KAIST announced on August 1 that Sunwoo Hwang, an integrated master's and doctoral student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, won second place at the "2025 Merck Innovation Cup" organized by the German science and technology company Merck KGaA.
Hwang Sunwoo (second from right) is taking a commemorative photo with team members after the award ceremony. Photo by Merck
The Merck Innovation Cup is a global innovation program in the field of science and technology, held annually by Merck since 2011. The program is open to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from around the world. This year, Hwang was the only participant representing a Korean institution.
The Merck Innovation Cup selects its final participants through a two-stage process: a document screening based on cover letter, resume, and research achievements (first round), followed by a proposal evaluation (second round). This year, a total of 42 participants were selected for the final round.
Participants form teams to compete with business ideas and to build collaborative research networks, with all necessary expenses covered by Merck. In this year’s competition, a total of seven teams competed.
Hwang joined the Green Chemistry team for the competition. The team included doctoral students from Freie Universit?t Berlin (Germany), Sofia University (Bulgaria), University of Oxford (UK), and Heidelberg University (Germany).
The competition took place from July 19 to 25 at the Lufthansa Seeheim Conference Hotel in Germany, featuring lectures and team-based projects.
Hwang’s team designed an innovative tool that incorporated the "12 Principles of Green Chemistry," an international guideline for environmentally friendly chemical synthesis, into Merck’s proprietary chemical design software "Synthia®." With this project, the team won second place in the competition.
On the final day of the event, July 25, Merck held an award ceremony at its headquarters in Darmstadt. Hwang’s team received a prize of 5,000 euros.
Hwang said, "It was an extremely valuable experience to collaborate with outstanding researchers from around the world and to tackle real industrial problems as a team," adding, "The academic foundation and research experience I gained at KAIST gave me the confidence that my skills can be effective on the global stage of technological innovation."
Meanwhile, Merck is a global science and technology company with branches in over 70 countries. Established in 1668, it is one of the world's oldest pharmaceutical and chemical companies, with a history spanning more than 350 years. Its main business areas include healthcare, life sciences, and electronics (including semiconductor materials).
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