Dr. Young has obtained BSc in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University, and Ph.D. in economics from the Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, United States.
He is currently a leading professor in the Department of Technologies and Society, as well as director of the Institute of Sustainable Development, at the State University of New York (SDSN) Korea. Dr. Young has found the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Korea in 2013, where he is the chairman now after having served as a director. He is also an Emeritus Member of the Leadership Council of the SDSN (http://unsdsn.org), a global network of research institutes and other knowledge institutions in various issue in areas of sustainable development which was launched by the former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012, with Professor Jeffrey Sachs. By working in the KDI School of Public Policy and Management as a here he is a visiting professor, he has directed several projects on Korea’s green growth policies, sustainable development challenges, including on SDGs for Korea, as well as Korea’s long-term deep decarbonisation pathway, and has co-authored and edited total of 9 books (8 Korean, 1 English). During 2010 to 2012, he served as a chairman of Korea’s Presidential Committee on Green Growth under President Lee Myung-bak. He has also served as a chairman of the International Advisory Committee for the Green Growth Knowledge. In earlier years, he has served as a Korea’s ambassador to the OECD and president of the National Strategy Institute (NSI), the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), and Korea Transport Institute. Since early 1980, he has also worked in numerous advisory committees for the Korean government since, including four Presidential Committees. Based at KDI as a senior fellow since 1981, Dr. Young has written extensively on Korea’s development and internationalization challenges.