Chang Suk-bok (63), director of the Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalizations at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and distinguished professor of chemistry at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), has been appointed the new president of IBS. He is the first internal research center director to be promoted to the top post.
The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) said it would appoint Chang as the fourth IBS president effective the 4th. His term will run for five years from the date of appointment.
Chang graduated from Korea University's Department of Chemistry in 1985, earned a master's degree in chemistry from KAIST in 1987, and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in the United States in 1996. He has produced original and influential research in the field of organic catalytic reactions, and was named a Highly Cited Researcher (HCR), placing him among the world's top 1% of researchers, for eight consecutive years from 2015 to 2022. He also serves as an editorial board member of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).
Chang is regarded as a hands-on leader well-versed in internal affairs, having worked on the front lines of research since the institute's earliest days. He has led the Center for Catalytic Hydrocarbon Functionalizations since 2012, when the IBS research centers were first launched.
"Through this appointment, a distinguished scholar combining academic authority with extensive research field experience has been selected, and we expect this will contribute to IBS's leap forward as a world-leading research institution and to the development of Korea's basic science research ecosystem," the MSIT said.
The appointment ends a vacancy at the top of IBS that had lasted about one year and seven months. Former president Roh Do-young served an additional year as no successor had been named by the end of his term in November 2024, and the institute had been operating under an acting president system following his departure last November.
