Korea University: Professor Ok Yong-sik from the Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering

Professor Ok Yong-sik from the Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering has been ranked the top environmental scientist in Asia for two consecutive years by Research.com, an American academic information service.

Research.com has been publishing the global rankings of scientists annually since 2014, based on Google Scholar data and Microsoft Academics Graphics.

In the 2024 evaluation by Research.com, Professor Ok Yong-sik was the only Korean scientist to achieve the top rank in Asia in the field of environmental science.

Professor Ok was the first scholar in South Korea to be selected as a Highly Cited Researcher (HCR) in the field of environmental ecology by Clarivate. In 2022, he was also the first in the world to be named a HCR in three major fields: environmental ecology, engineering, and biology/biochemistry. According to Google Scholar, Professor Ok Yong-sik was cited over 20,000 times in 2023 and currently has the most Highly Cited Papers (HCPs) among Korean scholars.

In addition, Professor Ok is actively involved in international collaborative research with various corporations, universities, and government agencies worldwide. He has launched initiatives to address the issue of biodiversity through the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the UN Plastics Pollution Regulation Treaty. Working with Professor William Mitch from Stanford University, he serves as the chair and general director of the Pacific Rim University Association’s Sustainable Waste Management Program. He leads large-scale empirical studies and ESG evaluation research in partnership with over 300 global scholars, focusing on climate change mitigation technologies using biochar and solutions to plastic pollution, among other pressing global challenges.