WITHLAB

(Waste-Innovating Technologies for Humanity Laboratory @ KAIST)

Shaping Eco-Design Principles for Circular Waste Solutions

​WITHLAB is a group of experimentalists dedicated to revolutionizing waste treatment with a focus on unconventional carbon sources such as plastics and biogas. Applying rigorous scientific principles in environmental chemistry and biotechnology, our approach guides the development of materials designed to break down quicker. Our research spans plastic biodegradation, biopolymer synthesis from greenhouse gases, and sustainable polymers from waste. Grounded in eco-design principles and with a steadfast commitment to sustainability, we prioritize green process design, emphasizing breakthroughs for circular waste solutions.

News and Announcements

Apr 2024: WITHLAB is currently recruiting prospective postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate interns. If you want to a part of the group, please refer to this page.

Nov 2023: Jaewook Myung received the Academic Award at the 2023 KORRA Fall Meeting.

Nov 2023: Youngju Kim received the Excellence Award at the 2023 Biological Taxonomy Research Thesis Contest hosted by the National Institute of Biological Resources.

Nov 2023: Ana Gabriela Mendoza Burgos and Yongjun Cho received the Best Poster Presentation Awards at the 29th Joint KKNN (KAIST-KU-NTU-NUS) Symposium on Environmental Engineering.

Nov 2023: Jaewook Myung, Shinhyeong Choe, Ana Gabriela Mendoza Burgos, and Yongjun Cho participated in the 29th Joint KKNN (KAIST-KU-NTU-NUS) Symposium on Environmental Engineering, which took place at the NUS (National University of Singapore) campus.

Nov 2023: Do Hyun Lee and Serin Park received the Best Presentation Award for their presentations at the 2023 Korean Society of Environmental Engineers (KSEE) Fall Meeting.

Nov 2023: WITHLAB participated in the 2023 Korean Society of Endvironmental Engineers (KSEE) Fall Meeting held in Busan.

Nov 2023: Jaewook Myung gave a lecture titled "A Waste-Free World – Achievable?" during the KAIST Crazy Forum Event.

Oct 2023: Shinhyeong Choe received the Certificate of Excellence Award in recognition of his outstanding work as a teaching assistant for Prof. Myung's CE212 course, which was a part of the Edu 4.0 Q Program.

Aug 2023: Hyerim Eam visited five universities across Korea (GIST), China (Tsinghua University, Tongji University), and Japan (Tohoku University, Kanazawa University) as a KAIST delegate for the RESD (Regional Environment and Sustainable Development) Meeting.

Aug 2023:  Shinhyeong Choe participated in the ACS Fall 2023 Meeting held in San Francisco, USA.

Jul 2023: Hyerim Eam participated in the FEMS2023 (10th FEMS Congress of European Microbiologists) held in Hamburg, Germany.

Jul 2023:  WITHLAB's latest product Do Hyun Lee was featured in the media for giving a talk as an alumnus during the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation's scholarship award ceremony.

Jul 2023: Shinhyeong Choe received the Excellent Presentation Award for his oral presentation at the 2023 KMB (Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology) Annual Meeting & International Symposium held in Gyeongju.

Jul 2023: Hyerim Eam received the Excellent Paper Presentation Award for her presentation at the 2023 KORRA Spring Meeting.

Jun 2023:  Shinhyeong Choe’s ACSAPM research was featured on the 2023 KAIST Annual R&D Report.

Jun 2023: Youngju Kim was selected as a finalist for participating in the 2023 Biological Taxonomy Research Thesis Contest hosted by the National Institute of Biological Resources.

May 2023: Jaewook Myung gave a plenary lecture at the KOC (KAIST One Club) Forum titled "Current State of the Bioplastic Industry and Promising Start-up Ideas".

Apr 2023:  Shinhyeong Choe’s research proposal has been selected in the 2023 Venture Research Program for Master’s and PhD Students along with 8 other students from the College of Engineering at KAIST. 

