Dr. Hyeong-Joo Kim has devoted all his professional life to higher education and research. He finished his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Civil Engineering at Korea University on 1983 and 1985 and completed his Ph.D. degree in Civil Engineering at Hiroshima National University in Japan on 1990. He spent most of his career at Kunsan National University, actively engaged in teaching, research, and administrative work. Starting as a Professor in 1992, he rose and became the Director of the Environmental and Construction Research Institute in Kunsan National University on 2001, as well become the Vice President (Academics Planning Affairs) of Kunsan National University and the Director of the Jeonbuk Province Research Institute on 2010. He was also able to teach outside of Korea as a visiting Professor at the University Colorado at Boulder, United States of America. He also had industry experience as a Researcher at Fuuken Engineering in Japan, and as the Research Institute Director of Dong-Ah Construction.

He has received numerous awards and grants. He was awarded “Honors Professor” at the College of Engineering in Civil Engineering on 2002, “Award of Korea Association of Industry, Academy and Research Institute” on 2007, “Academic Award of Korean Geotechnical Society” on 2016, and “Award Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport” on 2018. One of his notable grant was “Application and Design Optimization of Geotextile Tubes with Dredged Soil”, which was funded by The Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement, wherein he became the Project Leader of the International Cooperation for the Korea R&D Policy Infrastructure Project. He has published several research papers in the field of engineering, in which his areas of study include soil consolidation, pile foundation, geotextile tube, and liquefaction.