As in last year, five professors from Korea University were included in the Clarivate Analytics list of Highly Cited Researchers (HCR) 2021. HCR refers to scientists and social scientists whose research publications are cited most frequently. Using data from its Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics, a global academic solution company, has recognized every year since 2014 the researchers of high research influence worldwide in one or more of 21 fields or across several fields, with the top 1% highly cited papers (HCPs) during the last decade.
The five faculty members selected for the HCR this year are Jong Seung Kim (Department of Chemistry), Jun Hong Noh (School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering), Choon Ki Ahn (School of Electrical Engineering), Yong Sik Ok (Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering), and Klaus-Robert Müller (Department of Artificial Intelligence). All five members have maintained their HCR position for at least three years. In particular, Professor Jong Seung Kim has been selected for the HCR for eight consecutive years in the field of Chemistry since 2014 while Professor Jun Hong Noh was selected in the cross-field category for four consecutive years and Professor Choon Ki Ahn was selected in the field of Engineering for three consecutive years. Professor Yong Sik Ok was selected as the HCR in the cross-field category in 2018 as well as the first Korean to be selected as the HCR in Environment and Ecology in 2019, followed by this year's selection as the HCR in two fields, Engineering included. Professor Müller, who has a second affiliation at Korea University, was selected as the HCR with cross-field impact.
A strong research environment and support system at Korea University, which recognizes and actively supports outstanding researchers, has contributed to the university consistently being able to name a number of faculty members among the world's most influential researchers. Korea University strives to create a healthy research ecosystem where creativity and innovation can flourish in a stable research environment by promoting various research support programs, such as the Seoktap Research Award, Seoktap Technology Award, Insung Research Award and Insung Research Fund. This year’s list of HCRs proves once again the university's unrivaled reputation for research.
Professor Jong Seung Kim
Jong Seung Kim, a professor of Chemistry at the College of Science, has been developing a "next-generation target-oriented anticancer drug using small molecules." He is a leading scholar in the field who has published about 530 papers to date, recording a high H-index of 104 (based on Google Scholar) with more than 40,000 citations, and registering more than 80 domestic and international patents.
For over 20 years, Professor Kim has been focusing on researching the Drug Delivery System that works effectively on cancer cells without side effects. The targeted anticancer treatment substance inducing cancer cell apoptosis, developed by Professor Kim, is a small molecular weight compound that induces attack only on cancer cells, and is considered to represent a new paradigm for overcoming drug resistance by significantly reducing side effects of cancer treatment. Professor Kim is currently a fellow of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, won the Inchon Award in 2017, and serves as an editorial member for a number of international academic journals, including Chemical Society Reviews (Impact Factor 54).
Professor Jun Hong Noh
Professor Jun Hong Noh of the School of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the College of Engineering has been studying the next generation solar cells related to renewable energy.
Professor Noh's primary research field is halide perovskite solar cell technology, which is drawing keen attention as an innovative solar cell technology for the conversion of renewable energy to electricity without carbon emissions. Professor Noh has earned recognition for his work on next-generation solar cells and has won the Korea Academy of Science and Technology's Young Scientist Award (Presidential Award) in 2019. In particular, Professor Noh has made significant contributions to the development of high-efficiency and original technology for perovskite solar cells, has published more than 100 SCI papers and collected 30,000 citations, and has applied for and obtained about 70 domestic and international patents.
Professor Choon Ki Ahn
Choon Ki Ahn, a Professor of the School of Electrical Engineering at the College of Engineering, has led the study of intelligent control and autonomous systems worldwide, publishing more than 220 papers in top-ranked journals over the past five years to pioneer new convergence research.
In 2016, Professor Ahn was selected as the ’No. 1 in the field of electrical/electronic engineering’ for research quality and performance among Korean young professors in the JoongAng Ilbo’s University Evaluation, and also won the Young Scientist Award (Presidential Award) from the Korean government for pioneering multidimensional/intelligent control in 2017. Recently, he was selected as the top researcher for his significant contributions to IEEE journals and academic activities in the fields of control, robotics, and systems in Korea. Professor Ahn is the Associate Editor of IEEE TNNLS, IEEE TFS, IEEE TSMCS, IEEE TASE, IEEE TITS, IEEE TCASI, and IEEE SMCM, the world's top journals in the fields of intelligent control and autonomous systems, and was recently selected as the Best Associate Editor of IEEE TSMCS and IEEE TNNLS. He is widely regarded as the world's foremost authority on intelligent control research.
Professor Yong Sik Ok
Serving as a professor of the Division of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering at the College of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Professor Yong Sik Ok is the director of Korea's first Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) program on Sustainable Waste Management and has been researching convergence technologies in the field of climate, environment, and energy to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Currently, he owns a total of 90 HCPs and is the first Korean to be chosen as a HCR in the field of Environment and Ecology in 2019 in recognition of his research results and influence on solving human challenges such as plastic pollution. This year, he was selected as the HCR in the field of Engineering as well as the field of Environment and Ecology. Having been elected as the Co-Editor-in-Chief, for the first time as an Asian, of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology (5-year Impact Factor 13), the world's most prestigious academic journal in the domain of environment published by Taylor & Francis, Professor Ok has been leading research on the environmental pillar of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), including carbon-negative technology.
Professor Klaus-Robert Müller
Professor Müller of the Department of Artificial Intelligence (first affiliation at Technische Universität, Berlin) is an adjunct distinguished professor who has an extensive research achievement in the fields of machine learning, deep learning, and brain-computer interfaces. He received the annual national prize for pattern recognition awarded by the German pattern recognition society DAGM (1999), the SEL Alcatel communication award (2006), the Science Prize of Berlin awarded by the Governing Mayor of Berlin (2014) and the Vodafone Innovations Award (2017). Since 2012, he is Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Currently, his primary area of interest includes the analysis of biomedical data, brain computer interfacing, genomic data analysis, computational chemistry, and atomistic simulation.
