Dr. Sangkug Lee is a senior research fellow of Busan Development Institute (BDI), located in Busan, Republic of Korea. He conducts research in the areas of urban economics and transportation planning with the engineering methods. The majority of his research has focused on issues related to the urban mobility based on transportation system and rail networks, and transit-oriented development as land-use. His research has been expanded to the public investment management including urban public facilities and services. He has lectured in urban planning and transportation planning courses for graduate students at local universities in Busan with his expertise, and in the context of policy implementation. Recently he completed working on Busan’s urban-rail network plan for next 10 years with the professional knowledge of urban-rail planning. Another recent pioneering research, titled as ‘the linkage of tram-train for utilization of national railways in metropolitan areas’, is further reviewed for possible policy implementation by Metropolitan Transport Commission, Korea Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Besides he has been involved in various public-private partnership investment projects in Busan.

He held the position of chief director for research planning & coordination office, and the directorship of urban infrastructure research division in Busan Development Institute over consecutive years of 2017 to 2018. Also he directed Busan Public Investment Management Center of BDI from 2013 to 2015. Prior to join the BDI in 2006, he worked for Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) with the position of assistant research scientist over two years. Dr. Lee received his BA in economics (1990) from Chungnam National University, Korea, and MA in economics (1996) from Purdue University and the doctorate in urban and regional planning (2006) from Texas A&M University, USA. In addition to his career at TTI, he worked as a financial risk manager of Samsung (1996~1999). Dr. Lee has served on professional review boards of Busan metropolitan city such as traffic impact assessment, urban planning, industrial complex planning, transportation improvement, and road pricing over last ten years. His professional review boards have been outreached to other provinces such as Ulsan metropolitan city and Sejong autonomous city. Also he has been a member of the rail technology board of Korea Railroad, and also served on the assessment advisory board of National Balanced Development Committee.