He received his PhD in biology from Chungnam National University. After research training at the University of Iowa, he worked at the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. His research interests include eukaryotic biodiversity, phylogeny, single cell genomics, and genome evolution, with a focus on red algae and red algal plastid descendants (e.g., the cryptophytes, haptophytes, stramenopiles, and dinoflagellates).