Dr. Woojung Shin, and Woochul Song (School of Chemical Engineering), were appointed as Associate Professor at KAIST and POSTECH, respectively

▲ Dr. Woojung Shin (Chemical Engineering)(left, KAIST) and Dr. Woochul Song (right, POSTECH)

Dr. Woo-jung Shin and Dr. Woochul Song, both graduates of SKKU’s chemical engineering, have been appointed as Associate professors in 2023 by the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the Division of Environmental Science and Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), respectively.

Dr. Shin received her bachelor's degree from SKKU in 2014 and went on to earn a master's degree in 2015 through a master's degree-linked course with Professors Soong-ho Um and Yong-taek Lim serving as advisors. She then pursued a Ph.D in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, which he completed in 2020, as "Development of Microphysiological Human Intestine Models for Deciphering the role of host-gut microbiome crosstalk instruments." She subsequently spent two years in a post-doctoral research program at the Wys Institute of Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Shin published a total of 29 SCIE papers and received scholarships from various leading domestic and foreign institutions, including NIH/NCI scholarship, Asan Scholarship Foundation and Mokam Science Foundation.

Under the guidance of Professor Um and Lim, he conducted research on cancer groups based on nucleic acid nanotechnology and cancer vaccines based on biopolymers. He continued his research in his Ph.D. program and post-doctoral research program, where she developed long-term simulation chips and microbial-based treatments to study how microorganisms and their colonies in the human body affect physical health and disease. At KAIST, he plans to use various engineering technologies to address biological and medical problems and conduct research on human-microbial interactions using long-term simulation chips and synthetic biology technologies.

Dr. Song also obtained a bachelor's degree in 2014 and a master's degree in 2015 under the guidance of Professors Um and Lim. After completing his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Pennsylvania State University from 2016 to 2019, he earned his Ph.D. in 2021 from The University of Texas at Austin as "Bioinspired Membrane Design, Synthesis, and Characterization to Control Microstructure and Enable Efficiency." After that, he spent about two years in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Song published a total of 25 SCIE papers with energy and environmental sustainability separator technology as his main research field. He received outstanding Ph.D. research awards and fellowships from prominent overseas academic institutions such as the American Chemical Engineering Society, the American Membrane Society, and the American Chemical Society. He was selected as a Mokam Science Foundation scholarship student in 2021.

Dr. Song developed biomimetic separator and functional polymer separator materials to develop eco-friendly seawater desalination and nano-filtering processes during his doctoral program. In his post-doctoral research program, he synthesized metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), leading to a technology that could solve energy-environmental problems. He conducted a study on achieving zero carbon emissions using MOFs and securing drinking water from moisture in the atmosphere.

Dr. Song plans to research various organic and inorganic material synthesis technologies to environmentally separate/purify natural or waste resources and increase their social, economic, and ethical value.