Rate My Professor Jae Kyoung Kim

Jae Kyoung Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Chief Investigator of the Biomedical Mathematics Group at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS). He earned a B.S. degree summa cum laude in mathematics education from Seoul National University and a Ph.D. in applied and interdisciplinary mathematics from the University of Michigan in 2013, with his thesis on cellular clocks receiving the Sumner Byron Myers Prize; his advisors were Daniel Forger and Victoria Booth. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at Ohio State University before joining KAIST as an assistant professor in 2015, advancing to Ewon Assistant Professor in 2017 and to his current associate professor role. Kim's research focuses on mathematical biology, including dynamical systems, stochastic processes, Bayesian inference, parameter estimation of ODEs, biological oscillators such as circadian rhythms and sleep-wake cycles, systems pharmacology, cancer chronotherapy, pharmacokinetics, and single-cell sequencing data analysis. He has received awards including the 2017 Human Frontier Science Program Award, the 2017 KSIAM Young Researcher Award, the 2021 Choi Seok-jeong Award, the 2023 Commendation from the Ministry of Science and ICT, and the 2025 Scientist of the Year Award from the Korea Science Journalists Association. Kim has published in journals such as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Nature Communications, and PLOS Computational Biology. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Current Opinion in Systems Biology and as an associate editor or editorial board member for SIAM Review, PLOS Computational Biology, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Mathematical Biosciences, and other journals. He is a member of the Young Korean Academy of Science and Technology, has delivered plenary lectures at conferences including the SIAM Annual Meeting and SMB Annual Meeting, and contributes to committees such as the nomination committee of SIAM Dynamical Systems.

Kim has also developed software for mathematical modeling, Bayesian inference, sleep disorder diagnosis, and related applications, with his work applied in digital health tools including a sleep algorithm integrated into Samsung Galaxy watches. He holds an adjunct professorship at Korea University Medical School and has organized workshops and symposia on topics in biomedical mathematics.