Hyun-Chin Lim is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Founding Director of Asia Center at Seoul National University. He is Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Korea, and serves as the president of Korean Social Science Research Council. He taught and did research at Harvard, Chicago, University of California San Diego, Duke, Paris Diderot, and Vietnam National University Hanoi. He was previously the dean of Faculty of Liberal Education, the dean of the College of Social Sciences, and the director of Asia Center, all at Seoul National University. He also served as the president of such professional association as Korean Association of NGO Studies, Korean Sociological Association, and International Development and Cooperation Association. His publications include more than 50 books and over 250 scholarly articles on dependency, development, democracy, and civil society in East Asia and Latin America.