Mar 2023:  Do Hyun Lee participated in the ACS Spring 2023 Conference held in Indianapolis, IN, USA. 

Feb 2023: Shinhyeong Choe received the Global Leadership Award during the 52nd KAIST Anniversary Ceremony.

Jan 2023: WITHLAB graduate students participated in 2023 13th International Conference on Future Environment and Energy (ICFEE) conference held in Tokyo, Japan.

Dec 2022: Youngju Kim was selected as a recipient of the 2023 Long-Term URP Program. Youngju will investigate the biodegradation behaviour of PVA and PBAT in aquatic environments from Jan to Dec 2023.

Dec 2022: Jaewook Myung's article on "Eliminating the negative connotation of being a biodegradable plastic that is not biodegradable" is featured on the 3rd edition of KAIST ILP (Industrial Liaison Program) TECH Megazine. 

Dec 2022: Our undergraduate researcher Serin Park received the Excellent Paper Presentation Award from the 2022 Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association (KORRA) Fall Meeting.

Dec 2022: Shinhyeong Choe participated in the ACS POLY Workshop on Polymers in Medicine and Biology held in Napa, CA, USA. 

Nov 2022: Our undergradaute researchers Jehee Park, Youngju Kim, and Serin Park received the Excellence Award from the 10th Capstone Design Competition hosted by the Korean  Society of Environmental Engineers.

Nov 2022: Jaewook Myung and Do Hyun Lee participated in the Asia-Korea Conference 2022 (AKC 2022) held in the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore. 

Nov 2022: Congratulations to our undergraduate researchers Jehee Park, Youngju Kim, and Serin Park for receiving the Idea Prize at the Urban Grand Challenges 2022 <Imagine the Future Cities: Underground City of the Future>.

Nov 2022: Jaewook Myung served as the opening plenary speaker at the ESG Damo Day Conference hosted by the Korea Innovation Foundation (INNOPOLIS). 

Nov 2022: Hongryeol Kim received the Best Presentation Award for his presentation at the 2022 KSEE Fall Meeting.

Nov 2022: WITHLAB participated in the 2022 Korean Society of Environmental Engineers (KSEE) Fall Meeting held in Jeju.

Oct 2022: Shinhyeong Choe's biodegradable 3D printing filament research has been showcased on the KAIST College of Engineering's Newsletter.

Oct 2022: Hongryeol, Do Hyun, and Serin participated in 2022 Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association (KORRA) Fall Meeting, which took place in Yonsei University, Seoul.

Sep 2022: Do Hyun Lee won the UKC 2022 Paper Award at 35th US-Korea Conference 2022 on Science, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (UKC 2022) held in Washington D.C. on August 20.

Sep 2022: Shinhyeong Choe's biodegradable 3D printing filament research has been showcased on the recent edition of the KAIST Breakthroughs webzine.

Aug 2022: Jaewook Myung was selected as the recipient of the ASPIRE League Partnership Seed Fund aimed at fostering deeper research collaboration within the League. With the help of this award, Prof. ‪Seok Woo Lee, an assistant professor of electrical and electronic engineering at NTU, and the WITHLAB will work together to create a sustainable energy storage system that can be used in marine-deployed electronic devices.

Aug 2022: Do Hyun Lee attended the 35th US-Korea Conference 2022 on Science, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (UKC 2022), which took place in Arlington, VA, USA. Do Hyun was one of the five recipients granted full travel support from the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies (KOFST). 

Aug 2022: Jaewook Myung gave a lecture on environmental sustainability to 60 middle and high school students in Pyeongteak. This lecture introduced the concept of greenwashing and explained how we can distinguish true environmental well-being from "pretending to appear green". During the press conference that followed the lecture, one 15-year-old student said, "This was the first time learning that so-called green products can even be more destructive to the environment.".

