Buhm Soon Park is a professor of the history of science in the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy at KAIST, and serves as director of the Center for Anthropocene Studies. Interested in how new scientific disciplines and technological systems emerge, grow, and change in society, Park examines the concomitant policy debates and institutional transformations. He has published on the history of quantum chemistry, the postwar growth of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the establishment of Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in Korea. His current study explores the geohistoy of Korea after World War II, focusing on landscape changes, climate change policies, and the ideologies of developmentalism and militarism, to better understand the Anthropocene from the East Asian perspective. He is also working on a comparative study of anticipatory governance of synthetic biology and the question of trust in science.

Professor Park earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Seoul National University and received his PhD in the history of science from Johns Hopkins University in 1999. He subsequently worked at the NIH as a postdoctoral fellow for eight years before joining KAIST in 2007. He spent a year at the Harvard Kennedy School’s STS Program as a senior visiting research fellow. His service in professional societies includes: president of Association for East Asian Environmental History, president of the Korean Association of Science and Technology Studies, a vice president of Korean History of Science Society, and chief editor of the Korean Journal for the History of Science. He currently serves on the editorial board for Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences. He is affiliated with two other departments at KAIST as an adjunct professor: School of Transdisciplinary Studies and Graduate School of Engineering Biology. Beyond the academic world, He serves as a member of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO. He is an elected Fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology.