Interview with New Professor Sohn Kee-hoon of the Departpent of Agricultural Biotechnology of SNU

 

One day in April, when the cold has not gone away, we met Professor Sohn Kee-hoon of the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology at Seoul National University's College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Room 5125 in 200 dong. Professor Son Kee-hoon completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at Korea University's Department of Agricultural Biology, and completed his doctorate and post-doctoral courses in UK. After working as an assistant professor at Massey University in New Zealand from 2013 to 2015, he worked as an assistant professor and associate professor at the Department of Life Sciences and System Biotechnology at Pohang University of Science and Technology(POSTECH) from July 2015. Since March 2023, he leads the Plant Immunity Lab in the Department of Agricultural Biotechnology at Seoul National University and conducting research and education.

Prof. Sohn said that he was very interested in his major when he was undergraduate and went to graduate school to solve his academic curiosity. At that time, at the crossroads of choice between applied entomology and plant pathology, he preferred microorganisms which could contribute to food problems, and decided to research microbiology.

Currently, Professor Sohn Kee Hoon's plant immunity lab studies microbial outbreaks and plant innate immunity. In particular, they focus on revealing the mechanism by which intracellular immune receptors recognize pathogen-secreting proteins and activate immune responses in plants.

When asked about the most impressive research topic or anecdote, Professor Sohn Kee Hoon mentioned an anecdote when he research in UK as a post-doctoral researcher. He came to Australia for research conference, and a fellow professor told him that an Australian lab and lab in Korea conducts exactly same subject. The news was very unexpected because they were not aware of each other's research progress. Korean lab contacted the Australian lab to check each other's research process, and confirmed that they were conducting the research in the same subject but in different ways. As a result, the two labs reportedly conducted the research together and this study later published in journal Science in 2014.

When asked his feelings about having a month in his new post at Seoul National University, Professor Sohn Kee Hoon replied that he is familiar with the environment as he visited a lot for past 5 years as a member of the Institute of Plant Immunology, still he is trying to adapt to the new environment. In addition, he is has not taken undergraduate classes yet, he look forward to seeing undergraduates. He added that he is so excited to interact with Seoul National University students.

When asked about future plans and goals, he explained that he wants to play a role in contributing to society even after retirement in the distant future. And above all, he hoped to see the materials and technologies found in his recent research of producing basic knowledge will be used in Agricultural fields in the future. 

Finally, he advised students who will meet in the future to have more opportunities to talk with professors or graduates who have entered society rather than just looking for information about their peers or online in deciding their careers. He also advised students to actively participate in class, write a lot, and practice structuring the paper.