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Professor Poong-Hyun Seong Appointed as the New President of the Korean Nuclear Society
Professor Poong-Hyun Seong of the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering has been appointed as the 28th President of the Korean Nuclear Society (KNS). His presidency began on September 1, 2015 and will last one year.
Professor Seong graduated from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Seoul National University, Korea, and received his master’s and doctoral degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.
He has filled various positions in the field of nuclear engineering, including a commissioner of the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission of Korea, manager of the Korean branch of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), and head of the Human Factors and Instrumentation and Controls Division of ANS.
At KNS, he served as the vice president as well as the Editor-in-Chief of its academic journal Nuclear Engineering and Technology.
The Korean Nuclear Society was established in 1969 to promote academic and technical research in nuclear engineering and develop safe and sustainable nuclear power. It is composed of more than 4,200 active members from ten research fields and has published the journal Nuclear Engineering and Technology since 2007.
2015.09.01 View 5319 -
KAIST's Mathematician Reveals the Mechanism for Sustaining Biological Rhythms
Our bodies have a variety of biological clocks that follow rhythms or oscillations with periods ranging from seconds to days. For example, our hearts beat every second, and cells divide periodically. The circadian clock located in the hypothalamus generates twenty-four hour rhythms, timing our sleep and hormone release. How do these biological clocks or circuits generate and sustain the stable rhythms that are essential to life?
Jae Kyoung Kim, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at KAIST, has predicted how these biological circuits generate rhythms and control their robustness, utilizing mathematical modeling based on differential equations and stochastic parameter sampling. Based on his prediction, using synthetic biology, a research team headed by Matthew Bennett of Rice University constructed a novel biological circuit that spans two genetically engineered strains of bacteria, one serves as an activator and the other as a repressor to regulate gene expression across multiple cell types, and found that the circuit generates surprisingly robust rhythms under various conditions.
The results of the research conducted in collaboration with KAIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology), Rice University, and the University of Houston were published in Science (August 28, 2015 issue). The title of the paper is "Emergent Genetic Oscillations in a Synthetic Microbial Consortium" .
The top-down research approach, which focuses on identifying the components of biological circuits, limits our understanding of the mechanisms in which the circuits generate rhythms. Synthetic biology, a rapidly growing field at the interface of biosciences and engineering, however, uses a bottom-up approach.
Synthetic biologists can create complex circuits out of simpler components, and some of these new genetic circuits are capable of fluctuation to regulate gene production. In the same way that electrical engineers understand how an electrical circuit works as they construct batteries, resistors, and wires, synthetic biologists can understand better about biological circuits if they put them together using genes and proteins. However, due to the complexity of biological systems, both experiments and mathematical modeling need to be applied hand in hand to design these biological circuits and understand their function.
In this research, an interdisciplinary approach proved that a synthetic intercellular singling circuit generates robust rhythms to create a cooperative microbial system. Specifically, Kim's mathematical analysis suggested, and experiments confirmed, that the presence of negative feedback loops in addition to a core transcriptional negative feedback loop can explain the robustness of rhythms in this system. This result provides important clues about the fundamental mechanism of robust rhythm generation in biological systems.
Furthermore, rather than constructing the entire circuit inside a single bacterial strain, the circuit was split among two strains of Escherichia coli bacterium. When the strains were grown together, the bacteria exchanged information, completing the circuit. Thus, this research also shows how, by regulating individual cells within the system, complex biological systems can be controlled, which in turn influences each other (e.g., the gut microbiome in humans).
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Ye Chen, a graduate student in Bennett's laboratory at Rice University, and Jae Kyoung Kim, an assistant professor at KAIST and a former postdoctoral fellow at Ohio State University, are the lead authors of the paper. The co-authors are Rice graduate student Andrew Hirning and Krešimir Josic?, a professor of mathematics at the University of Houston. Bennett is the Assistant Professor of the Biochemistry and Cell Biology Department at Rice University.
