Five Korea University Professors Named Among the World’s Most Influential Researchers in 2023
Five KU professors are among the world’s most influential researchers in the Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) 2023 list published by the global company Clarivate Analytics (formerly the Division of Intellectual Property and Science at Thomson Reuters).
The HCR list consists of the researchers whose papers have been most often cited. Clarivate identifies the top 1% of highly cited papers each year based on the ‘Web of Science’ database that the company operates, and cites the responsible researchers on that basis. Included in the HCR list for 2023, the 10th year it has been formulated, are those who have continuously been recognized by their peers worldwide based on the number of citations of their papers in the last 13 years.
According to Clarivate, a total of 6,849 researchers from 67 countries and jurisdictions are included in the global HCR list this year.
The five KU faculty members who are on the list this year are Professor Jong-seung Kim (Department of Chemistry); Professor Han-young Woo (Department of Chemistry); Professor Jun-hong Noh (School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering); Professor Choon-ki Ahn (School of Electrical Engineering); and Professor Klaus-Robert Müller (Department of Artificial Intelligence), whose second institutional affiliation is KU. Professor Jong-seung Kim has been included in the category of Chemistry for 10 consecutive years since 2014. Professor Jun-hong Noh has been included in the category of Cross-Field for six consecutive years, and Professor Choon-ki Ahn in the category of Engineering for five consecutive years. Professor Klaus-Robert Müller has been included in the category of Cross-Field for five consecutive years, and Professor Han-young Woo has been included in the same category for two consecutive years.
Professor Jong-seung Kim of the Department of Chemistry in the College of Science has developed ‘small molecule-based next-generation targeted anticancer drugs.’ Professor Kim has published about 600 papers which have collectively been cited more than 50,000 times, and his h-index is 110. He has also registered about 100 Korean and international patents. He is a highly respected scholar who is playing a leading role in his field. For about 20 years, Professor Kim has devoted himself to the study of anticancer drug delivery systems that can effectively target only cancer cells, without incurring any side effects. The cancer cell apoptosis-inducing targeted anticancer therapy developed by Professor Kim is a low molecular weight compound that facilitates attacks only on cancer cells and significantly reduces the side effects of chemotherapy. Therefore, his anticancer therapy constitutes a new paradigm for overcoming drug resistance. Professor Kim is a regular member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and he won the Inchon Award in 2017 and the Korea Science Award in 2022. He is an editor of many international journals, including Chemical Society Reviews (IF:46.2 as of 2022).
Professor Han-young Woo of the Department of Chemistry has developed π-conjugate organic molecule-based organic semiconductor and polymer semiconductor materials, and applied them to organic electronic devices such as solar cells, transistors, optical sensors, and thermoelectric devices. Recently, Professor Woo produced interesting research results by developing a number of photoactive materials for organic solar cells, such as non-fullerene-based electron acceptors and electron donors, and by diversifying the structures of hydrophilic conjugated polymer electrolytes and applying them to the charge transfer layers and interfacial materials of perovskite solar cells, thereby inhibiting the deterioration of the device characteristics due to interfacial defects and ion migration in perovskites. As his research accomplishments have been widely recognized, he won the 2023 Polymer Academic Award granted by the Polymer Society of Korea. Professor Woo has published about 400 SCI papers in the field of organic electronic materials, and his h-index is 69. The total number of citations of his papers is over 19,000, indicating that he has long been committed to intensive R&D activities.
Professor Jun-hong Noh of the School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering has worked in the field of next-generation solar cells in his quest to contribute to the field of renewable energy. Halide perovskite solar cell technology, which is his major research interest, is drawing much attention as an innovative departure which can contribute to the generation of renewable, non-carbon electric power. Professor Noh won the Korean Academy of Science and Technology’s Young Scientist Award in 2019 (prize granted by the President of Korea), attracting attention as an expert in the field of next-generation solar cells. In particular, Professor Noh has significantly contributed to the improvement of the efficiency of perovskite solar cells and to the development of relevant source technologies. He has had excellent research accomplishments, in the process applying for and registering about 70 Korean and international patents, publishing approximately 120 SCI papers, and attracting about 36,000 citations. Professor Noh was selected as one of the next-generation members of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology in 2023, and his group was appointed in 2022 as the Energy Innovation Research Center (head of the center) supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Professor Noh is making earnest efforts to foster the world’s best human resources with master’s and Ph. D degrees in the field of next-generation solar cells.
Professor Choon-ki Ahn of the School of Electrical Engineering in the College of Engineering is a leader in the field of research into intelligent control systems. He has published more than 300 papers in top-tier international journals (mostly in IEEE Transactions) in the last five years, making key breakthroughs in relation to several difficult problems in engineering. Professor Ahn was top-ranked in the field of electric and electronic engineering in the Qualitative Evaluation of Research by Young Professors list in the University Evaluation of the JoongAng Daily. He won the Korean Young Scientist Award (prize awarded by the President of Korea), on the basis of developing the world’s first multidimensional, intelligent control system. Professor Ahn enjoys wide international recognition as he has been a core editor at the world’s best journals in the field of intelligent and autonomous systems, including IEEE TNNLS, IEEE TFS, IEEE TSMCS, IEEE TASE, IEEE TITS, and IEEE TCASI. In 2022 he became the first Asian Senior Editor of IEEE TNNLS, which is the world’s top journal in the field of neural networks and AI, and this year he became the first Korean Senior Editor of IEEE SYSJ, which is a globally renowned journal in the field of systems engineering. With his matchless research accomplishments in the field of intelligent control systems, Professor Ahn is considered the world’s topmost researcher in the field.
Professor Klaus-Robert Müller of the Department of Artificial Intelligence in the Graduate School is a prominent world-class scholar who is an invited professor at KU, and he has made extensive contributions to the major issues facing machine learning, including support vector machines, kernel methods, and neural networks. His current research interests include explainable AI, medical data analysis, brain-computer interfaces, and quantum chemistry.
KU has been able to continuously enjoy several faculty members being on the HCR list for several years, primarily because of its excellent research environment and support systems, which facilitate the work of outstanding researchers. KU has made concerted efforts to create a healthy research ecosystem in which creativity and innovation can take root in a stable research environment through various support programs, including the Granite Tower Outstanding Research Award, the Granite Tower Outstanding Technology Award, the In-Sung Star Research Award and the In-Sung Star Research Fund. Against this background, the KU faculty members who are included in the HCR list this year have reaffirmed the stature of KU as a globally recognized research-centered university.