Sept 2025 - Present
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
Jongsik Christian Yi
Principal Investigator, CASS Lab
Assistant Professor, KAIST Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy
Dr. Jongsik Christian Yi is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Science and Technology Policy at KAIST. His research and teaching focus on the history and policy of science and technology in modern China, while also encompassing the history of science, science and technology studies (STS), and science and technology policy in East Asia (Korea and Japan) and Southeast Asia (Vietnam). His broader interests also include medical humanities, human–animal relations, and global higher education policy.
Publications & Academic Service
He is the author of More-Than People's Communes: Veterinary Workers and Nonhuman Animals in Mao-Era China (under contract with the University of Chicago Press) and Animal History: The Birth of the Modern People Who Love and Hate Animals (in Korean, East Asia Books). He has also translated into Korean Victor Seow's Carbon Technocracy, Warwick Anderson's Spectacles of Waste, Sigrid Schmalzer's Red Revolution, Green Revolution, and Loren Graham's Lysenko's Ghost, among others.
His scholarly articles have appeared in leading international journals, including The Journal of Asian Studies, The Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, and The Journal of the History of Biology. Professor Yi is currently an associate editor of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine and The Korean Journal for the History of Science. He also serves on the boards of the Korea Foundation for Women In Science, Engineering and Technology (WISET); the Korean History of Science Society; and the Korean Association for Cold War Studies.
Academic Appointments
Aug 2022 - Aug 2025
Assistant Professor of the History of Science
Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)
Mar 2023 - Aug 2025
Assistant Professor of Social Data Science
Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH)
Mar 2023 - Aug 2025
Adjunct Professor
Institute of Convergence Science and Technology, Yonsei University
Education
2017 - 2022
Ph.D. in History of Science
Harvard University
2013 - 2016
M.A. in History
Korea University
2007 - 2013
B.A. in History
Korea University
Teaching
KAIST
Survey in Science and Technology Studies
Spring 2026
Instructor
Science, Technology, and Asia
Fall 2025
Instructor
POSTECH
History of Science [과학사]
Spring 2025
Instructor
Spring 2024
Instructor
Spring 2023
Instructor
Modern Society and Science: Historical Perspectives on Science and Technology Policy
Spring 2025
Instructor
History of Science and Technology in Modern Korea [한국과학기술사]
Fall 2024
Co-Instructor with Prof. Hyungsub Choi
Fall 2023
Co-Instructor with Prof. Hyungsub Choi
Fall 2022
Instructor
History of Modern Korea [한국근현대사의 이해]
Fall 2024
Instructor
Fall 2023
Instructor
Fall 2022
Instructor
Humanities of Physics [물리(物理)의 문리(文理)]
Spring 2024
Co-Instructor with Prof. Chunsik Yun
Crossing Boundaries of Science and Society [과학과 사회의 통합적 이해]
Spring 2023
Co-Instructor with Prof. Jinhee Kim and Jihyun Suh.
Harvard University
Modern Southeast Asia
Spring 2022
Teaching Fellow for Prof. Sugata Bose.
Distinction in Teaching Award given by the Harvard Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
Medicine and Health in America
Spring 2020
Teaching Fellow for Prof. Ann Marie.
Engineering East Asia: Technology, Society, and the State
Fall 2019
Teaching Fellow for Prof. Victor Seow.
Distinction in Teaching Award given by the Harvard Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
Korea University
Topics in Chinese History: Modern China, 1840-1949
Spring 2016
Translating Assistant for Xu Jin (徐進, Shandong University).
Topics in Chinese History: The History of the People's Republic of China
Spring 2014
Translating Assistant for Dong Guoqiang (董國强, Fudan University).
Awards, Fellowships, and Grants (Selected)
Annual Essay Prize
The Korean History of Science Society (KHSS)
Start-up Research Grant
KAIST
N.EX.T Idea Project
POSCO Holdings N.EX.T Hub
F. Hilary Conray Award
Association for Asian Studies (AAS)
Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grant
American Historical Association
Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
Dissertation Fellowship
The D. Kim Foundation for the History of Science and Technology in East Asia
Desmond and Whitney Shum Fellowship
The Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University
The Predissertation Travel Grant to China
Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies
Erwin Hiebert Fellowship
Department of the History of Science, Harvard University
Esherick-Ye Family Foundation Grant in Modern Chinese History
The Esherick-Ye Family Foundation
Fulbright Foreign Student Program
Institute of International Education (IIE) and Fulbright Korean-American Educational Commission
Gallery
