Dr. Sam Oh, Chair of the Department of Library and Information Science at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea, has been named to the position of iCaucus Chair. The iCaucus is the governing body of the iSchools Organization, and Oh is the organization’s first chair from the Asia-Pacific region. Oh received his Ph.D. in Information Transfer from the Syracuse University School of Information Studies in 1995.
Oh’s election was formally announced last week. He will serve as chair-elect during the 2016-2017 year, and then assume the role of iCaucus chair for the 2018-2019 term.
“It is truly an honor to be the new iSchools Caucus chair-elect,” said Oh. “As the first person from the Asia-Pacific region to take on this responsibility, I consider it my express duty to promote the iSchools brand where it has remained less visible. I am grateful to those who have supported me and will do my utmost to represent the iSchools both in areas already at its forefront and in regions that have the greatest need of exposure to its initiatives.”
Current iCaucus Chair Michael Seadle, of Germany’s Humboldt University, said, “I am very pleased that the organization has elected Sam Oh as the new chair-elect. Sam has been the leader of the Asia-Pacific region of the iSchools Organization, and his election represents another significant step in the internationalization of the organization.”
Oh served as an assistant professor at the University of Washington’s Information School for four years before returning to South Korea to become a professor at Sungkyunkwan University. He has taught courses at Syracuse, the University of Texas at Austin; and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also spent a sabbatical year at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Information Sciences.
The iSchools Organization is a global association of 65 information schools dedicated to advancing the information field. The organization holds the annual iConference, hosted each year by a different member school. In addition to his duties as iCaucus Chair, Oh will serve as co-chair of the 2017 iConference 2017, which will be co-hosted by Sungkyunkwan University and the Wuhan University School of Information Management; the event will be held in Wuhan China.