Jul 2022: The Korean edition of "Principles of Environmental Engineering & Science", translated by Jaewook Myung and 7 other Korean scholars, are now available for purchase in online bookstores.

Jul 2022: Shinhyeong Choe has been selected as the recipient of the Mitacs Globalink Research Award fully funded by Mitacs and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). Shinhyeong will join the Santato group at the Polytechnique Montréal starting Sep 2022.

Jun 2022: Shinhyeong Choe and Do Hyun Lee were selected as the recipients of the OnDream Future Technology Scholarship from Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation. This scholarship supports full tuition and additional stipend as well as travel support to international conferences.

Jun 2022: Jaewook Myung interviewed with Newsweek to answer a very pertinent question from a recent Reddit thread: How did we make plastic that isn't biodegradable out of materials only found on Earth?

Jun 2022: Shinhyeong Choe's new paper has been selected as a supplementary journal cover for a recent issue of ACS Applied Polymer Materials. The 3D-printed prototypes fabricated from biodegradable/non-biodegradable thermoplastics and their blends were biologically degraded by microorganisms in the natural environment, according to this paper.

Jun 2022: Jaewook Myung was selected as the Korean representative for 2022 APEC Science Prize for Innovation, Research and Education (“ASPIRE”). The ASPIRE is an annual award that recognizes young scientists who have demonstrated a commitment to both excellence in scientific research, as evidenced by scholarly publication and cooperation with scientists from other APEC member economies.

May 2022: WITHLAB was awarded the Excellent Paper Presentation Award for his presentation at the 2022 KORRA Spring Meeting.

May 2022: Do Hyun Lee was awarded the Excellent Paper Presentation Award for his presentation at the 2022 KSIEC Spring Meeting.

Mar 2022: Shinhyeong Choe was awarded the ACS 2021 Certificate of Merit for his presentation at the Fall 2021 ACS Meeting.

Mar 2022: WITHLAB was showcased in the recent edition of the KAIST CEE Webzine.

Dec 2021: Shinhyeong Choe and Hongryeol Kim have been awarded the Outstanding Paper Award from the Korean Society of Waste Management (KSWM) Society.

Dec 2021: Yujin Kim has been selected as the recipient of the Women’s S&E Graduate Student US Visitation Program fully funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). Yujin will join the Winkler group at the University of Washington starting Apr 2022.

May 2021: WITHLAB presented six research posters in 2021 Spring Meeting of Korean Society of Waste Management (KSWM) Society.

Apr 2021: Jaewook Myung has been awarded the CEE Teaching Excellence Award from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at KAIST.

Jan 2021: Jaewook Myung has been awarded the Best Reviewer Award from the  Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers (JKSEE).

Jan 2021: WITHLAB's biodegradable single-use mask, branded as "MACSK", was featured in KAIST's Corona Response Science and Technology New Deal Project Fair.

Nov 2020: Shin Hyeong Choe presented their research posters in 2020 Annual Meeting of the Korean Society of Environmental Engineers (KSEE).

Nov 2020: Jaewook Myung has been awarded the New Investigator Award from the  Korean Society of Environmental Engineers (KSEE).

Aug 2020: Kai Cheng successfully defended his Masters thesis. Congratulations! Kai will be pursuing a PhD program in Texas A&M.

Sep 2019: WITHLAB is relocating to KAIST, South Korea.

Aug 2019: Aryan will be pursuing a PhD program in University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Aug 2019: Hao graduated with an MS in CEE.

Jun 2019: Zhengxi graduated with an MS in CEE and will be pursuing a PhD program in University of Kansas.

Dec 2018: Jaewook has been awarded a Sam Taylor Fellowship for the second consecutive year.

Nov 2017: Jaewook Myung has been awarded 2018 Sam Taylor Fellowship funding to support research projects from the Sam Taylor Fellowship Fund of the Division of Higher Education, United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

Aug 2017: Jaewook Myung started his new job as an assistant professor at SMU.