Wonwoo Nam received his B.S. (Honors) degree in Chemistry from California State University, Los Angeles in 1985 and his Ph.D. degree in Inorganic Chemistry from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1990. After one year post-doctoral experience at UCLA, he became an Assistant Professor at Hong Ik University in Seoul, Korea in 1991. He moved to Ewha Womans University in 1994, where he is presently a Distinguished Professor of Ewha Womans University and a director of Center for Dioxygen Chemistry. His current research focuses on the mechanistic studies of dioxygen activation and formation and oxygen atom transfer reactions by biomimetic models of heme and nonheme iron enzymes.
He has received many prestigious awards, including Young Scientist Award (2000) and Korea Science Award (2015) given by the President of Korea and the National Academy of Science Award (2022). He has served as an editor, associate editor, and advisory board member in many academic journals. He is a Fellow of Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) and is currently the Head of International Academic Affairs at KAST.