The sense of assist and neighborhood was palpable when Sojun Park, a postdoc on the MIT Middle for Worldwide Research (CIS), delivered a current presentation on The International Diffusion of AI Applied sciences and Its Political Drivers. The occasion, a part of the CIS International Analysis and Coverage Seminar, crammed the venue with viewers members from throughout MIT.
“My work is straight related to what CIS college have beforehand completed on worldwide commerce and safety,” Park mentioned afterwards. “If I hadn’t obtained a postdoctoral fellowship and are available to MIT, I wouldn’t have been in a position to assume by way of the safety implications of my mental property analysis. I’ve been tremendously motivated by these students.”
Park’s time at CIS has been each grounding and transformative, providing him a scholarly house that has formed his analysis and helped broaden his mental horizons.
Pursuing interdisciplinary analysis and connections
Earlier than pursuing a tenure-track place, Park set his sights on conducting analysis at MIT. When he got here throughout a public posting in regards to the CIS Postdoctoral Affiliate Program, he took an opportunity and utilized.
“My very own analysis is interdisciplinary, and I knew that I might actually profit from the interdisciplinary atmosphere at MIT, and particularly at CIS, the place college are coming not solely from political science, but additionally affiliated with the Division of Economics and MIT Sloan [School of Management],” he says.
Park was thrilled to obtain the paid fellowship, which presents an educational yr at MIT and devoted workplace area at CIS. At MIT, he’s free to make use of his time towards his personal analysis, and has discovered worth in pursuing matters which might be of curiosity to the CIS neighborhood — whether or not it’s AI or international governance. He’s printed prolifically alongside the way in which, together with two articles within the Evaluate of Worldwide Organizations and the Evaluate of Worldwide Political Financial system.
He’s additionally continued to work on his forthcoming guide, “From Privilege to Prosperity: Information Diffusion and the International Governance of Mental Property,” which examines how applied sciences will be transferred legitimately throughout borders. “By ‘legitimately,’ I’m asking underneath what circumstances would companies volunteer to share their applied sciences? I’m fascinated by establishments and institutional environments that enable giant companies to share their applied sciences with smaller companies based mostly within the growth world that won’t possess the flexibility to give you their very own applied sciences,” he explains.
Throughout the spring 2026 semester, he’s collaborating with the middle’s Undergraduate Fellows Program. This program allows postdocs to work on their analysis tasks with MIT undergraduates. Park is working with two CIS undergraduate fellows to develop a brand new dataset inspecting worldwide commerce in inexperienced applied sciences. This chance reconnects Park to his early tutorial experiences in South Korea that set him on the trail to MIT.
Path to MIT
“College students in South Korea are educated to be problem-solvers,” explains Park, who was born and raised in Seoul. The nation’s rigorous faculty entrance exams reward those that can reply probably the most questions shortly and precisely in a restricted period of time.
Whereas taking a check in highschool, Park stumbled over a query that he couldn’t reply, no matter how a lot time he spent concentrating on it. He handed within the examination, however took the issue house and spent hours puzzling over it — he simply couldn’t let it go. “In hindsight, I see this because the second I made a decision that I wished to grow to be a scholar,” Park says.
Whereas majoring in worldwide research and economics (statistics) at Korea College, he had the chance to take part in a semester-long change program on the College of Texas at Austin. There, Park enrolled in a political science course on sport concept that explored how particular person state actors’ choices influenced each other’s decisions and outcomes in commerce, battle, and diplomacy. The trainer used the continued struggle between North and South Korea as a case examine, demonstrating the distinctive circumstances for escalation or de-escalation relying upon how the important thing actors made decisions alongside the way in which.
“I noticed for the primary time how quantitative strategies might be utilized to worldwide relations and political economic system,” Park says — and he knew that his subsequent step was going to be graduate work in the US. He started a joint MA and PhD program in political science at Princeton College the next yr, supported by a Fulbright Fellowship.
Park’s 2025 dissertation examined the worldwide governance of mental property rights — and it was well timed. He started his PhD program in 2018, “the purpose at which the U.S. and China commerce struggle had simply begun.” Throughout the pandemic, he was moved by the continued debates concerning vaccine inequality. “I noticed then that mental property was on the middle of those international financial challenges.” With little political science analysis on the subject, he “got down to create a systemic framework” to check it.
Concurrently, he served as a instructing assistant in undergraduate programs in statistical evaluation and realized that he deeply loved the expertise of instructing and interacting with college students. It was a really totally different expertise from his personal faculty years.
“In South Korea, it’s frequent for the educational atmosphere to be one wherein the professor simply delivers lectures, however I discovered that in the US’ larger schooling system, the classroom is really interactive. I realized one thing from every of my college students.” Quickly, Park was sure that he not solely wished to construct a profession in tutorial analysis, but additionally a future that closely included instructing and mentoring college students.
Earlier than graduating, he spent a yr at Georgetown College as a predoctoral fellow affiliated with the Mortara Middle for Worldwide Research. This expertise enabled him to discover the coverage implications of his analysis and interact with policymakers in Washington — abilities he’ll draw on in his new place.
Lasting classes from CIS
Park not too long ago accepted a place as assistant professor on the Nationwide College of Singapore. Starting fall 2026, he will likely be instructing graduate college students affiliated with the college of public coverage — most of whom could have profession expertise as practitioners within the public or non-public sectors.
He’ll take many classes from MIT to his new tutorial house, he says. “Primarily based on what I realized in the US, I’ll make the educational atmosphere within the graduate programs I train far more interactive and collaborative.”
At CIS, Mihaela Papa, director of analysis and principal analysis scientist, and Evan Lieberman, the middle’s director and professor of political science, related Park to related college whose analysis pursuits have been associated together with his personal. “Assembly with all of those students whose analysis relates indirectly to mental property rights made me take into consideration how my very own pursuits can develop to different matters,” Park explains.
However the largest takeaway of all is that he realized the best way to share his personal analysis with students who examine unfamiliar matters, to change concepts and uncover commonality. “I’ll by no means cease utilizing the communication abilities that I bought right here at MIT,” Park says.
