Professor Doctor Ken Nah

In 1983, Prof. Dr. Ken Nah received his B.S. from Hanyang University, South Korea, majoring in Industrial Engineering. His interest in human factors/ergonomics led him to pursue a Master’s Degree from Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (KAIST) in 1985. He gained his Ph.D. in 1996 in Engineering Design from Tufts University.

Ken Nah is also a USA certified professional ergonomist (CPE). From 2002 to 2006 and 2015 to 2016, he was the dean of the International Design School for Advanced Studies (IDAS). Currently, he is a professor of Design Management and also the director of the Human Experience and Emotion Research (HE.ER) Lab at IDAS, Hongik University, Seoul. He has also held the post of director at the International Design Trend Center (IDTC) since 2002 and was the director general of “World Design Capital Seoul 2010”. Alongside his teaching career, Ken Nah is also the president of the Korea Institute of Design Management (MIDM) and the vice president of the Korea Association of Industrial Designers (KAID). Recently, Dr. Nah has been very active in spreading the value of design, designeering, and design thinking through giving lectures and workshops to the decision makers in various sectors of Korea, publishing books in a reader-centered fashion, and mentoring students and design start-ups.