Dr. Lee, Oh-Kyu

Senior Research Official at the National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS), Republic of Korea

Dr. Lee, Oh-Kyu has worked for the Korean National Institute of Forest Science (NIFoS) since 2006 where he began as a postdoctoral research chemist. Now a senior researcher, he now heads a team in the NIFoS Biomaterials Research Center investigating historic methods of manufacturing Hanji, Korean traditional paper. His team has rediscovered three kinds of previously forgotten Hanji – Taeji (Hanji containing the green algae called ‘water silk’ [spirogyra spp.] as an additive), Siji (Hanji used for national exams), and Acheongji (Indigo dyed Hanji) and published two books: A story of forgotten Hanji – Restoration of Taeji and Siji (December 2021, a brief history of Hanji including its contemporary roles as well as the full story of recovery of Taeji and Siji); and Hanji World – Forgotten Hanji and Cultural Resonance (July 2022, an introduction to the varieties of Hanji). In 2022 he organized a four-day Hanji exhibition in Seoul, as well as presented a lecture at the Robert Williams Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta where he conducted the first historical assessment of the collection’s Korean papermaking tools since they were collected in 1933 by Dard Hunter.