Dr. Shim Sangmin is senior research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Prior to his current position he worked as professor (non-tenured) at the Graduate School of Green Growth and Sustainability at KAIST from 2023 to 2025, as research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies from 2022 to 2023, as visiting research fellow at the Sejong Institute from 2021 to 2022 and as assistant professor of international law at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy (KNDA) from 2016 to 2021. He also served as visiting scholar at the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), a private think-tank that conducts research on issues of international environmental law, from 2015 to 2016. Dr. Shim’s legal educational background includes a J.S.D. degree at Stanford University, which was awarded in 2015 with his dissertation entitled, “Structuring Climate Policy in the Korean Electricity Sector: Politics, Institutions and Mitigative Capacity-Building.” He also holds a J.S.M degree at the same university, and is a graduate of Seoul National University. (B.A. & M.A. in law)
An expert on international environmental law and policy, Dr. Shim is especially interested in climate change law and policy. His academic interests extend to conventional international legal issues as well, such as peace and security in the United Nations system, law of the sea, nuclear non-proliferation, human rights in North Korea and state responsibility. He also covers a variety of non-traditional security issues – energy, environmental, economic and human security.