Johns Hopkins University's graduate school of international studies will establish a distinguished professorship in global security studies in the name of Chung Mong-joon, founder and honorary chair of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, as well as the former chair and current largest shareholder of Hyundai Heavy Industries, Korea’s largest shipbuilder.
The Seoul-based research institute announced Wednesday that the MJ Chung distinguished professorship in security studies will be awarded to a Johns Hopkins faculty member specializing in global security, with a particular focus on the Korean Peninsula and North Korea’s nuclear issues.
The professorship's research and educational initiatives will be funded by Chung’s recent $7.5 million donation to the university, supporting scholarship on Korea and global security challenges.
The chair professorship will be housed within the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC, a leading graduate school renowned for its rigorous curriculum in international affairs.
Chung, who was the chair of Hyundai Heavy Industries until 1988, is an alum of the SAIS, having earned his doctorate in international relations there in 1993 -- a milestone that deepened his involvement in Korean politics.
Even after graduation, Chung has maintained a close relationship with the SAIS.
In 2022, he donated $500,000 to the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the school. In 2011, he delivered a speech on South Korea’s security paradigm to SAIS students.
The new chair professorship follows the Chung Ju-yung Distinguished Professorship, established at the SAIS in 1996, honoring Chung’s late father, founder of Hyundai Group.
With this endowed chair professorship, Chung Mong-joon continues his family’s legacy of supporting global scholarship and advancing security studies.
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