서울대학교 사회학과에서 학사 및 석사를 마쳤고, 미국 하버드대학교에서 사회학 박사학위를 받았다. 주요 관심 분야는 발전사회학, 정치사회학, 지구사회학, 비교사회학, 민주주의론 등이다. 주요 연구저서로 『전환기 한국의 정치와 사회: 지식, 권력, 운동』(2005), 『한국의 사회운동과 진보정당』(2009), 『세계화와 반세계화』(2011), 『지구시민사회의 구조와 역학』(2012), 『비교시각에서 본 박정희 발전모델: 라틴아메리카의 브라질, 멕시코, 아르헨티나, 칠레와 아시아의 한국』(2017), Global Capitalism and Culture in East Asia (2019), 『글로벌 아시아』(2021) 등이 있다. 현재 서울대 명예교수 및 대한민국학술원 회원이며 East Asian Sociological Association 회장, 경실련 공동대표, 국무총리실 시민사회발전위원회 위원장을 맡은 바 있다.

Hyun-Chin Lim is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Founding Director of Asia Center at Seoul National University. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Asian-Pacific Studies Institute at Duke University. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from Seoul National University, and his Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University. He taught and researched at Harvard, Chicago, University of California (San Diego), Duke, Paris Diderot, Free University of Berlin, and Vietnam National University (Hanoi), and Jilin University. He has received a number of honors, including Harvard-Yenching Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship and National Distinguished Scholar Fellowship. He was an editorial writer for Hankook Daily and a consultant at World Bank. He was previously the dean of Faculty of Liberal Education, the dean of the College of Social Sciences, and the founding director of Asia Center, all at Seoul National University. He worked as a member of the Executive Council, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics. He also served as the president of professional associations including Korean Association of NGO Studies, Korean Sociological Association, International Development and Cooperation Association, Korean Association for Political Society, and Korean Social Science Research Council. In addition, he has been active in leading civil society in Korea working as a Co-Chair for Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice and for Citizens’ Coalition for Scientific Society.