Professor

Academic Experience

Mar 2023 – Feb 2024  

Associate Professor

Advanced Materials and Chemical Engineering,University of Science and Technology (UST)

Mar 2022 – Feb 2024   

Principal Researcher

Center for Advanced Specialty Chemicals, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT)

Oct 2017 – Feb 2022   

Senior Researcher

Center for Advanced Specialty Chemicals, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT)

Education and Training

Jul 2014 – Sep 2017   

University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Materials Research Laboratory

Advisor: Professors Craig J. Hawker

Research Theme:  

“Study the Effect of Branching and Architecture on Dispersant Polymer Performance”

“Borane-Catalyzed Hydrosilylation of α-diketones”

Apr 2010 – Jul 2014    

Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

Ph.D. course work in Polymer Chemistry

Advisor: Professors Mitsuo Sawamoto

Research Theme: 

“Supramolecular Self-Assembly of Well-Defined Polymers : Positional Programming of Complementary Hydrogen Bonds”

Mar 2008 – Feb 2010   

Korea University, Seoul, Korea

M.S. course work in Chemistry

Advisor: Professors Dong Hoon Choi and Kyung-Youl Baek

Mar 2008 – Feb 2010  

Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, Korea

M.S. research work in Polymer Chemistry

Advisor: Dr. Kyung-Youl Baek

Research Theme: 

“Design and synthesis of supported Grubbs catalysts for ROMP and in-situ hydrogenation”

“Synthesis and Characterization of P3HT-b-PNBE by GRIM and ROMP”

Mar 2004 – Feb 2008 

Soongsil University, Seoul, Korea

B.S. in Textile Engineering

B.S. in Chemistry

Research Experiences

Jan 2007 – Feb 2008

Polymer Hybrids Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)

Research student, Laboratory of Dr. Kyung-Youl Baek

Research Theme: “Graft Polymerization of Trimethoxysilylpropyl methacrylate from Plastic Substrates by ATRP”

Dec 2005 – Dec 2006

Department of Textile Engineering, Soongsil University

Research student, Laboratory of Professor Young-Je Kwark
Research Theme: “Control of Tacticity of Poly(vinyl acetate) by RAFT”

Research Interest

1. Precisely controlled polymerizations: radical, cationic, and metathesis

2. Precision control of polymer structures

3. Control of monomer sequence in polymer chain

4. Supramolecular polymer and their self-assembly

Technical Skills

1. Precision control of polymer architectures via cationic ring opening polymerization

2. Living radical polymerization techniques: ATRP, NMP, RAFT

3. High vacuum technique for solvent purification and living anionic polymerization

4. Basic synthetic techniques for small organic molecules

5. Spectroscopy: UV-Vis, IR, NMR, MALDI-TOF-MASS

6. Chromatography: GPC, HPLC

7. Thermal: DSC, TGA

Awards

2024  57th Science Day Commemorative Award, Minister of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea

2022  16th Ulsan Chemical Day Commemorative Award, Ulsan Metropolitan City Mayor, Republic of Korea