Two faculty members in the School of Urban and Enviornmental Engineering at UNIST are being honored with prestigious awards from the Korean government for research and teaching on meteorological research.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) annually presents government awards to those who have made an outstanding contribution to the fields of urban meteorology and climatology. This year’s award ceremony took place in the Korea Meteorological Administration, as part of the 2018 World Meteorological Day on March 23, 2018. About 122 individuals have been recognized and among them, only 12 were presented with government awards.
Professor Myong-In Lee is an acknowledged expert on climate change and metrological disaster. Professor Lee was presented with the Presidential Commendation, the highest honor awarded by the South Korean governmnet to the most outstanding scholars making a positive contribution to society. This honor has been given to him in recognition of his consistent hard work.
Professor Lee received the B.S. degree in Atmospheric Sciences and the Ph.D. degree in Atmospheric Sciences from Seoul National University, Korea. He joined the School of Urban and Environmental Engineering at UNIST in 2010. Prior to joining UNIST, Professor Lee worked as a Research Associate at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, United States. His current research interests include climate phenomena, like the Arctic Oscillation, used in seasonal climate predictions.
Professor Lee was also elected as a member of American Meteorological Society since 2008 and served on the international organizing committee for the Asian Conference on Meteorology 2017. Besides, he has contributed greatly to strengthening the global positioning of South Korean atmospheric science by organizing the ‘International Conference on Meteorological-Ocean-Cryosphere MOCA-21 in 2021′.
Professor Dong Hyun Cha was presented with the Prime Minister’s Commendation in recognition of his exemplary contributions for developing the national standard climate change scenario based on the Korean climate change assessment in collaboration with the Korea Meteorological Administration. He has also developed the regional climate modeling for East Asia and the Korean peninsula region and is currently pursuing a research on climate-related disasters, health, and agriculture that utilizes research findings in climate change.
Professor Lee received the B.S. degree in Atmospheric Sciences and the Ph.D. degree in Atmospheric Sciences from Seoul National University, Korea. He joined the School of Urban and Environmental Engineering at UNIST in 2012. Prior to joining UNIST, Professor Lee worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Hawaii, United States. His current research interests include the areas of real-time tropical cyclone forecasting, regional climate modeling, ocean-land-atmosphere moels coupling, high impact weather, as well as the development and improvement of numerical climate models.