Meet the People of the Irsay

Biography

Yoosik Youm is a full professor of Sociology at Yonsei University in South Korea. He is currently the director of the Korean Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (KSHAP) and the Korean Study of Adolescent Health (KSAH). Both KSHAP and KSAH aim to examine the roles of social networks in the development of various physical and psychological illnesses. To achieve this, KSHAP has been collecting and following socio-centric (global) networks of two entire rural villages in South Korea for 12 years. KSAH has just completed the first wave of socio-centric networks of high school freshmen in an entire school in Seoul. In addition to social network data, both research projects also collect various biomarkers from saliva, blood, and brain scans. Additionally, Professor Youm's recent research covers social neuroscience, where he examines the ways in which human brains and social networks interact to form, maintain, and change modern societies. He also serves on the editorial boards of several interdisciplinary and health-related journals, such as PLOS ONE and Scientific Reports.