About the researcher: While Jae Kyoung Kim is a mathematician, he has also solved various biological puzzles in collaboration with various experimental laboratories of Matthew Bennett at Rice University, David Virshup at Duke and the National University of Singapore, Carla Finkielstein at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Choo-Gon Lee at the Florida State University, Seung-Hee Yoo at the Medical School of the University of Texas, Toru Takumi at RIKEN Brain Science Institute, and Travis Wager at Pfizer Inc. He has used non-linear dynamics and stochastic analysis to understand the function of biochemical networks in biological systems. In particular, he is interested in mechanisms generating and regulating biological rhythms.
Picture 1: This schematic image is the design of a biological circuit between two strains of bacteria and the part of differential equations used to understand the function of the biological circuit.
Picture 2: The core transcriptional negative feedback loop and additional negative feedback loop in the biological circuit (picture 1) generate robust rhythms. The snapshots correspond the red dots in the time series graph.
2015.08.31 View 8183 -
KAIST's Research Team Receives the Best Paper Award from the IEEE Transaction on Power Electronics
A research team led by Professor Chun T. Rim of the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has received the First Prize Papers Award from the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Transactions on Power Electronics (TPEL), a peer-reviewed journal that covers fundamental technologies used in the control and conversion of electric power.
A total of three research papers received this award in 2015.
Each year, TPEL’s editors select three best papers among those published in the journal during the preceding calendar year. In 2014, the TPEL published 579 papers. Professor Rim’s paper was picked out as one of the three papers published last year for the First Prize Papers Award.
Entitled “Generalized Active EMF (electromagnetic field) Cancel Methods for Wireless Electric Vehicles (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=6684288&tag=1),” the paper proposed, for the first time in the world, three generalized design methods for cancelling the total EMF generated from wireless electric vehicles. This technology, researchers said, can be applied to any wireless power transfer systems.
The award ceremony will be held at the upcoming conference of the 2015 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo in September in Montreal, Canada.
2015.08.27 View 8733 -
Nature Biotechnology Nominates Sang Yup Lee of KAIST for Top 20 Translational Researchers of 2014
Nature Biotechnology, recognized as the most prestigious journal in the field of biotechnology, has released today its list of the Top 20 Translational Researchers of 2014. Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) ranked seventh in the list. He is the only Asian researcher listed.
The journal, in partnership with IP Checkups, a patent analytics firm, presents an annual ranking of researchers based on their paper and patent output. The list includes, among others, each researcher’s most-cited patent in the past five years and their H index, a measurement to evaluate the impact of a researcher’s published work utilizing citation analysis. (More details can be found at http://www.nature.com/bioent/2015/150801/full/bioe.2015.9.html.)
American institutions made up the majority of the list, with 18 universities and research institutes, and the remainder was filled by KAIST in Korea and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia.
Globally known as a leading researcher in systems metabolic engineering, Professor Lee has published more than 500 journal papers and 580 patents. He has received many awards, including the Citation Classic Award, Elmer Gaden Award, Merck Metabolic Engineering Award, ACS Marvin Johnson Award, SIMB Charles Thom Award, POSCO TJ Park Prize, Amgen Biochemical Engineering Award, and the Ho Am Prize in Engineering.
2015.08.27 View 8791 -
KAIST and the Czech Academy of Sciences Agree to Cooperate
KAIST and the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) signed a memorandum of understanding in the office of KAIST’s president on August 11, 2015. Ten people from the two institutions, including President Steve Kang of KAIST and Chairman Jiří Drahoš of CAS participated in the signing ceremony.
Under the agreement, the two institutions will cooperate on establishing joint research programs, sharing up-to-date research outcomes, and medium-and long-term exchange of researchers.
Having more than 50 public laboratories all over the Czech Republic, the Czech Academy of Sciences is the largest research institution in the country. Its research body along with the staff has eight thousand members. The institution focuses on mathematics, physics, biotechnology, and social sciences while running its own Ph.D. program.
President Kang said, “I hope this signing will expand our cooperation with universities and research institutions in Eastern Europe.”
2015.08.18 View 4254 -
Dr. Hyundoo Hwang Receives a Tenured Position at Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education
Hyundoo Hwang, a former graduate student in the Department of Bio & Brain Engineering at KAIST, has been granted a tenured position at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITSEM), Mexico.
