Professor Choi Hae-cheon Named Final Candidate for Seoul National University Presidency

[Financial News] Choi Hae-cheon, a 64-year-old distinguished professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been selected as the final candidate to become Seoul National University's 29th president.
The Seoul National University Board of Trustees said it had voted to formally designate Professor Choi as its final candidate after conducting interviews and a vote for the presidential candidates at the administration building on the Gwanak campus on the 8th. Choi will officially take office as the university's 29th president in February next year, following a recommendation by the Minister of Education and an appointment by the president. The term will be four years.
Since joining Seoul National University as a professor in 1993, Professor Choi has held various key positions at the university, including head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and vice president for research and dean of the graduate school. Recognized for his academic achievements as a world-renowned authority in fluid mechanics, Professor Choi was appointed a distinguished professor at Seoul National University in 2024 and a specially appointed distinguished professor last March. In 2023, Professor Choi was also named Machinery Person of the Year by the Korea Machinery Industry Promotion Association.
During the election campaign, Choi put forward a vision of “building a university that scholars want to come to” and presented a series of bold pledges.
He first pledged to create a stable research environment by providing all faculty members with an annual basic education and research allowance of 10 million won. He also plans to significantly expand the number of distinguished and specially appointed distinguished professors—from just 22 at present, including 12 distinguished professors and 10 specially appointed distinguished professors, to 100—to strengthen efforts to attract and support outstanding scholars. He also outlined plans to establish SNU Mega Frontier Partners, which would present a vision for the future to businesses and propose various solutions to national challenges to the government, and to raise a large-scale new fund totaling 2 trillion won.
The presidential election was more competitive than ever, with 12 candidates vying for the position. After the Presidential Candidate Recommendation Committee selected four preliminary candidates last September—Kang Jun-ho, Choi Hae-cheon, Lee Jae-Young and Kim Hyun-cheol—a policy evaluation panel comprising faculty, staff and students voted to recommend three final candidates to the Board of Trustees: Professor Choi, Professor Kang Jun-ho of the Department of Physical Education, and Professor Lee Jae-Young of the Department of English Language and Literature.

[email protected] Kim Man-gi Reporter