Jinsoo an is a leading Korean American designer, researcher, and technologist who develops intelligent platforms

Past through present and future

Prior to relocating to California in 1995, Jinsoo was raised on a small farm in South Korea, just a few miles away from the DMZ. The farm was surrounded by wet rice fields and unpaved streets where hundreds of tanks would roam. He remembers waving his arms and yelling, “M.R.E.!” at the soldiers in their enormous tanks, hoping to score a bag of what seemed like a Happy Meal. Inside a modular dwelling constructed by his grandfather, bricks of fermenting meju used to hang above a window. Beneath, there laid a stack of floppy disks containing home-brew games, a row of colorful origami creatures, and a collection of electronic parts from teardowns.

Through these playful environments, Jinsoo developed a unique fascination for how tangible and digital objects are interconnected.

Decades later, his passion has evolved into building innovative platforms across over 20 industries. With these platforms, he has helped to shape the experiences of hundreds of millions of people in North America and Europe. In 2013, he became involved in a series of projects that decoded how people interpret senses and emotions. In the following year, he founded Project Nourished, a public-benefit initiative with a goal of diversifying methods of consumption, maximizing therapeutic qualities of ingestibles, and reducing the use of natural resources.

During his spare time, Jinsoo enjoys collecting and restoring antiquated cameras and electronics. He also loves to inspire people of all ages by speaking to them and educating them on a number of topics related to the human condition. Some of his favorite topics include play, hyperreality, fandom, commensality, social isolation, aging, and community reintegration. Periodically, he engages with local and global communities to strengthen public–private partnerships in the hope of improving the role of technology in people’s daily lives.