Kyungsik Choi is a professor at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Seoul National University, Korea. He has been a member of SEPM since 1991 and has served as a Global SEPM Ambassador since 2014. He is also a member of IAS since 1991 and has served as an International Correspondent for IAS since 2026. He is a member of AGU, EGU, and AAPG.

 

Kyungsik received B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in marine geology and sedimentology from Seoul National University. Following postdoctoral research at Queen's University in Canada, he joined Korea National Oil Corporation, where he spent two years conducting geological characterization of heterlithic siliciclastic reservoirs in Iraq, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, and Canada. He returned to academia in 2007 as a faculty member at Chonnam National University, where he worked until 2012, before moving to Seoul National University. 

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Kyungsik's research focuses on rivers and marginal marine depositional systems, including estuaries and deltas, and tidal flats, from tropical to Arctic environments. A major goal of his research is to understand and predict the spatial and temporal distribution of tide-influenced and tide-dominated sedimentary facies and architecture by integrating observations of modern depositional systems with measurements from the stratigraphic record. His work combines high-precision GNSS surveys, UAV-based photogrammetry, in-situ measurements of currents and waves, and sedimentary analysis of cores and outcrops. Current research particularly addresses tidal influence on channel morphodynamics, sediment transport, and bar architecture across the fluvial-marine transition, with field studies in Korea, Myanmar, Svalbard, and other regions.

 

Kyungsik has published 57 peer-reviewed scientific papers in international journals and authored a book on the tide-dominated Han River delta. In addition to his research and teaching, he has been actively engaged with the media and public outreach to communicate the importance of marine geology, petroleum geology, sedimentary processes, and climate change. Through interviews, public lectures, and other outreach activities, he works to promote broader understanding of how geological processes shape coastal environments, influence energy resources, and provide critical perspectives on ongoing environmental and climatic changes.