Seung-il Shin, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor for International Development
Dr. Shin is responsible for VaxGen’s international program development to prepare VaxGen for worldwide distribution of our vaccine.
Prior to joining VaxGen, he served with the United Nations, where he conceived, founded and directed an international initiative that ultimately led to the establishment of the International Vaccine Institute, now located in Seoul, Korea.
In 1984, Dr. Shin co-founded and served as the Chief Executive Officer of Eugene Tech International, where he led the company’s effort to develop and market a hepatitis B vaccine that was eventually distributed widely in many developing countries. For two years, 1987-1989, he also served as Senior Executive Vice President and Director of the R&D Laboratories of Cheil Sugar & Co., in Seoul.
Before that, Dr. Shin was a Professor of Genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and a founding member of the Basel Institute of Immunology in Basel, Switzerland.
Dr. Shin was educated in Korea and the United States in chemistry and biochemistry and in The Netherlands in genetics, and further trained in immunology in England. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Brandeis University.