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Chin-Woo Kim was born on March 22, 1936 in Chungju, Republic of Korea. He graduated from Yonsei University in Seoul in 1958 and received his doctorate in Linguistics from UCLA in 1966. Since then, he has also held positions at MIT, Yonsei University, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Dr. Kim first came to the University of Illinois in 1967. He has served the campus in many ways,  including as the Head of the UIUC Linguistics Department and the Head of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.

His work on Korean linguistics have become the foundations of a now robust subfield of Korean phonology, inspiring students across the globe. Dr. Kim’s publications span a wide range of topics, including theoretical phonetics, experimental phonetics, syntax, language policies, language education, and globalization.

Dr. Kim is recognized in the 1972 World Dictionary of Linguists and the 1973 World List of Phoneticians. He was named a noteworthy scholar, educator, and linguist by Marquis Who’s Who. He served as President of the International Association for Humanistic Studies of Language from 2000-2008. Dr. Kim was also named as an Outstanding Intellectual of the 21st Century by Cambridge’s International Biographical Center.

At the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Dr. Kim has spent decades strengthening programs in Linguistics, Korean Language and Culture, and Phonology. His contributions have been essential to the creation and development of the Phonetics and Phonology Lab and our Linguistics research at the University of Illinois. We cannot give enough thanks and acknowledgement to Dr. Kim for his service to our research.

 Dr. Kim’s full CV can be found here.