Since 2004, QS has served as an official institution to evaluate world university rankings-the most widely read university comparison of its kind. The annual QS ranking by subject this year has been announced very recently (Mar. 8 2017). Our department, MSE(Materials Science & Engineering) squeezed into the 13th rank in the materials science & engineering division, which is the same as 2017. This is the fifth consecutive year (2014: 16, 2015: 19, 2016: 18, 2017: 13) that our MSE department was selected as top 20 university in the QS world university ranking system.

MSE would like to welcome new faculty-Dr. Kyung Min Kim and Dr. Kibum Kang. Dr. Kim started his new academic career as an associate Professor from the 15th of November 2017 in our department. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degree from Seoul National University. Prof. Kyung Min Kim’s research program is mainly focused on the semiconductor process and device, oxide thin film, and nanoscience.
Dr. Kang started his new academic career as an assistant Professor from the 1st of January 2018 in our department. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degree from POSTECH. Prof. Kibum Kang’s research program is mainly focused on the Nano/2D materials and Next-Generation Semiconductors.
Information about their laboratory will be introduced thoroughly as “Special Feature” in the newsletter.

Our MSE department signed MOU with the department of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University on Nov. 6th 2017. For the MOU, the department head of MSE at Northwestern University, Prof. Erik Luijten was in attendance. Also, our department head, Prof. Hyuck Mo Lee (the head of MSE), Prof. Pyuck-Pa Choi and Prof. Steve Park attended the sign ceremony.

Our MSE department invited Prof. Paul McIntyre, who is the material science and engineering department head of Stanford university, and Prof. Erik Luijten who is the material science and engineering department head of Northwestern university. They gore special lectures and held meetings with our students. Prof. Paul McIntyre gave two lectures titled, “Application of Atomic Layer Deposition in Solar Fuel Synthesis” and “Nanowire Structure, Luminescence Characteristics and Carrier Dynamics in the SiGe, Ge and GeSn System”. Prof. Erik Luijten gave two lectures titled, “Predictive Modeling of Self-Assembly in Soft Materials” and “Dynamic collective behavior and phase separation of active colloids”. These invited lectures were sponsored by "The KAIST Lectures in Materials Science and Engineering 2017" project.

The agreement for the growth of and support for Sentron Corporation, a research institute, was signed at KIST on August 30th 2017. This agreement with KAIST, KIST and KST is for joint technology commercialization. Prof. Il-Doo Kim and Prof. Heekyung Park (KAIST vice president of research) attended the agreement.

Professor Sang Ouk Kim's laboratory is selected "2017 Joint Research Laboratory" promoted by KIST. The ceremony of sign board hanging was held at MSE department at KAIST on September 21th 2017.
The purpose of this project is to select the best domestic professor by KIST and establish collaboration with KIST. Also the selected laboratory will be awarded research funding of two hundred million won for 3 years. In this ceremony, President Sung-Chul Shin, President of KIST, Byung Gwon Lee, and more than 30 others attended.

Professor Il-doo Kim in recognition for his outstanding research and contributions to engineering college and science technology development won the 2017 College of Engineering Technology Innovation Award 'Grand Prize'. The award ceremony was held on December 19^th 2017, in college of engineering conference room.

Professor Sang Ouk Kim got an award for merit to fundamental research project" by Ministry of Science and ICT in recognition for his outstanding performance and the contribution to improvement fundamental research.

Prof. Il-Doo kim received the 20th Song-gok Science and Technology Award from Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). The Song-gok Science and Technology Award was established to praise the accomplishments of the first president, Hyung-seop Choi, whose penname is Song-gok. Professor Kim, in recognition for his outstanding research and contributions to materials science in Korea, received the award during the 52nd anniversary ceremony of KIST on Feb. 9th 2018.

Prof. WooChul Jung received the Song-am Distinguished Research Awards. This award was established from the will of the President Lee of Korea Former Co. given to Assistant Professors in Engineering Schools with less than 5 years of appointment with an excellent research performance in order to encourage their research activity. The Award ceremony is held on Feb. 12^th 2018 at the 47^th School Anniversary Event.

On Dec. 18 2017, the National Academy of Engineering of Korea selected the 100 top future technologies that will be the engine growth for Korea in 2025. It also announced experts that will lead the selected technologies. Prof. Byong-Guk Park was announced the experts in field of memory semiconductors.

Prof. Byung Tae Ahn, Prof. Jihun Oh, Prof. Jung-Yong Lee and 10 graduate students attended ‘Korea-Japan Top University League Workshop on Photovoltaics 2017’ that was held from November 11^th to November 19^th in Miyazaki (Japan).

Prof. Keon Jae Lee and Prof. Seokwoo Jeon attended ‘Symposium of Materials and Mechanics in the Midwest (SMMM)’ which has held at Northwestern University from Dec. 1^st to Dec. 2^nd 2017.

This year, the awards ceremony took place on Feb. 16^th. 2018. We have seen the following awardees. Gwang Mun Choi (adviser: Prof. Byeong-Soo Bae) received Excellent Dissertation Award established by Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS). His dissertation title is “Epoxy-Siloxane Molecular Hybrid Materials for Application of Flexible Hard Coatings”. DongJun Kim (adviser: Prof. Byong-Guk Park) and Jung Hwan Park (adviser: Prof. Keon Jae Lee) received Excellent Dissertation Award by our MSE. Dissertation titles of DonJun Kim and Jung Hwan Park are “The development of high efficient spin thermoelectric device in various ferromagnetic/non-magnetic structures” and “Fabrication and Characterization of Next-Generation Soft Conductors via Flash-Material Interaction”, respectively. Undergraduate student Doyeon An (advisor: Prof. WooChul Jung) graduated from MSE with top honor and received “Summa Cum Laude”. This award is well known for recognizing the individual excellence of a student with credit over 4.0. Undergraduate student Yeweon Kang (advisor: Prof. Hyuck Mo Lee) graduated with the honor of excellent volunteer service.

To recognize excellent undergraduate students having high academic record or holding great ideas, College of Engineering initiates Dean’s list policy. Following students were selected in the Dean’s List 2017 Fall semester-Serin Lee, Junyoung Lee, Ji Yeon Choi and Chanwoo Song.

The MSE department introduction seminar was held at ChungMoonSoul building (E16) at 5 pm on Nov. 22 (Wed) for freshmen. About 120 students attended and had quality time with professors.

MSE held meeting with lab managers for each laboratory of our department. Attendees had a good time introducing each other and talking about lab issues. Prof. Hyuck Mo Lee (the Head of MSE) and Prof. Sang-Hee Ko Park (the undergraduation head of MSE) attended the meeting and had a meaningful time.

At MSE, the meeting with foreign students was held on Feb. 6^th, 2018. Prof. Hyuck Mo Lee (the Head of MSE) and Prof. Steve Park attended the meeting, having a meaningful time.