Korea University Hosts 2022 'Highly Cited Researchers' (HCR) Awards Ceremony and President's Meeting

Korea University (President Jeong Jin-taek) held an appreciation plaque presentation ceremony on Friday, December 30, 2022, at 10 a.m. in the President’s Office of the Main Building to honor the 2022 ‘Highly Cited Researchers’ (hereinafter ‘Korea University HCR Professors’). The event included a meeting with the President, Vice President for Research, and Vice President for Academic Affairs of Korea University.

‘Highly Cited Researchers’ (HCR) are researchers who have published a large number of papers ranked in the top 1% by citation count over the past 11 years, representing 0.1% of all researchers worldwide.

Through this meeting, the status of the ‘Korea University HCR Professors’ was reaffirmed, and discussions were held regarding improving the treatment of key faculty members driving Korea University’s research capabilities, including the HCR professors. In the new year of 2023, the President plans to personally visit the research labs of the ‘Korea University HCR Professors’ to conduct a plaque unveiling ceremony.

Korea University has a total of six faculty members selected as HCRs across eight fields, with particular attention on the young ‘Korea University HCR Professors’ in their 40s.

Professor Noh Jun-hong (42) of the Department of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering at the College of Engineering researches next-generation solar cells related to renewable energy. His main research area, halide perovskite solar cell technology, is gaining significant attention as an innovative future solar cell technology for energy conversion to renewable electricity without carbon involvement. Professor Noh has been recognized as an expert in next-generation solar cell research, receiving the Young Scientist Award (Presidential Award) from the Korean Academy of Science and Technology in 2019. Notably, he has made major contributions to improving the efficiency and developing core technologies of perovskite solar cells, filing/registering over 70 domestic and international patents and publishing more than 110 SCI papers, accumulating over 34,000 total citations.

Professor Ahn Chun-gi (45) of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the College of Engineering leads research in intelligent control systems based on strong intuition in control theory, neural networks, fuzzy theory, and signal processing. Over the past five years, he has continuously published more than 300 significant achievements in top international journals (mostly IEEE Transactions), providing key breakthroughs to several unresolved engineering challenges. Professor Ahn was ranked first in the ‘Young Professor Research Quality Evaluation’ in the Electrical/Electronic Engineering field by JoongAng Ilbo University Evaluation in 2016 and received the ‘Young Scientist Award (Presidential Award)’ from the government in 2017 for pioneering multidimensional/intelligent robust control worldwide. He has made pivotal contributions as a core editorial board member for world-leading journals in intelligent and autonomous systems, including IEEE TNNLS, IEEE TFS, IEEE TSMCS, IEEE TASE, IEEE TITS, IEEE TCASI, and IEEE SMCM.

Professor Ok Yong-sik (47) of the Department of Environmental Ecology Engineering at the College of Life Sciences is recognized globally as an outstanding researcher in international collaboration, with 95% of his papers based on international cooperation and 91.2% published in the top 10% journals in his field. Over the past 10 years, more than half of his 678 papers were selected as the top 10% most cited papers, and as of the HCR award date, he has published an impressive 107 highly cited papers (HCP), holding the highest number of HCPs among Korean scholars. Professor Ok’s research achievements and influence addressing global challenges such as plastic pollution and climate change have been internationally recognized with prestigious academic awards. Since becoming the first Korean selected as an HCR in environmental ecology in 2019, he was also selected as an HCR this year in engineering, biology, and biochemistry fields. Additionally, he was elected as the first Asian Co-Editor-in-Chief of the world’s most prestigious international journal Environmental Science & Technology Reviews (CREST, 5-year IF 13.2) published by Taylor & Francis, leading research on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues.

The newly selected ‘Korea University HCR Professors’ have demonstrated world-class research excellence in their respective fields, significantly enhancing Korea University’s international research collaboration, citation impact, and research reputation in various global university rankings. They have played a crucial role in establishing Korea University’s unique status as a world-leading research-intensive university.

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