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Dr. Kim, a structural biologist, is Member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT). He also holds an appointment as Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Kim is known for his contributions to the protein folding mechanism phenomenon which addresses the relationship between the amino-acid sequence of a protein and the final, three-dimensional structure of the protein. He is also known for developing the use of coiled-coil protein structures as model systems for studying the interaction among proteins, in particular the interaction between the two oncoproteins, Fos and Jun, which have a central role in both normal and cancerous cell growth. In awarding him the prestigious National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology in 1993, the Academy cited Dr. Kim ″for his pathfinding research in structural biology that has elucidated both the pathway of protein folding and mechanisms of molecular recognition″.

Dr. Kim`s interest in coiled-coils led to his most notable scientific contribution, the discovery of the ″spring-loaded″ mechanism for the invasion of cells by influenza viruses. In this mechanism, a structural change within a viruses protein propels part of the protein towards a cell, in a harpoon-like manner. Recent work has shown that other viruses, including the AIDS viruses (HIV), use a similar mechanism to invade cells, and that the spring mechanism will be an important new target for anti-viral drugs. Dr. Kim is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A. and a fellow at the American Academy of Microbiology. He also serves the AIDS Vaccine Research Committee of the National Institute of Health(NIH). His work has earned him numerous awards including the Eli Lilly Award in Biological Chemistry and the Dupont Merck Award of the Protein Society.