Lee Kwan Min

Korea Foundation Professor in Contemporary Korean Society and New Media
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information

Kwan Min LEE (Ph.D., Stanford) is the inaugural Korea Foundation Professor in Contemporary Korean Society and New Media, and the Director of UX (User Experience) Lab at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Previously, Lee was the founding director of Interaction Science Research Center and the founding WCU (World Class University) Professor of the Department of Interaction Science at Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), S. Korea. Lee also directed Samsung Electronics’ User Experience (UX) Group and the Creative Lab (C-Lab) as one of the youngest vice presidents in the Samsung corporate history. At Samsung, Lee led developments of new products and services for its visual display (VD) division through: user experience (UX) planning and strategy, open innovations and outside partnerships, and internal incubations of creative projects at C-Lab. Prior to SKKU and Samsung, Lee had taught at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC) for 12 years. At USC, Lee was one of the youngest tenured professors.

Lee specializes in UX (User Experience) research and design, social and psychological effects of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), and human machine interaction including human computer interaction (HCI), human robot interaction (HRI), and human automobile interaction (HAI). As the inaugural Korea Foundation Chair, his research interests extend to digital culture, policy, and innovation in contemporary Korean society. Lee has published over 100 articles and book chapters at major academic journals and textbooks in Communication, Human Computer Interaction, and Psychology. His articles are frequently cited in the fields of Communication, Psychology, and HCI. His works have been widely adopted as major course readings at leading academic institutes such as Stanford, Penn, and MIT. His research findings have been covered by Washington Post, BBC News, USA Today, and other major news agencies.

Lee was an elected chair (2012-2014) of the Communication and Technology (CAT) Division of the International Communication Association (ICA), the largest academic association in the field of Communication. Lee also received three endowed fellowships from Stanford University. Lee received multiple top paper awards and a distinguished young scholar award from various academic associations such as ICA, AEJMC, KACA, and HCI. Lee received various teaching awards including USC Mellon Award for excellence in mentoring and teaching, and was nominated for Provost Award for Teaching with Technology at USC.

Lee has served editorial boards of more than 10 top-tier academic journals including Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Media Psychology, International Journal of Human Computer Interaction, and Journal of Computer Mediated Communication. Lee is one of nine advisory board members of the MIT Cognet, and was an associate editor of MIT Press journal, Presence.

Lee’s research funding exceeds 12 million US dollars. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (USA), the Annenberg Foundation, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (S. Korea), Korea Information Strategy Development Institute, Samsung Electronics, and Hyundai Motors. Lee holds multiple international (USA, EU, and S. Korea) patents in smart display interfaces, remote controller, gesture control, and multi media production.