Dr. Hwang received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree at KAIST and started his professorship at Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology (UNIST) in Korea. He continued his research in the United States as a professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. He has been acknowledged for the development of an advanced nanotechnology for the diagnosis of rare diseases and research in cell signals. He is one of the leading researchers in an international research project in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) with participation by researchers from over ten countries. He has been active in commercializing biosensor technology in the U.S. and Mexico.
Since its establishment in 1943, ITSEM has grown to 33 campuses in 25 cities in Mexico. It is the largest university in Latin America with over 90,000 students (47% of its graduate students has oversea research experience). It recruits over 5,000 international students and professors every year.
Dr. Hwang will begin teaching at ITSEM as a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (Ingeniería Biomédica) this fall. He will also conduct research in nano- and micro-technology as a member of Sensors and Devices research group.
Professor Gwang Hyun Cho, head of KAIST's Department of Bio and Brain Engineering said that Dr. Hwang’s tenure professorship at ITSEM demonstrated that the academic program at KAIST—from undergraduate to doctoral—was on par with the international standard. He hoped that more talents from the department would seek academic careers in internationally renowned universities around the world.
2015.08.13 View 5745 -
KAIST holds the 2015 KAIST-MIT-Technion International Symposium on Nano Science
The 2015 KAIST-MIT-Technion International Symposium on Nano Science was held on August 11, 2015 at the KAIST campus. The event took place under three subtopics: Materials for Production and Storage of Renewable Energy, Functional Materials, and Multiferroic Materials.
The joint symposium invited more than 300 experts in material science and engineering including ten speakers and panelists. From MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Professors Harry L. Tuller and Geoffrey S. Beach in the Department of Material Engineering, as well as Professor Gregory Rutledge in the Department of Chemical Engineering joined the symposium. Professor Avner Rothschild in the Department of Material Engineering and Professor Yair Ein-Eli in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Technion Institute of Technology in Israel also participated.
From KAIST, Professors Il-Doo Kim, Byong-Guk Park, and Yeon-Sik Jung in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Professor Chan-Ho Yang in the Department of Physics, and Professor Doh-Chang Lee in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering spoke at the event. The list of topics included “Next Generation Lithium-Air Battery,” “Nano Materials for High Performance Energy Storage System,” and “Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Photoelectrode for the Conversion and Storage of Solar Energy.”
In its efforts to promote cooperation among the three universities, KAIST plans to send six students to MIT and one student to Technion for joint research.
Professor Il-Doo Kim, who organized the symposium said, “We believe this kind of international gathering will serve as an opportunity for scholars from leading universities to share their expertise in material science and help them better understand on the recent trends in nanoscience and its related technology.”
2015.08.12 View 7269 -
'Engineered Bacterium Produces 1,3-Diaminopropane'
A research team led by Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at KAIST reported, for the first time, the production of 1,3-diaminopropane via fermentation of an engineered bacterium.
1,3-Diaminopropane is a three carbon diamine, which has a wide range of industrial applications including epoxy resin and cross-linking agents, as well as precursors for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and organic chemicals. It can also be polymerized with dicarboxylic acids to make polyamides (nylons) for use as engineering plastics, medical materials, and adhesives.
Traditionally, 1,3-diaminopropane is derived from petroleum-based processes. In effort to address critical problems such as the depletion of petroleum and environmental issues inherent to the petroleum-based processes, the research team has developed an Escherichia coli (E. coli) strain capable of producing 1,3-diaminopropane. Using this technology, 1,3-diaminopropane can now be produced from renewable biomass instead of petroleum.
E. coli as found in nature is unable to produce 1,3-diaminopropane. Metabolic engineering, a technology to transform microorganisms into highly efficient microbial cell factories capable of producing chemical compounds of interest, was utilized to engineer the E. coli strain. First, naturally existing metabolic pathways for the biosynthesis of 1,3-diaminopropane were introduced into a virtual cell in silico to determine the most efficient metabolic pathway for the 1,3-diaminopropane production. The metabolic pathway selected was then introduced into an E. coli strain and successfully produced 1,3-diaminopropane for the first time in the world.
