[Short News] Recent Awards and Honors at UNIST

《Editor’s Note: UNIST has attracted much attention recently, as its name was mentioned on Korean media through the inspiring stories of its students and faculty. Through this, UNIST had an excellent opportunity to expose itself to the public and those who have little or no interest in science and technology. Here is a brief summary of those inspiring stories.》

■ Distinguished Professor Sang Il Seok Honored with the 2019 Kyung-Ahm Prize

Sang Il Seok, Distinguished Professor in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST received the 15th Kyung-Ahm Prize.

Professor Seok has been given the award in recognition of his pioneering contributions to the development of next-generation perovskite solar cells. The award credited him for overcoming the limitations of existing silicon solar cells, thus achieving a new, certified world record for perovskite solar cells. Including his record breaking 20.1%, Professor Seok has been highly evaluated as having contributed to Korea’s success in achieving the world new record for the perovskite solar cell sector, especially in the solar cell efficiency certified and published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in US.

Distinguished Professor Sang Il Seok has been honored with the 15th Kyung-Ahm Prize.

Founded in 2004, the Kyung-Ahm Education & Culture Foundation aims to contribute to national development and universal humanity through cultivating human resources, supporting academic activities, and vitalizing cultural and artistic creations.

The award ceremony is scheduled to ill take place on Friday, November 1, 2019. Laureates of each prize category―humanities and social science, natural science, life science, and engineering―will be also given the monetary prize of KRW 200 million.

■ Four UNIST Researchers Win POSCO TJ Park Science Fellowship

Four researchers, affiliated with UNIST have been selected as the 11th members of POSCO TJ Park Science Fellowship.

This year, Professor Chol Park (School of Natural Sciences (Mathmatics), Professor Ji Wook Jang in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering (Energy Material), and Professor Sung-ho Park in the School of Life Sciences (Life Sciences), were among the 40 recipients of the 2019 POSCO TJ Park Young Professor Fellowship. Besides, Eun Ji Kwak in the School of Materials Science and Engineering (Metal/ Advisor: Professor Ju-Young Kim) has been also selected as a recipient of the 2019 POSCO TJ Park Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Four UNIST researchers have been honored with POSCO TJ Park Science Fellowship. The certificate presentation ceremony took place in Seoul on September 27, 2019.

In keeping with its goal of recognizing potential groundbreaking researchers in their respective fields, the award is annually presented to approximately 30 scientists in the following areas: Mathematics, physics, chemistry, and life sciences. This year, the fields of metal, materials science, and energy materials have been newly added to this program.

The foundation has recently increased the funding from KRW 70 million to KRW 100 million, thus beginning in 2019 the volume of selection has also been expanded from 30 to 40. With the help of this research funding, each fellow is eligible to pursue his or her choice of research topics over the next two years. Ultimately, the program works to support talented young scientists of Korea and foster their growth as world-renowned scientists.

■ Two Faculty Members Recognized for Their Efforts in Cultivating Energy Industry HRs 

Two research laboratories, led by Professor Byoung Ki Seo (School of Business Administration) and Professor Chang Soo Lee (School of Urban and Environmental Engineering) have been given the Innovation Cradle Award for their efforts in supporting the cultivation of the next-generation of talented energy professionals.

The Korean Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) has been carrying out various tasks to foster talented and experienced energy professionals. As part of this efforts, KETEP has selected 20 excellent research outcomes from the ‘2019 Energy Innovation Talents Forum’ and designated as Innovation Cradle of the year.

Professor Byoung Ki Seo (Third row, top right) and Professor Chang Soo Lee (Second row, second from right) have been honored at the 2019 Energy Innovation Talents Forum.