Biographical sketch

I am a professor of astrophysics at Seoul National University. I have worked on diverse areas of astrophysics: interstellar medium, dynamics of star clusters, and the evolution of galaxies and cosmology. I started my research on interstellar grains as a graduate student, but moved to theoretical studies of dynamical evolution of stellar systems for my PhD thesis. The stellar dynamics remained the focus of my research until late 1990s. In 2000, I initiated collaboration on the AKARI project with Japanese astronomers in infrared (IR) astronomy. AKARI is a space IR telescope that was eventually launched in 2006. The IR astronomy was very new to Korean astronomers, but they quickly became important players in area. I also pioneered in gravitational wave (GW) research in Korea. I am currently leading the Korea GW Group (KGWG), which has been a member of LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) since 2009. I received a few awards: John Polanyi Prize from the Government of Ontario, Canada, in 1988; National Distinguished Scholar from Korea Research Foundation in 2006; National Medal Scientific Achievement from the Korean Government in 2010; and Alexander von Humboldt Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation in Germany in 2013.

Homepage: http://astro.snu.ac.kr/~hmlee/

Research Interests

interstellar medium, dynamics of star clusters, and the evolution of galaxies and cosmology.