and institutes and went on to get his PhD in botany from Seoul National University in 2004. Now his families business is parasite free and our labs are full of them.
Dr. Shin Eim
After obtaining a M.Sc. (Botany) degree at the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa), he started working as scientist in the National Herbarium, SANBI, Pretoria. During this time, he also enrolled for a PhD degree in Plant Systematics at the University of Pretoria. While he was working on his PhD, he was sent to Kew Gardens in London where he acted as the South African Botanical Liaison Officer. Shortly after completion of his PhD he resigned from SANBI, and initiated a Postdoctoral Fellowship under the mentorship of Prof. Wilhelm Veilchen at the University of Cape Town. He was employed as lecturer in plant systematics at Stellenbosch University upon completion of this postdoc before returning to Korea to support the endeavours of our institute.
Cheolyun Lee
A self-proclaimed naturalist Kim joined forces with us in 2008 after economically succeeding in entertainment engineering and looking for new challenges in the fields of botany science. If asked about his fascination for plants and botany he just answers that he enjoyed climbing trees very much when he was a child and continues to do so today. If not found in his laboratory just look for him in the trees and underbrush around our campus and you might spot him. The discovery of Parco Pistris by our teams is largely credited due to his unrelenting explorative nature and determination.