GIST 2020 Academic Year Graduation Ceremony Held

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Gwan-woo] Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST, Jiseuteu) announced that on the afternoon of the 19th, it held the ‘2020 Academic Year Degree Conferment Ceremony’ at the Oryong Hall Multipurpose Hall with about 50 attendees including key officials, outstanding degree recipients, and representatives of graduates.

At this degree conferment ceremony, degrees were awarded to a total of 292 individuals, including 69 doctoral degree recipients, 109 master's degree recipients, and 114 bachelor's degree recipients.

In particular, to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the ceremony featured a video containing messages from faculty and students, and a representative graduate attendee was selected by lottery, reducing the event to a small-scale gathering.

Degree recipients and parents who could not attend the venue were able to watch the graduation ceremony live via online YouTube streaming.

The 69 doctoral degree recipients published an average of about six papers per person in SCI (Science Citation Index) indexed journals during their enrollment period.

During their doctoral studies, the average number of first-author papers per person was 2.72, and co-author papers averaged 3.17 per person, totaling about six papers published in SCI-indexed journals.

Notably, Dr. Lee Won-jun from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering conducted doctoral research on a new crystallization pathway using solution processing large-area printing and low-temperature photoactivation of next-generation functional metal oxide-based electronic and energy materials. He co-authored a total of 14 papers (5 as first author) in prestigious international journals in the materials science field (SCI level), including ‘Advanced Materials,’ as well as two internationally recognized book chapters.

In addition, he received the Excellent Presentation Award from the Korean Institute of Metals and Materials in 2019 and last year, as well as the Excellent Paper Award from the Korea Institute of Materials Science this year, earning the Minister of Science and ICT Award at this degree conferment ceremony for his outstanding achievements.

Student Lee Gil-ju, who received a doctoral degree from the Department of Electrical, Electronics and Computer Engineering, was selected as a GIST President’s Scholarship recipient due to his excellent admission record and entered the integrated master’s and doctoral program.

During his 4 years and 6 months of enrollment, he published a total of 32 SCI papers, including 15 as first author, and published numerous papers in top-tier journals such as Nature Electronics and Science Advances.

His related research achievements include the Global Ph.D. Fellowship (National Research Foundation of Korea), Robert S. Hilbert Memorial Student Travel Grant (OSA), Gold and Encouragement Awards at the Samsung Human Tech Paper Competition, Qualcomm-GIST Innovation Award, and selection as one of Korea’s Top 10 Nanotechnologies in 2019.

At this degree conferment ceremony, in honor of the late Professor Baek Woon-chul, GIST’s first professor, the Haerim Baek Woon-chul Information and Communication Award was presented to one graduating student from the Department of Information and Communication Engineering with the best publication record.

The President’s Award was given to Dr. Moon Seok-yoon (Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering) and Dr. Kim Ji-hoon (School of Convergence Technology), and the top honors for undergraduate graduation went to student Ahn Cheong-eung (Physics major), who received a certificate and medal.

President Kim Ki-seon congratulated the graduates at the ceremony, saying, “I sincerely congratulate you on today’s graduation, which you have achieved by overcoming various difficulties over the past several years, especially unexpected barriers such as COVID-19. I hope you become warm-hearted scientists and engineers who add value to the lives of the people and humanity with the capabilities and proud confidence you gained at GIST.”

Meanwhile, marking its 28th anniversary this year, GIST has promoted internationalized campus education innovation and overseas collaborative research to lead national science and technology education and research based on convergence and internationalization.

GIST was internationally recognized for its excellent research capabilities, ranking 4th worldwide in 2020 (1st domestically for 13 consecutive years) in the category of ‘number of citations per professor,’ which reflects the institution’s research capacity and academic influence of research achievements.

Furthermore, GIST is faithfully fulfilling its founding goals of national mission for scientific and technological development and regional industrial leadership by playing a key role in the establishment of the Gwangju AI Cluster project and founding the Graduate School of AI and the Graduate School of Energy Convergence.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.