Samsung Science & Technology Center

Sangtae Kim is an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Hanyang University. Prior to joining Hanyang University, he worked at Korea Institute of Science and Technology as a senior research scientist, where he worked on applying energy harvesting systems to real-life applications such as highway pavements. He received his Ph.D. under the guidance of Prof. Ju Li at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2016 and B.S. at University of California, Berkeley in 2010. His doctoral thesis studied electrochemically driven mechanical energy harvesters, where ion migrations under external pressure were systematically studied. His current research interests involve electrochemical waste heat recovery, molten salt nuclear reactors and nuclear power-driven hydrogen synthesis. With background in various energy materials, he seeks to study materials challenges limiting various parts of energy sciences such as limited efficiencies among waste heat recovery or corrosion-resistant materials for chloride molten salts. His recent honor/awards include a Young Scientist Award at iCANX 2021 and Best Teacher Award in 2021

Jong Hyeok Park is professor at Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Yonsei University, Republic of Korea. He received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from KAIST, Republic of Korea, in August 2004. Then, he joined University of Texas at Austin, USA, as a postdoctoral researcher in 2004 under the guidance of Prof. Allen J. Bard, where he focused on developing commercial level-photoelectrochemical solar water splitting systems which were based on dye-sensitized solar cells and TiO2 nanotube photoanodes. He is an author and a co-author of 350 papers and 100 patents. His research focuses on solar-to-hydrogen conversion devices/their related materials, solar energy conversion for fuels, perovskite solar cells and energy storage materials for Li & Na ion batteries. He has received various prestige awards such as PBFC Award (2012) from The Korean Electrochemical Society, SKKU Young Fellowship (2012) from SKKU, Horace G. Underwood Fellowship (2018) and Yonsei Fellowship (2023) from Yonsei University, Award of Excellence (2017) from Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and S-Oil Next Generation Researcher Award (2021).

Jeehoon Han is currently a associate professor in Department of Chemical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). He received his Ph.D. at POSTECH in 2012, followed by joining as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2012 to 2014. He began his independent research at Jeonbuk National University in 2010 and moved to POSTECH in 2022. He was elected as the Young Korean Academy of Science and Technology (Y-KAST) member in the field of Chemical Engineering in recognition of his contribution to the advances in Process Systems Engineering in 2022, along with numerous awards. His research interests lie in the general area of process and energy systems design research related to sustainability analysis. Specifically, he is studying process synthesis, technoeconomic assessment, life cycle assessment, and supply chain optimization with emphasis on renewable energy technologies. In this talk, he will be discussing how life cycle assessments for clean energy technologies can be used to evaluate their environmental impacts to achieve better sustainability

Yongju Yun is currently an associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH. Before joining POSTECH in 2016, he worked at UC Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher from 2014-2016, under the guidance of Prof. Gabor A. Somorjai, where he focused on developing heterogeneous catalysts for dehydrogenation of light alkanes to alkenes. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Seoul National University in 2007 and 2009, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 2013. His research interests include the synthesis of advanced catalytic materials, the surface characterization of solid catalysts, and the understanding of reaction mechanisms. Through fundamental insights into catalytic phenomena at gas-solid and liquid-solid interfaces, he aims to design sustainable catalysts for energy and environmental applications. Recently, he has been focusing on developing heterogeneous catalysts for enantioselective hydrogenation to produce fine chemicals, ammonia decomposition to release hydrogen, and oxidative dehydrogenation to utilize carbon dioxide.

Youn Jeong Jang is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Hanyang University. Before joining Hanyang University in 2020, she worked at UW Madison as a postdoctoral researcher from 2018-2020, under the guidance of Prof. Kyoung-Shin Choi, where she focused on developing electrocatalysts and photoelectrodes for NH3 production from N2 gas. She also worked at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) as a postdoctoral researcher from 2017-2018, under the supervising of Prof. Jae Sung Lee, where she focused on developing electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction. She received her B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Pohang University of Science and Technology(POSTECH) in 2011 and 2017, respectively where her main research interests involved photoelectrocatalysts for water splitting and CO2 reduction. Her research interest includes rational design of photo-electro catalysts and interface environmental engineering on catalysts for sustainable fuel and value added chemicals production for example water splitting, CO2 reduction, N2 reduction, and so on in the photo-electrochemical system.

Jihun Oh received his B.S. in Department of Materials Science and Engineering from POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), his M.S in Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University, and his Ph.D. degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2010. Since then, he had been a postdoctoral fellow at the National Renewal Energy Laboratory (NREL) until February 2013. He joined the faculty of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2013 and is currently an associate professor of Department of Materials Science and Engineering at KAIST. Prof. Jihun Oh aims to develop innovative and destructive energy materials and systems for electro-catalysis to valorize CO2. Prof. Jihun Oh has been actively developing model electrochemical catalysts and systems with well-defined morphology, crystallographic structures and defects, and atomic compositions as well as well-controlled reaction environments along with analytical device modeling to quantitatively provide design principles for energy conversion devices

Choongki Sung is an associate professor in the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering at KAIST. Before joining KAIST in 2020, he worked at Lam Research Corp. as a process engineer from 2018-2020, where he developed etching processes for semiconductor manufacturing. He also worked at UCLA as a postdoctoral researcher from 2015 to 2018. During this time, he developed a diagnostic for turbulence measurements in magnetized high-temperature plasmas relevant to nuclear fusion, i.e., fusion plasmas, and studied the effects of turbulence on the confinement of the fusion plasmas. He received his B.S. and M. S. degrees from Seoul National University in 2008 and 2010, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree from MIT in 2015. His main research focus involved turbulence and transport in fusion plasmas. He has concentrated on plasma physics research for fusion energy production, particularly in studying turbulence behavior and its effects on macroscopic instability and overall fusion plasma performance through measurements, data analysis, and modeling studies using simulations. He has also explored innovative fusion concepts to find a shorter pathway to a commercial fusion reactor compared to conventional fusion reactor concepts. Furthermore, he is expanding his research portfolio from fusion to other plasma applications, such as plasma processing for semiconductor manufacturing and neutron source development.

