Ki Joon Kim is Associate Professor of New Media and Human–Technology Interaction and Founding Director of the Interaction Studies Lab in the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong. Kim holds a Ph.D. in Human–Computer Interaction (under the supervision of Prof. S. Shyam Sundar) from Sungkyunkwan University and bachelor's degrees in Psychology (under the guidance of Prof. Larry L. Jacoby) and Film & Media Studies from Washington University in St. Louis.

Kim investigates the sociopsychological antecedents and consequences of human–technology interaction by examining how humans respond to various technological affordances. Specifically, he explores the processes through which affordances in digital media influence the behavioral and psychological outcomes of technology-mediated communication. Kim also develops and validates theoretical frameworks that explain how human interactions with emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things, wearable devices, autonomous vehicles, and generative AI, come to be perceived as socially meaningful, ethical, and persuasive.

Kim has received a total of US$434,000 in research grants as the sole principal investigator and authored over 110 peer-reviewed research articles, including single- and first-authored publications in top-tier journals such as the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Human Communication Research, New Media & Society, and the Journal of Business Research. His work has been cited over 7,400 times and featured in major international news outlets, including TIME, NBC News, Fox News, and The Guardian, as well as in local media in more than 15 countries.

Kim is the Department’s first and only faculty member ever awarded early promotion with tenure. He is also the Department’s first and only recipient of the Outstanding Research Award (the University’s highest honor for research excellence), the New Researcher Award, the Teaching Development Grant, and the Teaching Start-up Grant, in recognition of his world-class research and innovative teaching initiatives. According to the standardized citation metrics developed by a Stanford University research team based on Scopus data, Kim ranks in the top 0.5% worldwide and third in Asia among the most-cited researchers in the field of human factors. He is also the most-cited faculty member in the Department.