From 2021, a program to honor professors with excellent research results

Professor JI Hyeon-seok (Graduate School of Education), KIM Byeong-ju (Education), KIM Min-gyu (chemical engineering), and JOO Sang-woo (mechanical engineering)

Every year, research administrative support to each mid-career researchers

[October 12, 2023]

<Professors selected as “2023 YU’RE Honors” outstanding research faculty of the year>

(From the second from the left, President CHOI Oe-chool, Professor JI Hyeon-seok, Professor JOO Sang-woo, and Professor KIM Min-gyu)

On the 5th, an award ceremony for Outstanding Research Faculty of the Year was held at YU (President CHOI Oe-chool). YU intends to select excellent faculty through YU’RE Honors Program and to strengthen research competitiveness through support.

“YU’RE Honors” was adopted in 2021 to discover professors with excellent research results, publicize their achievements to the public, and maximize research capabilities through administrative and financial support so that professors can focus on researches. Divided into new and mid-career researchers, each two professors with outstanding research achievements in the previous year are selected, for a total of four researchers each year.

At this year’s awards ceremony, plaques and awards were awarded to four “2023 Outstanding Research Teachers of the Year.”In the young researcher category, Professor JI Hyeon-seok of the Graduate School of Education and Professor and KIM Min-gyu of the Department of Chemical Engineering were selected and, in the mid-career researcher category, Professor KIM Byeong-ju of the Department of Education and Professor JOO Sang-woo of the Department of Mechanical Engineering were selected.

Professors selected as “Excellent Research Faculty” receive priority support for research expenses and administrative support services through the placement of dedicated staff.Also, if a person is selected as an “Outstanding Research Faculty” three times, he or she will be permanently posted in the “Industry-Academic Cooperation Hall of Fame.”

President CHOI Oe-chool said, “This year, YU is consistently showing its potential by ranking 8th in Korea in the “Leiden Rankings” a world university evaluation based on research capabilities that can measure a university’s research performance and quality. Especially, we have been recognized for our research capabilities in various fields, including ranking first in the country in the mathematics and computer fields for 9 consecutive years, 9th in the country in the life and earth sciences field, and 17th in the natural sciences/engineering field. Professors have been devoted to research. The fruits of our efforts are the source of YU’s strength, which has world-class research capabilities.In order to raise the status of YU and foster global talent, the university will actively support faculty research infrastructure support and continuous system maintenance.”

Professor JI Hyeon-seok, who was selected in the young researcher category, received an academic master's and doctoral degree from The University of Tokyo, Japan, was appointed as a professor at YU in September 2019, and has been implementing Science and Engineering Academic Research Support Project and Regional Outstanding Local University Scientist Support Project, etc.Professor JI escaped from the general method to apply simple exercise methods without sufficient macroscopic evidence to form “healthy skeletal muscles” on such topics as cancer, exercise, and health and is conducting researches related with search of convergence methods as fundamental resolutions in a microscopic viewpoint such as validation of candidate gene groups with use of various evidences with the subject of “Muscle plasticity modulating molecules.”

Professor KIM Min-gyu received a doctorate in chemical engineering from The Ohio State University, USA, and was appointed as a professor at YU in September 2020.He was recognized as a leading researcher in the field of cryogenic methane activation research by publishing a paper in the world-renowned journal SCIENCE in 2017, and continued to conduct follow-up research in the top journals in the field of catalysts, ACS catalysis, Applied Catalysis Environmental: B, Journal of American Chemistry Society ( JACS) and other research papers have been published.In the three years since his appointment, he has published 36 research papers and has been actively engaged in research activities, publishing four papers with an impact factor (IF) of 20 or higher in the past year.Professor KIM was recognized for these research achievements and presented his research as an invited speaker at the 2022 ACS Fall Meeting.Recently, he served on the organizing committee of the Korea-Vietnam Separation Section Symposium of the Korean Society of Chemical Engineers.

Professor KIM Byung-joo, who was selected in the mid-career researcher category, received a doctorate from Seoul National University and was appointed as a professor at YU in September 1995.Professor KIM Byung-joo has published over 250 academic journal papers until now and is recognized as an outstanding researcher in the field of education finance and policy. Academically, he has served as academic chairperson and editor-in-chief of academic journals for major academic societies in the field of education, including the Korean Society of Education, and currently serves as president of The Korean Educational Administration Society.In the field of education policy, he served as the director of the Higher Education Policy Research Center designated by the Ministry of Education, led policy research in the field of higher education, and, recognition of his outstanding ability in the field of education policy and finance, leads the theory and practice in important national education policy areas by serving as the chairman of the Private University Financial Diagnosis Committee and the Ministry of Education's Reserve Consolidation Advisory Group as an expert member of national education plan of National Education Committee, Chairman of Private University Finance Diagnosis Committee of the Ministry of Education (Korea Foundation for the Promotion of Private School), and Chairman of Reserve Consolidation Advisory Group of the Ministry of Education, etc.

Professor JOO Sang-woo received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Seoul National University and his doctoral degree from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He later served as a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Wayne State University in the United States, and was appointed to YU in 1995.Starting with research in the field of fluid dynamics, he expanded his scope to the nano field and published more than 600 SCI papers, which were cited more than 17,000 times. He served as an expert member of the National Science & Technology Commission, a technical expert member of the National Energy Commission, and an expert member of National Research Foundation of Korea, and a member of Korea Academy of Science and Technology.He also serves as a visiting professor at Cambridge University in the UK and Augsburg University in Germany, and has been conducting various research at the NASA Lewis Research Institute and the University of Tennessee in the USA.