UNIST, jointly with Ulsan Metropolitan City, held the “Graphene Symposium in Ulsan” on May 8, 2019. Held in the Kyungdong Hall of Main Administration Building of UNIST, this was an event for researchers to present and discuss their latest work on graphene, thus providing an important channel for exchange of information among them. Local companies in Ulsan also partook in this event for an in-depth discussion about graphene, as a potential future growth engine.
The symposium also featured keynote speakers, including Professor Rodney Ruoff (IBS/UNIST), Professor Jong-Hyun Ahn (Yonsei University), Professor Hui-Ming Cheng (CAS), Dr. Joong Tark Han (KERI), as well as Professor Konstantin Novoselov (NUS), the 2010 nobel prize winner in physics. In addition to presentations, there were panel discussions on various topics in relation to graphene. Professor
In the second panel discussion, Professor Jong-Beom Baek (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, UNIST) took the role as the chair and had a discussion on the commercialization trends and possibilities of graphene. This has been also attended by keynote speakers from the symposium, as well as the representatives from Korea’s domestic industries. In addition, five local companies in Ulsan were invited to exhibit their latest technologies on graphene.
“Carbon-based nanostructured materials, such as graphene, are the next-generation source materials and its research competitiveness is also great,” says Director Hyeon Suk Shin (School of Energy and Chemical Engineering) of UNIST Low Dimensional Carbon Materials Center. “Therefore, S. Korea needs to make bold R&D investment to gain the competitive advantage of graphene.” He adds, “This symposium will be a good opportunity to explore graphene-related R&D and strategies for future commercialization.”
Graphene technology can be developed into a new future growth engine in conjunction with Ulsan’s strategic industries, such as automobile and fine chemistry. With this possibility in mind, Ulsan city plans to foster graphene-related industries. “In the future, it is difficult for the industry to survive without securing original technologies, thus new jobs will be created through the R&D of new materials, such as graphene,” says Mayor Cheol-ho Song of Ulsan in his congratulatory remarks at the symposium on May 8, 2019.
“UNIST has a solid research foundation for graphene, such as the Low Dimensional Carbon Materials Center, the IBS Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM), as well as the Fraunhofer Project Center for Composites Research@UNIST (FPC@UNIST),” says President Mooyoung Jung of UNIST. “This symposium is especially meaningful, as it was designed to provide support to new industries to foster cutting-edge new materials, such as graphene.”
Meanwhile, this symposium has been also attended by Professor Jong-Hyun Ahn from Yonsei University and Dr. Joong Tark Han from Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI). The second panel discussion has been also participated by Mr. Joung Hoon Lee (CEO, Standard Graphene) and Dr. Jongchan Lee (Graphene Division Chairperson, Korea Carbon Society).
