Rate My Professor Roy Shin

Roy W. Shin is Professor Emeritus in the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, where he also holds the position of Special Adviser to the IU President on Global Partnerships. He earned his B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1958, his M.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1962, and his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1969. Shin began his career at Indiana University in 1977 as chair of the Division of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, serving in that role until 1987. That year, he transferred to the Bloomington campus as a professor of public and environmental affairs, assistant dean for academic administration, and director of the Public Affairs Graduate Program in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Under his leadership, the school underwent significant curriculum alterations and recruitment enhancements, helping to establish it as a leading institution in public affairs education. He officially retired in 1999 but remained actively engaged in scholarship, particularly focusing on management and development in East Asia, bureaucracy in Korea, and comparative public and industrial policy.

Shin’s research interests encompass environment and competition policy, science and technology policy, and the political economy of policy reform in Korea and East Asia. Notable publications include “The Prospects of Globalization Impact on Governance and the Korean Bureaucracy” in Administrative Focus (2008), “Political economy of policy reform in Korea” (with Y.C. Chen) in Public Administration Quarterly (2000), “Implementation of science and technology policies for global competition; electronics and telecommunications industries” in Journal of International Development (1998), “Policy Regimes for International Waste Trade” (with L. Strohm) in Environmental Policy (1997), and “The private provision of capital for public housing development: A cost-benefit study of the Seoul housing project” in Public Administration and Development (1995). During the 1996-1997 academic year, he received a Fulbright award to conduct research at the Korea Institute of Public Administration in Seoul, Korea. In recognition of his distinguished service, particularly in advancing Indiana University’s international mission through strengthened ties with South Korea, Shin was awarded the IU Bicentennial Medal in 2021. He played key roles in organizing the first international IU alumni conference and reunion in Seoul in 2009, securing a $1.5 million endowment from the Korea Foundation for the Institute for Korean Studies, and facilitating the Jacobs School of Music Chamber Orchestra’s Asian debut in 2015. Additionally, he mentored numerous Korean graduate students, many of whom advanced to prominent positions in the Korean government and academia. The Roy W. Shin Fellowship in Environmental Science, established in 2002, honors his legacy by supporting doctoral students researching energy or environmental policy in Northeast Asia.