Dinosaur expert tapped to lead Korea Heritage Service

Huh Min, who has been named the new head of the Korea Heritage Service / Courtesy of the presidential office

Huh Min, a professor of geology at Chonnam National University, has been tapped as the new chief of the Korea Heritage Service, the state agency tasked with safeguarding the country’s cultural and natural legacy.

The announcement came Sunday, as President Lee Jae Myung named five vice ministers and seven vice ministerial-level officials in the latest round of high-level appointments.

Huh is the first expert in geology and paleontology chosen to helm the agency — a position traditionally held by scholars of archaeology, art history or historical studies.

His appointment may signal a shift toward greater recognition of Korea’s natural heritage as an integral part of its heritage preservation efforts.

The 64-year-old specialist is credited with bringing international attention to Korea’s dinosaur research. His work has centered on vertebrate paleontology, with particular emphasis on dinosaur and pterosaur fossils.

In 2003, his team made a landmark discovery in Boseong, South Jeolla Province, unearthing fossils belonging to a previously undiscovered dinosaur that once roamed Korea’s southern coast during the late Cretaceous period. The species was later named Koreanosaurus Boseongensis.

In 2022, as director of the Korea Dinosaur Research Center at Chonnam National University, his crew was responsible for another remarkable find: over 350 pterosaur footprints embedded in a Cretaceous-era fossil bed in Hwasun County, South Jeolla Province. The discovery was the first concrete evidence for pterosaurs as social animals.

In recognition of his contributions, Huh was named an honorary fellow of the Geological Society of London twice, first in 2017 and again in 2020. He remains the only Korean ever to receive the distinction in the society’s 200-year history.

The scholar has also played a role in UNESCO initiatives, serving as co-director and scientific advisor for Mudeungsan UNESCO Global Geopark in Gwangju since 2018.

Huh earned his bachelor’s degree in geology from Chonnam National University in 1982, followed by a master’s in sedimentology from Seoul National University in 1986. He completed his Ph.D. in paleontology at Korea University in 1991 and later pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Wales in the United Kingdom.