The research team applied metabolic engineering additionally, and the production titer of 1,3-diaminopropane increased about 21 fold. The Fed-batch fermentation of the engineered E. coli strain produced 13 grams per liter of 1,3-diaminoproapne. With this technology, 1,3-diaminopropane can be produced using renewable biomass, and it will be the starting point for replacing the current petroleum-based processes with bio-based processes.
Professor Lee said, “Our study suggested a possibility to produce 1,3-diaminopropane based on biorefinery. Further study will be done to increase the titer and productivity of 1,3-diaminopropane.”
This work was published online in Scientific Reports on August 11, 2015.
Reference: Chae, T.U. et al. "Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of 1,3-diaminopropane, a three carbon diamine," Scientific Reports:
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep13040
This research was supported by the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes on Systems Metabolic Engineering for Biorefineries from Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) through the National Research Foundation (NRF) of Korea.
Figure 1: Metabolic engineering strategies for 1,3-diaminopropane production using C4 pathway
Figure 2: Fed-batch fermentation profiles of two final engineered E. coli strains
2015.08.12 View 10077 -
KAIST Develops Fiber-Like Light-Emitting Diodes for Wearable Displays
Professor Kyung-Cheol Choi and his research team from the School of Electrical Engineering at KAIST have developed fiber-like light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which can be applied in wearable displays. The research findings were published online in the July 14th issue of Advanced Electronic Materials.
Traditional wearable displays were manufactured on a hard substrate, which was later attached to the surface of clothes. This technique had limited applications for wearable displays because they were inflexible and ignored the characteristics of fabric.
To solve this problem, the research team discarded the notion of creating light-emitting diode displays on a plane. Instead, they focused on fibers, a component of fabrics, and developed a fiber-like LED that shared the characteristics of both fabrics and displays.
The essence of this technology, the dip-coating process, is to immerse and extract a three dimensional (3-D) rod (a polyethylene terephthalate fiber) from a solution, which functions like thread. Then, the regular levels of organic materials are formed as layers on the thread.
The dip-coating process allows the layers of organic materials to be easily created on the fibers with a 3-D cylindrical structure, which had been difficult in existing processes such as heat-coating process. By controlling of the withdrawal rate of the fiber, the coating's thickness can also be adjusted to the hundreds of thousandths of a nanometer.
The researchers said that this technology would accelerate the commercialization of fiber-based wearable displays because it offers low-cost mass production using roll-to-roll processing, a technology applied to create electronic devices on a roll of flexible plastics or metal foils.
Professor Choi said, “Our research will become a core technology in developing light emitting diodes on fibers, which are fundamental elements of fabrics. We hope we can lower the barrier of wearable displays entering the market.”
The lead author of the published paper, Seon-Il Kwon, added, “This technology will eventually allow the production of wearable displays to be as easy as making clothes.”
Picture 1: The Next Generation Wearable Display Using Fiber-Based Light-Emitting Diodes
Picture 2: Dip-Coating Process to Create Fiber-Based Light-Emitting Diodes
Picture 3: Fiber-Based Light-Emitting Diodes
2015.08.11 View 12545 -
Professor Sang-Min Bae Receives the 2015 Red Dot Design Award
Professor Sang-Min Bae and his research team from the Industrial Design Department of KAIST have received three awards from the 2015 Red Dot Design Award: the Best of the Best Award and two Design Concept Awards.
Being one of the most prestigious international design awards, the Red Dot Design Award serves to identify good design concept and innovation that will be the precursors of tomorrow’s great product. Its annual award ceremony will take place on September 25, 2015, at the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore.
This year, the Award received 4,680 entries from 61 countries, and only the top 5.7% of them was able to garner the awards. In addition to two Red Dot Design Concept Awards, Professor Bae’s team won the Best of the Best Award, coming through a four hundred to one competition.
Awarded the Best of the Best Award, Boxchool is a modular classroom built on shipping containers whose aim is to give underprivileged children equal opportunities for learning. Jointly designed with an IT corporation in Korea, SK Telecom, the container is also a smart classroom.
Boxchool received the Best of the Best Award in recognition of its contribution to giving an equal learning opportunity to needy children, as well as its environmental characteristics.
