Glory Continues to the Second Generation... UNIST Professor Byeongjae Byun Awarded Haedong Academic Prize

Recognized in Fields Including Integrated Circuit Design

Late Professor Byeon Jeungnam Also Received the 'Haedong Award'

Professor Byun Young-jae of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at UNIST will receive the ‘Haedong Award,’ the highest honor in electronic engineering in Korea. He becomes the second generation in his family to receive this academic award, following his late father, Professor Byun Jeung-nam, Professor Emeritus at KAIST.

The Haedong Award is presented by the Haedong Science and Culture Foundation, established by the late Kim Jung-sik, chairman of Daeduck Electronics, to individuals who have contributed to the advancement of academic and technological fields in electronics and information communication. The recipients are selected by the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers and awarded in categories including academic, technology, and young scientist.

Professor Byeon Young-jae.

Professor Byun was recognized for his outstanding achievements in areas such as integrated circuit design and received the Haedong Academic Award. He has published 85 SCI papers and 95 conference papers in four major fields: CMOS-based analog circuits, biomedical microsystems, wireless power transfer systems, and power management ICs.

His research impact is internationally acknowledged, with a citation index of 5,497. He also holds 225 domestic and international patents.

In addition to research achievements, he has made strides in the commercialization of technology. A representative example is his design technology for electromagnetic wave-based biosensing systems. This proprietary technology, combining a non-contact sensor capable of measuring sleep apnea and an IC chip, was developed independently and led to a startup in 2017, which is now on the verge of mass-producing the product. It is regarded as an innovative technology in the digital medical field related to sleep tech.

This award is notable as Professor Byun is the second generation to receive it, following his father, the late Professor Byun Jeung-nam. Professor Byun Jeung-nam, Professor Emeritus at KAIST, received the Haedong Academic Award in 2002 while serving as a professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at KAIST. He created Korea’s first domestic robotic arm, ‘Kaizem,’ in 1979 and led the development of intelligent robots in Korea by introducing fuzzy theory.

Professor Byun Young-jae expressed his award acceptance remarks, saying, “I will follow my father, who always considered the social contribution of technology and boldly pioneered new research fields, and challenge myself to commercialize research and technology that can improve human welfare and bring convenience to daily life.”

The award ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. on the 8th at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul.