Myung Sook Kim received her Ph.D. degree in Algal Systematics from Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 1995. During 1997 and 1998, she was a postdoc researcher at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. She was a research professor at Busan National University during 2002 and 2008. During 2007 and 2008, she was a visiting researcher at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. More recent research has concentrated on establishing a DNA database for Korean seaweeds to identify species and genus correctly with macroalgal species diversity. She has been a faculty member of the Department of Biology at Jeju National University since 2009 and is the 20th director of the Research Institute for Basic Sciences at Jeju National University.