The research team strengthened the mobility of the container and creatively addressed problems associated with using containers as classrooms such as insulation and inadequate space in environments which hamper teaching. The modular classroom can function in any setting since it can generate electricity from installed solar panels. The rainwater utilization system allows autonomous operation of the classroom.
The team earned the Red Dot Design Concept Award for a self-generating interactive tent, which was jointly designed with Kolon Sport, a Korean outdoor products company, as an industry-university cooperation project. The interactive tent differs from conventional tents by adding features that allow users to engage with the environment. For example, the installed organic solar cells allowed users to have prolonged outdoor activities by supplying electricity generated therefrom. Users can also enjoy greater ventilation. This permits the tent to be utilized as a temporary residence in the third world.
Another recipient of the Red Dot Design Concept Award, Snow Energy is a portable self-generating lamp and charger, which contains a thermo-element, generating electricity from temperature difference. Electricity is generated by pouring hot water inside a tank and cold water into a neighboring space. Snow Energy, which is sustainable and eco-friendly, will be especially helpful during outdoor activities when there is no electricity available.
Professor Bae's research team, ID+IM, has endeavored to address inequality and philanthropy through two projects, the Nanum (a Korean word to mean “sharing”) and the Seed Projects. Since 2005, they have received internationally recognized awards more than 40 times.
Picture 1: Recipient of the Best of the Best Award of the 2015 Red Dot Design Award, Boxchool is a modular classroom built on shipping containers
Picture 2: Recipient of the 2015 Red Dot Design Concept Award, the self-generating interactive tent
Picture 3: Recipient of the 2015 Red Dot Design Concept Award, Snow Energy is a portable self-generating lamp and charger which generates electricity from the temperature difference
2015.08.05 View 10402 -
President Steve Kang of KAIST Receives the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association
The Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA), a non-profit Korean professional organization based in the United States with over 6,000 registered members, bestowed upon President Steve Kang of KAIST the 2015 Outstanding Contribution Award.
The award is presented to a person who has made significant contributions to the development of KSEA.
The award ceremony took place during the 2015 US-Korea Conference on Science, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (UKC), which was held on July 30, 2015, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia.
The UKC is the flagship conference of KSEA, which takes place every year, and covers science, engineering, technology, industry, entrepreneurship, and leadership. It attracts more than 1,200 participants from the US and Korea. The UKC 2015 was held on July 29-August 1, 2015.
President Kang has participated in UKC conferences over the past few years as a plenary speaker, addressing major issues in science and technology for both nations, and provided generous support for the activities of UKC and KSEA. He also promoted discussions and exchanges of professional knowledge in his field, microelectronics, by organizing fora and symposia.
He addressed the UKC 2015 as a plenary speaker with a speech entitled “Pursuing Excellence with a Servant’s Heart.” President Kang said that good leadership should bring out synergistic contributions from all constituents and achieve excellence under all circumstances. He mentioned one example of good leadership, known as humble leadership, and explained how such leadership played an important role in the development of scientific breakthroughs, such as the world’s premier high-end microprocessor chip sets first produced by his team under extremely high pressure.
2015.08.05 View 6440 -
Dr. Se-Jung Kim Receives the Grand Prize at the International Photo and Image Contest on Light
Dr. Se-Jung Kim of the Physics Department at KAIST received the Grand Prize at the 2015 Photo and Image Contest of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies.
The United Nations has designated the year 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies.
The Optical Society of Korea celebrated the UN’s designation by hosting an international photo and image contest on the theme of light and optics related technology.
Dr. Kim presented a photo of images taken from a liquid crystal, which was entitled “A Micro Pinwheel.” She took pictures of liquid crystal images with a polarizing microscope and then colored the pictures. The liquid crystal has self-assembled circle domain structures, and each domain can form vortex optics. Her adviser for the project is Professor Yong-Hoon Cho of the Physics Department.
Her work was exhibited during the annual conference of the Optical Society of Korea, which was held on July 13-15, 2015 at Gyeong-Ju Hwabaek International Convention Center. It will also be exhibited at the National Science Museum in Gwacheon and the Kim Dae-Jung Convention Center in Gwangju.
Picture: A Micro Pinwheel
2015.07.31 View 8507