Seoul appoints Yonsei University professor Kim Hyun-cheol as chief health officer

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Tuesday it has appointed Kim Hyun-cheol, a professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Yonsei University College of Medicine, as the city's chief health officer — a role tasked with examining municipal policies through the lens of public health and proposing new policy ideas.

The chief health officer is a part-time civilian expert appointed by the city to bring outside expertise and perspectives to municipal governance. The officer advises on how major city policies affect residents' physical, mental and social well-being throughout the planning and implementation process. The role also involves proposing policy improvements and new ideas across areas including health management across different life stages, mental health and social isolation prevention, health and welfare for vulnerable populations, and the creation of healthy living environments.

Kim is both a physician and an economist who graduated from Yonsei University College of Medicine. He earned a master's degree in economics from Yonsei University and a master's in public health from Seoul National University before receiving a doctorate in economics from Columbia University. He went on to serve as a professor at Cornell University and was later granted tenure at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, earning recognition as a top-tier researcher in the international economics community.

His work applies economic methods to questions that shape human lives — health, education, labor and demographics — and his findings have been published in the international journal Science and leading economics journals worldwide. He currently directs Yonsei University's Institute for Population and Talent and heads the policy planning division of Yonsei Health System's AI Medical Business Unit, leading research that spans the full arc of human life from birth to death.

Kim also serves as Seoul's eighth honorary mayor for population and low birth rate issues, and recently joined the G3 Seoul Planning Committee's co-growth subcommittee to help shape the city's future policy direction.

The city said it expects Kim's background to enable policy advice that goes beyond the healthcare sector, encompassing the full range of factors affecting residents' health — including demographic shifts, income, education, employment and living conditions.

"Drawing on a lifetime of research into people as both a physician and an economist, I will work to make life genuinely better for Seoul residents through sustainable health policies developed in partnership with the private sector," Kim said.

Earlier, the city appointed Jeong Hee-won, a specialist in slow aging and former professor of geriatric medicine at Asan Medical Center, as its inaugural chief health officer in August last year. Jeong stepped down voluntarily at the end of last year, however, after a personal controversy arose, and the city accepted the resignation.