Biography

Taehyun Kim (김태현) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU), where he leads research on trapped-ion quantum computing, quantum networking, and quantum algorithms. He also serves as Deputy Director of the NextQuantum Innovation Research Center at SNU and previously served as Director of the Research Center for Quantum Science & Technology at SNU, contributing to the advancement of campus-wide quantum research and international collaboration. His research centers on scalable trapped-ion platforms, spanning ion-trap hardware, quantum repeaters, and the application of quantum algorithms to practical problems.

He received both his B.S. in Computer Engineering and his M.S. in Control and Instrument Engineering from SNU, and later earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2008, where his research focused on quantum optics and quantum information processing. His pioneering work on a Sagnac-interferometer-based entangled photon-pair source laid the foundation for the entangled-photon source architecture later adopted in the first quantum satellite launched in 2016. After completing postdoctoral research at Duke University with Prof. Jungsang Kim, where he worked on trapped-ion systems with a focus on integrating microscale optics and ion-photon interfaces, he joined the Quantum Tech. Lab at SK Telecom as Project Leader in 2011. There, he established trapped-ion quantum information research capabilities in Korea, building the first working ion-trap system in South Korea at SK Telecom and demonstrating trapped-ion qubit operations, before joining SNU in 2018.

At SNU, he has built a broad experimental and systems-level research program for scalable quantum information processing. His research group's recent work includes microfabricated surface ion-trap chips, full-stack trapped-ion quantum computing systems, bosonic quantum state tomography, RFSoC-based control electronics, remote ion-ion entanglement, and quantum frequency conversion for long-distance entanglement distribution relevant to quantum repeater technologies. His group has also advanced ion-trap architectures for quantum error correction, studied phase-space topology, and is pursuing next-generation directions including Ba+ platforms, integrated photonic components, short-range quantum teleportation, and distributed quantum computing. In addition to his research, he has played important leadership roles in Korea’s quantum ecosystem through service on national strategy and advisory bodies.