Sungyeol Choi is an associate professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and the founder and head of the Integrated Major in High-level Radioactive Waste Management at Seoul National University (SNU). Before joining SNU, he was an associate professor of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He was a research fellow at Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, and a senior researcher at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). He earned Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering in 2012 and B.S. in Nuclear Engineering in 2008 from SNU. His research interests include used nuclear fuel management, advanced nuclear reactor systems, and nuclear nonproliferation. Currently, he is developing new electrochemical and laser spectroscopic techniques for high temperature molten salts in advanced reactors. These techniques aim to achieve fast database collection, reliable material performance evaluation, and autonomous reactor operation.

Dong-Yeun Koh is an Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST and the co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of Sorv Co., Ltd. After receiving his Bachelor Degree from Korea University, he graduated with his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST in 2013. Between 2014 and 2017, he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research at Georgia Tech focused on the use of hollow fiber membranes or sorbents for molecular separation. His current research group at KAIST explores thermodynamics and diffusion in membranes and sorbents from a fundamental perspective. The overarching goal of his group's work is to transform fundamental theories into a scalable, functional separation device. "Direct air capture (DAC)" and "membrane based oil refining" are among the most growing fields of impact for such separation devices. In 2023, he co-founded the group's spin-off venture, Sorv, and partnered with Saudi Aramco to develop electrified fiber sorbents for energy-efficient direct air capture devices and systems.

Doh C. Lee is a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). Since 2021, he has been a director of both Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) and Quantum Materials Research Center (QMaRC) at KAIST. He received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University. His Master’s thesis under the supervision of Prof. Sang Heup Moon entails Dr. Lee’s research results on the heterogeneous catalysis of selective hydrogenation of 1,3-butadiene to 1-butene. He then moved to the University of Texas at Austin and completed his Ph.D study in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. Brian Korgel. For his thesis work on magnetic interactions in ferromagnetic and superparamagnetic nanocrystals and solution-phase synthesis of silicon nanowires and carbon nanotubes, he was awarded a Harrington Dissertation Fellowship in 2006, a prestigious recognition given to two graduate students per year from the entire campus. In 2007, he joined the research group of Dr. Victor Klimov at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow and worked in the exciton dynamics of quantum dots. His current research focus is the study of heterostructure quantum dots for their use in light emitting device applications and photochemical reactions for solar-to-fuel conversion. Prof. Lee is expanding his research interests into hydrogen production, such as water electrolysis and dry reforming of methane.

Dae Sung Chung is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH. He was an assistant professor from 2012 to 2017 at Chung-Ang University and an associate professor from 2017 to 2020 at DGIST. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH in 2010. He was a postdoctoral associate at Department of Chemistry at University of Chicago from 2010 to 2012. He completed his B.S. degree in the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH in 2005. He is currently a member of Y-KAST and Toray young scientist. His research interests lie primarily in developing novel organic semiconductors and their advanced applications such as (1) solar-fuel production photocatalyst, (2) organic image sensors, (3) organic integrated circuits, and (4) HF-free semiconductor cleaning.

Wonjoon Choi is a professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Korea University. He was an assistant and associate professor from 2012 to 2022 at Korea University. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2012. He was a postdoctoral associate at Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, in 2012. He completed his B.S. degree in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in 2003. He is currently the director of KU makerspace that supports manufacturing-based startups and the outside director of Taekwang Industrial Co., Ltd.. He is on the editorial board of International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing-Green Technology and JMST Advances. His research interests lie primarily in energy/thermal transport using multi-scale hybrid structures with facile manufacturing processes and their applications, such as (1) heat transfer control using multiscale structures/materials, (2) thermo-electro-chemical processing for fabricating energy materials, (3) thermal/mechanical/electromagnetic functions controlled by modular design of tunable unit-cells, and (4) energy harvesting-sensing platform utilizing ambient thermal/fluidic/mechanical energy.

Jeong Woo Han is currently an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU). He also holds an Editor position of Molecular Catalysis published by Elsevier and an Associate Editor position of Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering publish by Springer. Before joining SNU in 2023, he was a full professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology and an assistant/associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Seoul. He obtained his PhD at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2010 under the guidance from Prof. David S. Sholl, focusing on computational catalysis and surface chemistry. He was also a postdoctoral associate at MIT with Prof. Bilge Yildiz in the Department of Nuclear/Materials Science and Engineering until 2012. His current research area is computational modeling of catalysis and energy materials such as automotive catalysis, fuel cell electrodes, liquid organic hydrogen carrier, and single atom catalysis, and so on. He has published more than 230 SCI(E) papers. The number of citations of his papers is 9403, h-index is 50, and i10-index is 162, respectively based on Google Scholar (August 26, 2023).