KAIST

< Professor Jihyeon Yeom >

KAIST announced on the 13th that Professor Jihyeon Yeom from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering has been selected as a member of the Early Career Advisory Board (ECAB) for Chemical Reviews, widely considered the world's most prestigious academic journal in the field of chemistry.

Published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), Chemical Reviews is a flagship review journal that comprehensively organizes and surveys the most influential research achievements across all areas of chemistry and materials science. It is evaluated as a top-tier international journal in the field.

The journal boasts an Impact Factor (IF) of 56, ranking it among the highest of all scientific journals worldwide. Its authority is particularly significant because it is a review journal that analyzes global research trends to suggest future academic directions, rather than simply publishing individual experimental data.

The ECAB, which began its term in January 2026, consists of 10 researchers selected from among rising global science leaders. Candidates are evaluated based on academic originality, research impact, and contributions to the scientific community. Members provide advisory roles for the journal's academic direction and strategic planning, contributing to the discovery of next-generation research trends and the expansion of global research networks.

This selection highlights that Professor Yeom’s research achievements are receiving high international acclaim.

Professor Yeom is conducting research on applying "chirality"—a property where objects, like DNA or proteins, are mirror images of each other but cannot be perfectly superimposed—to nanomaterials. Her core work involves precisely controlling atomic arrangements to realize artificial materials that can interact naturally with biological signals.

In particular, she is gaining attention for developing next-generation smart healthcare technology that combines light-responsive chiral materials with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect and analyze minute changes in the human body in real time. Professor Yeom explained that these chiral characteristics offer new possibilities for expanding information transmission and processing capabilities beyond simple structural properties.

Building on this foundation, she plans to expand her research into various fields, including precision medical diagnostic technology, next-generation optoelectronic devices utilizing circularly polarized light, and AI-based platforms.

Professor Yeom has established herself as a global leader in chiral materials research, recently publishing results in world-renowned journals such as Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, and Accounts of Chemical Research.

"Chirality is not just a structural characteristic, but a new degree of freedom that expands the functional and information-processing capabilities of matter," said Professor Yeom. "I plan to expand my research into chiral-based electronic and optical devices, bio-diagnostic technologies, and AI-based spectroscopic platforms in the future."

This ECAB selection once again demonstrates the research competitiveness and international standing of the KAIST Department of Materials Science and Engineering. It is expected to further strengthen KAIST's role as a global research hub in the field of next-generation materials research.