University of Seoul Implements Special Promotion Focused on Research Achievements

Personnel Innovation to Strengthen Research Competitiveness

The University of Seoul announced on March 3 that it has selected four professors with outstanding research achievements as candidates for special promotion in the first half of 2026.

From the left: Dongwook Park, Jongsuk Yoo, Hyunsik Kim, Seungho Choi, Associate Professor. University of Seoul

This special promotion is part of the "Special Promotion System for Faculty Members," which the University of Seoul introduced in 2023 to motivate professors and enhance research competitiveness. Under this system, the period required for promotion is shortened for professors with exceptional research accomplishments. Through this system, a total of 26 faculty members have been selected for special promotion from the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2026.

The special promotion candidates for the first half of 2026 are Professor Dongwook Park from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Professor Jongsuk Yoo from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Professor Hyunsik Kim from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Associate Professor Seungho Choi from the Department of Disaster Prevention Engineering.

Professor Dongwook Park, in collaboration with a research team from the University of Wisconsin in the United States, has developed technologies such as a field-effect transistor (FET)-microfluidic chip integrated sensor and a transparent neural electrode system that can simultaneously measure the electrical and optical signals of deep brain neurons. These research findings have been selected as a Featured Paper (Editor's Paper) in the prestigious journal 'Applied Physics Letters,' a cover article in 'Advanced Functional Materials,' and a cover article in 'Small Structures,' demonstrating the technological capabilities of semiconductor-based biosensors.

Professor Jongsuk Yoo is a promising researcher in the field of computational catalysis, having been named among the "top 2% of researchers worldwide by annual performance in 2023." The hydrogen peroxide production catalyst technology, developed jointly with Seoul National University, was published in 'Nature Materials,' and the low-temperature methane-to-methanol conversion catalyst technology, developed in collaboration with Korea University, was published in 'Nature Catalysis.' In addition, he consistently publishes numerous high-quality research results in leading international journals, demonstrating outstanding research capabilities in the field of computational chemistry-based catalyst design.

Professor Hyunsik Kim has been recognized among the top 2% of researchers worldwide both for "lifetime achievement" and for "annual performance in 2024." Together with a research team from Northwestern University in the United States, he is developing high-efficiency thermoelectric materials for cooling applications through an industry-academic partnership with Samsung Electronics. He has also contributed to securing next-generation material technology based on resource circulation by developing high-purity refining technology for 7000-series waste aluminum.

Associate Professor Seungho Choi is a core researcher in the group research support project of the National Research Foundation of Korea (with a total research grant of 1.375 billion won) and is dedicated to developing building disaster resilience enhancement technologies using "data fusion" techniques. In particular, he has achieved outstanding results in the field of fire disaster response and evacuation safety evaluation technology, earning recognition for his contribution to improving national safety.

The candidates for special promotion were officially appointed as of March 1 and plan to continue contributing to the university's advancement in education and research competitiveness.

Yonggeol Won, President of the University of Seoul, stated, "Since the introduction of the special promotion system, the research environment within the university has become much more vibrant and is leading to tangible improvements in research capabilities," adding, "We will continue to foster an environment that enables professors to focus on research through fair evaluation and support, and will make ongoing institutional improvements so that the University of Seoul can become a research-oriented university."

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