I am an Associate in the School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, and a Department Associate of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. I am broadly interested in the biology and evolution of beetles (Order Coleoptera) with a special emphasis on the cause of their unique mega-biodiversity, most famously remarked by J.B.S. Haldane as the Creator’s apparent "inordinate fondness for beetles" (Hutchinson, 1959).
My research focuses on understanding the evolutionary mechanism underlying the ecological success of longhorned beetles through a comparative genomics approach. As part of the project, I am working on generating reference-quality whole genome assemblies of longhorned beetles with diverse feeding habits to unravel the genetic basis of their adaptation to feed on woody-plants that are rather poor in nutrient.
As an undergraduate at Harvard, I studied the systematics and biogeography of world stag beetles (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) with a particular focus on southern hemisphere lineages whose disjunct distribution suggested for the possibility of their vicariance following the continental break-up of Gondwana.
* Hutchinson, G.E. (1959) Homage to Santo Rosalia or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals? The American Naturalist 93: 145–159.