Sungkyu Lee

Sungkyu, a first year fellow, received his Ph.D. in Public Health Policy at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, and completed M.P.H. in International Health from Graduate School of Public Health at Yonsei University in South Korea.  Sungkyu’s research interests include transnational tobacco companies’(TTCs) strategies to gain access into emerging markets and their marketing activities to influence tobacco use of youths and young adults.  He is also interested in enhancing supply-side measures in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.  Recently, he has become interested in use of electronic-cigarette among South Korean youths.    Sungkyu was interested in the field of global tobacco control during his doctoral course, thus his thesis analysed tobacco industry documents and examined TTCs strategies for gaining market access and demand creation tactics in South Korea from the late 1980s.  Importantly, through the case study of South Korea this thesis develops a conceptual framework which locates TTC market access strategies within the broader context of economic development models. In this way, the framework generalises patterns of TTCs’ global market expansion. During the Master’s course, Sungkyu focused on preventing tobacco use among adolescents. Using quantitative methods, he develops a prediction model for future smoking intention among South Korean adolescents aged 13-15 years. This model helps identify high risk groups for future smoking intention, thus meriting particular attention through smoking cessation or prevention programs.