KIOST Senior Researcher Shim Won-jun Selected as 'World's Most Influential Researcher'

Shim Won-jun, a principal researcher at the Namhae Research Institute of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), was named on the ‘2023 Highly Cited Researchers (HCR)’ list announced by Clarivate Analytics in the United States, the organization that manages SCIE.

Clarivate Analytics in the United States annually selects and announces researchers who have published the highest number of highly cited papers?those in the top 1% by citation count over the past 10 years?in various research fields such as environment and ecology, chemistry, engineering, materials science, microbiology, and social sciences. This corresponds to approximately 0.1% of all researchers worldwide.

Principal Researcher Shim Won-jun was selected in the ‘environment and ecology’ research field. He is the first from KIOST to be selected and one of two scientists from government-funded research institutes chosen this year.

Senior Researcher Wonjun Shim, KIOST.

Principal Researcher Shim graduated from the Department of Oceanography at Seoul National University in 1990 and earned his Ph.D. from Seoul National University in 2000. Since joining the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute, the predecessor of KIOST, in 2003, he has conducted research in marine pollution at the Ecological Risk Research Division of the Namhae Research Institute.

He is a world-renowned authority in the field of microplastic environmental pollution, a critical environmental issue gaining attention recently. To date, he has published 196 papers in international journals, including studies on hazardous chemical pollution, which have been cited over 12,000 times, with 28 of those papers cited more than 100 times.

He has made significant contributions to the assessment of microplastic pollution and the elucidation of environmental behavior in marine environments, including demonstrating that plastics, previously thought to degrade poorly, can produce enormous amounts of microplastics in a much shorter time than expected through natural weathering.

These related studies are recognized as playing an important role in domestic and international policy decisions based on scientific research results.

Principal Researcher Shim Won-jun stated, “As a natural scientist who lets research results speak through papers, being selected as an HCR, which evaluates impact through citations, is more honorable than any award.” He added, “I hope that young Korean scientists in the public domain of ‘environment and ecology’ research will achieve excellent research outcomes and that more will be selected as HCRs in the future.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.