KEYNOTE SPEAKER

We are pleased to announce Prof. Seong-Kyu Kang as the keynote speaker at the opening session of the SOEHPON Annual International Conference and Exhibition (AISCE) 2026.

Professor Seong-Kyu Kang has been President of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) since 2022 and is a Clinical Professor at Gachon University Gil Medical Center in Incheon, Republic of Korea. He has been actively involved in ICOH since 2009 as a Vice President and Board member and also served as Editor-in-Chief of the ICOH Newsletter. He organized the 31st ICOH Congress held in Seoul in 2015.

In academia, Professor Kang served as Dean of the Graduate School of Public Health and Chair of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Gachon University College of Medicine until his retirement in 2024. He has also been Editor-in-Chief of Safety and Health at Work (SH@W) since 2010, a journal indexed in SCIE/SSCI with an Impact Factor of 3.2 (2025).

In national occupational health policy and practice, he previously held senior positions at the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (KOSHA), including Vice President of Technology, Director General of the Seoul Regional Office, and Director General of the Occupational Safety and Health Research Institute (OSHRI). He also chaired the Occupational Safety and Health Committee of the Economic, Social & Labor Council under the Presidential Office, facilitating agreement among employees, employers, and the government to prevent serious workplace accidents. He currently serves as a non-executive Vice President of the Korea Industrial Health Association (KIHA).

Internationally, he served as an EIS fellow at the US CDC, assigned to NIOSH, and was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centres in Occupational Health. He is a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini.Professor Kang received his MD from Chungnam National University and completed residency training in Family Medicine at Yonsei University Severance Hospital. He was awarded the Order of Merit for Excellence in Industrial Accident Prevention by the government of the Republic of Korea.

Prof Kang will deliver a keynote on “A Global View on Occupational Health in the AI Environment,” focusing on the dual nature of AI workplace, its promises, perils and the global divide on AI adoption.

Drawing on leadership at the highest levels of global occupational health advocacy, the keynote speech will offer a forward-looking perspective on how Africa can utilise AI to transform occupational health practice that safeguard the health of its people and workforce, accelerate innovation, and strengthen AI-enabled development.